The state of parades after Highland Park

[Terri Schehr]

53 minutes ago, Super Don-O said:

Some years back there was a great panic by organizers after there were some incidents of cars being used to mow down folks at parades or street festivals. Many have adapted to the risk. At one large local parade that we attend the police now park garbage trucks or fire engines blocking intersections that access the route. I have no doubt there will be a similar effort to guard against rooftop threats. Maybe it will be surveilance drones or something similar, I don't know, but I have faith that law enforcement will evolve their tactics to combat the threat.

That guy in Waukesha mowed down people in the Christmas parade last year with a Ford Escape. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/23/us/waukesha-car-parade-crowd-tuesday/index.html

Edited July 6, 2022 by Terri Schehr

[rpbobcat]

7 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

That guy in Waukesha mowed down people in the Christmas parade last year with a Ford Escape. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/23/us/waukesha-car-parade-crowd-tuesday/index.html

I just finished reading Bill O'Reilly's new book, "Killing The Killers".

According to the book ,terrorists world wide are now using ,as one of their preferred  "methods/weapons" of choice  "ramming".

That is using a vehicle, preferably a truck to mow people down.

Simple, easy , cheap (rent a truck from Home Depot) , effective.

[Weaklefthand4ever]

1 hour ago, Terri Schehr said:

Like I said, walk in my sister’s shoes at school for a week.  

Coming from a family of teachers, I get it. That being said, I would agree with all points that there needs to be a vast improvement in mental health in this country and that means ALL aspects. Even if you FIND a psychologist and psychiatrist AND have insurance, it is ridiculously expensive. Combine that with the fact that many patients are resistant to certain types of treatment (by resistant I don't mean that they don't want to be treated but that the medications are ineffective) and you run into the reality of the term "Practicing Medicine." It's not perfect by any means. Some doctors will prescribe SNRI's or SSRI's for patients who are resistant to them or have shown adverse affects. 

The majority of psychologists now (at least in my area) either do not take insurance or are priced so far over the reach of most people that treatment is almost impossible. Generally speaking, you can look at spending anywhere from $75 to $200 for an hour of basic counseling. The state systems are months away on appointments leaving many people in crisis to seek treatment by essentially stating that they are suicidal just to get access to immediate care. Those institutions simply remove the patient from ALL of their current psychotropic medications and wait until the individual claims that they aren't suicidal anymore. 

It's a completely flawed institution of which I have a great deal of personal experience with. I could go on and on but it won't solve it. We need more counselors and doctors, access to PROPER medication management and therapy and most of all, we need to recognize that there is a crisis in this country (and in other countries around the world.) No government wants to admit that there is a systemic problem. 

In conclusion, I URGE you...please...if you are suffering from mental illness...get help. There are resources and you are NOT alone. You are not at fault for being who you are. We can no more change our brain chemistry (without proper treatment) than we can our eye color. You are not to blame.

Sorry and I will get off my high horse now. If you wish to flame me for some reason, I ask only that you do it PM's.

Thanks

Edited July 6, 2022 by Weaklefthand4ever

[OldSnareDrummer]

This is heartwarming.

==================================================================

GoFundMe for toddler whose parents were killed in Highland Park raises more than $2 million

Dylan Stableford

·Senior Writer

Wed, July 6, 2022, 10:18 AM

A crowdfunding campaign that was launched Tuesday for 2-year-old Aiden McCarthy, whose parents were both killed in the mass shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Ill., has raised more than $2 million in less than a day.

[jjeffeory]

1 hour ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

Coming from a family of teachers, I get it. That being said, I would agree with all points that there needs to be a vast improvement in mental health in this country and that means ALL aspects. Even if you FIND a psychologist and psychiatrist AND have insurance, it is ridiculously expensive. Combine that with the fact that many patients are resistant to certain types of treatment (by resistant I don't mean that they don't want to be treated but that the medications are ineffective) and you run into the reality of the term "Practicing Medicine." It's not perfect by any means. Some doctors will prescribe SNRI's or SSRI's for patients who are resistant to them or have shown adverse affects. 

The majority of psychologists now (at least in my area) either do not take insurance or are priced so far over the reach of most people that treatment is almost impossible. Generally speaking, you can look at spending anywhere from $75 to $200 for an hour of basic counseling. The state systems are months away on appointments leaving many people in crisis to seek treatment by essentially stating that they are suicidal just to get access to immediate care. Those institutions simply remove the patient from ALL of their current psychotropic medications and wait until the individual claims that they aren't suicidal anymore. 

It's a completely flawed institution of which I have a great deal of personal experience with. I could go on and on but it won't solve it. We need more counselors and doctors, access to PROPER medication management and therapy and most of all, we need to recognize that there is a crisis in this country (and in other countries around the world.) No government wants to admit that there is a systemic problem. 

In conclusion, I URGE you...please...if you are suffering from mental illness...get help. There are resources and you are NOT alone. You are not at fault for being who you are. We can no more change our brain chemistry (without proper treatment) than we can our eye color. You are not to blame.

Sorry and I will get off my high horse now. If you wish to flame me for some reason, I ask only that you do it PM's.

Thanks

I can tell you that our pediatric psychiatrist wanted to charge our agency $200 an hour, and we were only being paid $90 an hour by the state.

Our clients were mostly medicaid clients. We were required to have a psychiatrist to perform medication management monthly, so in order to run as a business, we had to eat the $110 an hour.

We had counselors too and provided a full range of other services, but it was untenable.

Our country doesn't seem to care about mental health issues...

This is what not caring about mental health issues gets you.

Edited July 6, 2022 by jjeffeory
Proof Reading

[Weaklefthand4ever]

1 minute ago, jjeffeory said:

I can tell you that our pediatric psychiatrist wanted to charge our agency $200 an hour, and we were only being paid $90 an hour by the state.

Our clients were mostly medicaid clients. We were required to to have a psychiatrist to perform medication management monthly, so in order to run as a business, we had to eat the $110 an hour.

We had counselors too and provided a full range of other services, but it was untenable.

Our country doesn't seem to care about mental health issues...

This is what not caring about mental health issues gets you.

And honestly, most who would be in mental health crisis are not going to be able to get the help that they need with an hour of treatment a week, much less a month. 

[jjeffeory]

27 minutes ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

And honestly, most who would be in mental health crisis are not going to be able to get the help that they need with an hour of treatment a week, much less a month. 

Well,

The goal is that medication management happens monthly. That's where psychiatry comes into play. Some doctors will want to try counseling, but most of that is done by a therapist, not a MD. My experience has been that psychiatrist prescribe medicine mostly and give diagnosis.  Counselors are more in the trenches. They do a lot of the non-medication related tasks and some states allow them to give out diagnosis.

Counseling, talk therapy, group therapy, and related activities happen much more intensely based on the level of care needed.

Anyway, I can tell you that several states have actively worked against giving people good options for mental health care.

[MikeN]

3 hours ago, Mello Dude said:

We absolutely need to have more mental health in this country.  More and more unhinged people.

 

Mental Health Professional here.  They've always been there; they've just gone unnoticed, uncared about and generally dismissed.  That's one good thing that's changed in my time in the industry - we've made great improvements about reducing the stigma of mental health issues.

Mike

[MikeN]

39 minutes ago, jjeffeory said:

I can tell you that our pediatric psychiatrist wanted to charge our agency $200 an hour, and we were only being paid $90 an hour by the state.

The average child and adolescent psychiatrist is 65 years old.  Not a typo.  We're about to have a much bigger supply side problem on our hands in the next few years.

Mike

[jjeffeory]

2 minutes ago, MikeN said:

Mental Health Professional here.  They've always been there; they've just gone unnoticed, uncared about and generally dismissed.  That's one good thing that's changed in my time in the industry - we've made great improvements about reducing the stigma of mental health issues.

Mike

 

Thank you for what you do, good sir!