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have you been to a pysch ward? do you know some of the history of mental institutions? and, as you have said yourself, you're called when there's a problem. you don't see the good side nearly as much as you see the bad. i'm not saying there aren't problems (because there are plenty), i'm saying that the good of helping the people outweights (far, far outweights) the pains of dealing with them from time to time. you only see the bad, not the good. no, i haven't been to a group home but i have been in a psych ward, i have admitted people, and i have seen them when the get out.

characterizing an entire group of people based on your bad experiences would be like me characterizing all cops based on the times i was arrested (never have been). would you say that it would be fair to call all cops corrupt pigs if that were my only experience with them?

and one of the main reasons that people are in the group homes is because they're not treated to properly. i'd love for you to look at the demographics of your local group homes (and the demographics of those that don't have to go to group homes). i think you'd find a trend and i think you'd start to get it. you think health insurance covers mental illness; guess again. you think people are as likely to get treated (or seek treatment for others) for mental illness like they are for, say, diabetes or cancer; guess again.

and it sounds like most of the group homes you deal with are in poor areas (hungry and undertreated). would that be a fair assumption to make? why is it then that you assume that the problem is the people and not sufficient medical treatment *which is not "locking them up" as you say. and the government doesn't pay for that many meal because no one cares. these people are considered a hassle, a pain the ass, a burden to society.. criminals are viewed more highly than the mentally ill, by you, obviously, and by a lot of society. people think, at least criminals can recover, or, at least i don't have to see them everyday, or, at least we can blame it on something, or, at least it's somewhat predictable.

believe me, i've had my share of doses of "real world of mental health" and it isn't pretty.. but guess what, that just means we have to make it better, not lock it away in a neat little out of the way place so that people can go on stigmatizing it and ignoring it rather than helping. if everyone had to live with your so called "psycho wack-a-nuts" for a while, i bet you'd care a lot more about getting them better than locking them up.

and you're right, you have a clue, you just haven't processed it yet.

and this is something of a post-script that i just thought of: do you really believe locking criminals away for x amount of time really "cures" them or makes them less likely to commit the crimes again? as a public safety service provider (thank you, by the way), i'd be surprised if you believed that simple time behind locked doors really fixed anything.

I have done several rotations in Psych Wards (both at Summit and UC) as part of my medical training. These hospitals are much happier places than the group homes that most of the severely mentally ill habitate. Like I said before, when these folks are in the hospital they have the supervision necessary to stay "normal". This includes making sure that they take their anit-psychotic meds and counseling. If you had ever seen anyone in a true manic state, you would understand what I am talking about.

If you are thinking that there aren't any group homes near your home, just ask your local cops. They'll tell you where they are.

Don't confuse the patients I am talking about with those who are only battling mild forms of mental illness (depression, mild bi-polar disorders, etc). Most folks with mild forms usually live with their families and are productive members of society. They have the capability of taking care of themselves. Most of them aren't the folks that, in times past, were locked up with the key thrown away. The patients I am talking about are the bad of the bad. They have been in the mental healthcare system for many years, most of them decades. They have proven that they cannot be left unsupervised, and yet they continue to be let out at alarming rates. These are the patients that system was hoping to help by integrating them into society.

The experiment is over, but no one wants to admit it. It's not working like some folks like to think it should have.

As far as this wacky lady and Letterman goes, it may just be a publicity stunt on Letterman's part. If it's not, how does someone this dilusional get into the court system, convince a judge that she needs a restraining order against subliminal messages, and not get locked up for being crazy? You should earn yourself a free ticket to the looney bin when you burden the judicial system with your (her) craziness.

owned!!!!!!!

Didn't Dahmer perform lobotomies?

dust swept under the rug doesn't make a house clean. nor does locking people up and forgetting about them solve their problems.

keep on with the status quo, see where it gets you.

and people with "mild mental illness" did, in fact, used to be locked up in the past.

work to change something. you know, people with tb, aids, lepurs, alcoholics, etc. used to be put in a building to be forgotten about.. it wasn't until people (usually people with a good deal of money) started to be affected by it that they said, "oh shit, we can actually do something about this. let's get on it.." what happened? they drove change and helped find solutions for the problems, not just ways that get them out of the public eye and, therefore, out of the public mind.

when you change the way people think about mental illness, you'll start to change the way it's handled and treated. like i said before, no one cringes in fear if you say you have cancer. tell them you're a psychotic and you can actually watch their skin crawl. that's what you have to change.

nice of Paul to take that penis out of his mouth long enough to do some posting

Being gay is a form of mental illness. They found that part of the brain is less developed and undersized in gays.

So you're gay, alien2?

can't you folks play pretty?

Crazy, well maybe but I'm a hermaphrodite. In that since I could not be gay. I procreate with myself and all my sex organs are internal. I have sex telepathically. Can you feel it?