McCain on Mental Health:have better personal responsibility"

I haven't been posting much yesterday and today because I'm at the NAMI Convention in Orlando. Lucky me, it's so close, I get to sleep in my own bed. The convention is over on Monday and will climax with Jane Pauley getting an award.

Contact: Christine Armstrong of NAMI, +1-703-312-7893, christinea@nami.org


WASHINGTON, June 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) will holds its annual convention in Orlando, Florida on June 13-16, 2008, featuring leading experts, policymakers and individuals and families living with mental illnesses, who will address a range of issues, including the latest scientific and medical advances -- as well as Election 2008 and criminal justice issues.


NAMI will honor TV journalist Jane Pauley with its highest award for contributions to public education about mental illness.


The convention also will include "ask-the-doctor" sessions and discussions of Florida programs.

WHO: National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation's
largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to
improving the lives of individuals and families affected by
mental illness.

WHEN: June 13-16, 2008

WHERE: Rosen Centre Hotel
Orlando, Florida
9840 International Drive
Orlando, Florida 32819
Phone: (407) 996-9840

WHY: Get the latest news on scientific research, innovative mental
health programs, problems in the healthcare system, and human
interest stories. Cover veterans, children and multicultural
issues and hopes for recovery for all people living with PTSD,
depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other illnesses.

FULL SCHEDULE: http://www.nami.org/convention/program


VIP SPEAKERS AND HONOREES

-- Jane Pauley, TV journalist
-- Thomas Insel, M.D., director, National Institute of Mental Health
-- Nora Volkow, M.D., Ph.D., director, National Institute on Drug Abuse


FLORIDA SPEAKERS AND PROGRAMS

-- Judge Steven Leifman, 11th Judicial Circuit, Miami-Dade County
-- Judge Mark Speiser, 17th Judicial Circuit Court, Broward County
-- Louis de la Parte, Department of Aging & Mental Health, Florida Mental
Health Institute at the University of Southern Florida
http://www.usf.edu
-- VA Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8), Bay Pines
-- Polytrauma Center, VA Medical Center, Tampa
-- Florida Partners in Crisis, Orlando
-- Florida Borderline Personality Disorder Organization, St. Petersburg
-- GEO Care, Miami
-- Treasure Coast Forensic Treatment Center, Indiantown
-- South Florida Treatment and Evaluation Center, Miami
-- Vincent House, Pinellas Park
-- Aspire Behavioral Health, Inc., Osceola


ASK-THE-DOCTOR SESSIONS ON:

-- Anxiety Disorders
-- Bipolar Disorder
-- Borderline Personality Disorder
-- Depression
-- Medications
-- Mood Disorders Across the Lifespan
-- PTSD
-- Schizoaffective Disorder
-- Schizophrenia
-- Kids Get to Ask the Doctor

This convention is a big deal. I needed to point that out considering what I am about to post about McCain.

Where the candiates really stand on mental health
The 2008 Presidential PrimariesBringing Mental Healthcare to the BallotExplore the CandidatesThe National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has sent a questionnaire to all presidential candidates in each party. We also encouraged candidates to provide us with other relevant materials or explanations of their positions if they did not have time to respond to our questionnaire.NAMI does not endorse specific candidates and any materials posted are intended for educational purposes only. They should not be used by any affiliate to endorse a candidate.

Non-profit charitable organizations, including NAMI affiliates, are prohibited by law from endorsing specific candidates.Questionnaire View a copy of our candidate questionnaire.

Democrats
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New YorkQuestionnaire response
John Edwards, former Senator from North CarolinaQuestionnaire response
Mike Gravel, former Senator from AlaskaResponse pending
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio Response pending
Sen. Barack Obama of IllinoisQuestionnaire response

Republicans
John Cox of IllinoisResponse pending
Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City Response pending
Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas Response pending
Rep. Duncan Hunter of California Response pending
Alan Keyes of Maryland Response pending

Sen. John McCain of Arizona Senator McCain has provided NAMI with this Mental Health Statement in lieu of a response to our questionnaire. The Campaign has informed us that it is Senator McCain’s policy not to respond to questionnaires.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas Response pending
Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts The Campaign has informed us that it is Governor Romney’s policy not to respond to questionnaires.

As with all candidates, we have asked whether they have information that they would like to submit on their mental healthcare/healthcare positions and the response is pending.

Fred Thompson, former Senator from Tennessee Response pending
http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2008/01/where-candiates-really-stand-on-mental.html

John McCain was invited, along with Senator Obama, to send a representative to the conference. Obama did. McCain did not bother to send anyone. He did however send a letter and if I can get my hands on a copy of it later, I will post the whole thing. Needless to say, McCain not bothering to take any of this seriously enough did not go over too well. There were some boos when it was announced he didn't think it was important enough to send anyone.

McCain's statement on Mental Health proved he knows absolutely nothing about it. Considering the points hit in his letter addressing the needs of American's suffering with lacking mental health care boiled down to "better personal responsibility" the man proved not only that he is clueless but so is his mental health advisor. He thinks the fitness and lifestyle play a bigger role in mental health than all the facts contributing to mental health illnesses. A typical Bush lackey, he focused his letter on addressing the cost of mental health instead of what could be done to address mental health issues and thus contributing to the driving down of costs because we actually came up with solutions, better care, better treatment and better programs to address the need. McCain said he has a "strong record" on mental illness and has been "a leader on homeless veterans" issues. Bull!

Obama, not only answered the questionnaire NAMI sent him in January, he also sent a representative to the convention to answer questions. Dr. Katrina, (not sure of spelling of her last name and can't find it on line) gave informed answers proving that Obama gets all of this. She hit the rights points on what is important, what the problems are and what needs to be done. She talked about the veterans coming back, the problems re-deployments add to the stress along with everything else that has been posted on this blog. In other words, ladies and gentlemen, this is yet another case of what you see is what you get. What you have seen in the avoidance of taking care of the troops and what they need from the Bush administration is more of what we'll get if McCain replaces his buddy. It will be more of the same of nonsense about "personal responsibility" when it is a mental health issue and when the troops do try to take personal responsibility for their needs, the VA and the DOD let them down along with this abomination of an administration oblivious to the suffering of the troops and our veterans. If you think mental health care in this country has been suffering this far, we will be sent into the dark ages when people with mental illness were considered bewitched by evil spirits~

There was a question and answer time after and I stood at the end of the line figuring I'd never get a chance to ask my question. I was wrong. There was enough time for me. I stood at the microphone and made this statement wearing my Chaplain T-Shirt.

"I've been working with veterans for 25 years and 15 years of that online. I am a certified, ordained Chaplain with the International Fellowship of Chaplains, licensed and insured, yet I'm not good enough for the VA. They will not use any Chaplain that is not "their kind of Chaplain" yet the IFOC is used all over the country. What can be done to change the rules the VA has that over 30 years old?"

The answer I got was that she was not aware of this but she was writing it down as I asked my question. She said she would check into it. I believed her.

The problem with the VA is that the need is so great, and getting worse, while they have to play by rules that will not fill in what the need is and where it is. People like me who have been living with this all on a daily basis are not welcomed within the VA because we lack what they consider "appropriate credentials" at a time when you would think they would be begging us to help out. PTSD is killing them! Lives are on the line and getting worse for all of our veterans but people like me are just not "good enough" for the VA. It's not the people who work for the VA that are the problem. The last two people I spoke to about this on the phone trying to figure out how I could go to work for the veterans (and manage to get paid for it after all these years) were very compassionate and felt really bad but there was nothing they could do about it.

There will be more about this convention over the next few days as time allows but that is what happened in a nut shell today that needs to have attention paid to it with all seriousness unlike McCain who couldn't even take it seriously enough to send someone to speak for him.



Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington