What if you could save them? Would you?

The NAMI convention is still going on. Today, I had a bit of an eye opener. When it comes to mental health issues, Florida isn't as bad as I thought it was. Don't get me wrong. It isn't great and to tell you the truth it pretty much sucks the condition the mental health of Floridians is right now, but there are some great things going on. Things are changing because people are standing up and doing whatever it takes to make a difference. That was my eye opener.

One of the sessions I took today was Treatment, Not Jail: Investing in Rational Systems Change. The idea is a simple one. Why lock people up in the prisons instead of taking care of their mental health care? It doesn't make sense to toss them in jail and then after they "paid their debt to society" release them back into society still with mental illnesses and without any help addressing the illness. What you get is a bunch of people pretty much living their lives in and out of trouble and in and out of jail.

The question is, if you could save their lives would you? Think of it this way, when they are mentally ill, most of them are homeless and doing whatever it takes to survive. Some are doing drugs and drinking as addicts. Some are doing it to self-medicate. When it comes to veterans with PTSD, they are more likely to do street drugs and drink because they have been provided with no other alternative to stop feeling the way they do. This is what I want to focus on later.

Here are some numbers about Florida

Spending on Mental Health has been flat for ten years.
Florida ranks 48th in per capita spending on mental health and substance abuse
(Florida is ranked 12th when it comes to forensic spending though)
125,000 booked into jail annually who happen to have a serious mental illness.
150,000 children are involved within the Juvenile Justice system.
These figures were presented by Michelle Saunders, LCSW and executive director of Florida Partners in Crisis of Orlando.

As I sat listening to her presentation all I could think about is what I've been trying to do and how hard it is for our veterans to be dealing with PTSD, fully aware that within the numbers I heard today, many of them were veterans. Far too many of them are veterans who would not have the wound of PTSD had it not been for going into combat and serving this nation.

The other presenter was Judge Mark Speiser from Broward County/Fort Lauderdale. He was talking about what he's been doing trying to change the attitudes of the judges and the court system to send the ill for treatment and the guilty to jail. Sending people with mental illness does not make sense to him and is far from being the right thing to do. It also provides no justice. Good Lord, it's a moral thing as well as a financial choice we make. It costs a lot more to lock someone up in jail than it does to take care of their health needs.

Anyway, again my mind turned back to the veterans.

My view has always been that if they get help as soon as the signs of PTSD rear their ugly head, PTSD stops getting worse. I want to hit it head on. The only way to do this is to provide the education of what PTSD is to the general public, the troops and their families. This will tackle two of the biggest problems when it comes to PTSD. First awareness, so that the veteran will not go on getting worse while "waiting to get over it" and it is stopped before they get so inflicted by PTSD that the quality of their lives is diminished to the point they see their families fall apart, end up wounded and without any support. It will cut down on homelessness among veterans, cut down on divorce rates and if they get into the proper treatment they will not need to turn to street drugs and alcohol to do the job of what legal prescription medication and therapy can provide. In other words, crime goes down and so does the prison population as well as drunk driving accidents and deaths. We need to get them evaluated as soon as possible to keep PTSD from getting out of control and increase the quality of the veteran's life. Is that too much to ask?

What does it cost to provide education?
Travel for the educator. Gee with the price of gas that is pretty expensive but I bet we can deal with that and maybe even toss in a hybrid car to save some cash. (Make mine blue please)

Time for the educator. Face it, the rest of the country does not have people as dumb as I am and they are not all willing to work for free. They need to be paid. Hell, I'd do it for $50,000 a year which is a lot better than I'm making now which is nothing.

Material to provide the education. Got that one covered on the videos I've done and they are all for free and as far as facts and figures, most of them are on my blog and they didn't cost me anything but time to collect because they are free on the net.

Now think of this. Not only will this effort save all of the above, it will go a long way into reducing the stigma of PTSD and get them in the door faster than prolonging the suffering and also, here's the kicker, save their lives! What hope is there for them of getting better when every door is shut in their face at a time when they think there is something wrong with them in the first place? Even with the fact they know there is something wrong with them, if they don't understand what that "something" is, they will not seek help until they know and understand what it is.

Would you save their lives if you could? Then why don't you? I do it all the time and it's not as hard as you think it is to get them to understand what is going on inside of them is normal considering they survived something far beyond what is part of daily "normal" life. Now think about this. If I can save 20 lives without any money or advertising, how many lives could be saved with both of those things? How many could be saved if a lot more people were aware of what can be done and were actually doing them instead of just pointing at the problem? Now add in the money that can be saved and bingo, what Florida is finally taking a look at will pay off in the end and stop Florida from being at the wrong end of the stick. If how we can for the "lesser" among us is the measurement of who we are, then that is exactly where Florida is. Two are worse than this state. This is not a good thing! We can make it a great thing though if we listen to the people who spoke at the conference today and the rest of the people I've been listening to over the past 25 years.

More on the convention tomorrow. I'll be there all day but I'm taking my lap top with me.