Mental Illness

As I prepare to write more about this case, I want to take a moment to provide insight on mental illness that has been a frustration during this situation. In the early part of this case, whenever I spoke of mental illness, there were perceptions that I was making excuses or defending my daughter. While it bothered me at the time, I no longer spend time with such misperceptions. I am not sure when my indifference to such ideas occurred. Perhaps when I began to comprehend the devastation mental illness inflicts on SO many families. I haven’t kept track, as it is benign data for this case, but rarely a week goes by when there is not a discussion with someone about another’s friend, family member, or oneself-struggling with the nuances of symptoms we scrape into a variety of buckets called mental illness.

I have played an advocate role through much of my health care career, spending the past 15 plus years advocating for nutrition inclusion in health IT federal regulations, polices, and standards. I’ve always used “making a difference in health care” as my compass.

I only realized in the past year that my subject area has changed. Covid certainly put a new spin on mental health; perhaps my most brutal pain point comes from realizing that we ALL must learn how best to manage mental illness -becoming somewhat our own therapist. No recent generation has experienced the trauma that this generation of children have. Even when we assume good care should happen, there are a multitude of breaks. My ongoing frustration is that my daughter is not a candidate for “Therapy” at her present forensic hospital, as that isn’t the intent of the facility. The focus is on medications- the majority of which have unacceptable side effects and require months of gradual titration to see IF there is an effect. I regardless am hopeful that we can improve the management of mental illness, as there are many areas of progress outside of mainstream medicine.

At last, there is increased public health awareness; a notable example is the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force’s recommendation that anxiety screening should occur in all individuals under the age of 65, including children. So, yes, I will continue the conversation, as I have experienced the devastating result of a family’ attempts to leverage our mental health care system. I remember many years ago wishing I could talk more publicly about navigating mental health care for fear that details about my daughters mental illness would be exposed. At least I no longer have that basic concern. There are reasons to be hopeful.