Hard, wise counsel

Sometimes we make things harder than they need to be. Changing behavior may be hard, but possibly really worth every effort. Then again, relax and enjoy a laugh!

Injured, broke, and trying to work. . .

Friday a man knocked on my front door.

His jeans were torn, his clothing filthy, his facial expressions bespoke his fear and embarrassment.

"I live down the street in the blue apartments," he began. He told me his name and then began telling me his story.

He needed to earn a few dollars to purchase his anti-seizure medication. Just out of the hospital after a series of episodes, he needed a job.

When I reached for my wallet, he stepped back.

"No, don't do that," he scolded me. "I don't want a handout, I want a job. May I clean your windows or rake your lawn?" he suggested.

As we negotiated the job options, he showed me the gunshot wound that marked the back of his head. He pushed back his drooping right eyelid to reveal the absence of a normal eye. He told me an incident of random gunfire had devastated him and his life.

"The bullet came out my eye," he informed me. "The brain injury changed me."

He then began to cry.

He told me his meager disability benefits don't near cover his cost of living. He wept when he told me that he used our food pantry at CitySquare so he could eat. 

He told me about his church.

He told me about his career before being shot.

He hugged me.

He went to work on the leaves in my yard, and I paid him well so that he could get his meds.

My neighbor should be doing better.   Make no mistake about it:  he's trying very hard.  He's doing all he can do.

I'll try to help him, to stay in touch.

But the scale of problems like his are overwhelming. With so many in dire need, we need economies of scale provided by collective, national solutions.

In Monday's newspaper I read about more cuts in our privatized mental health services for the poor and disabled in Texas.  As the report noted, Texas has made it to the bottom of the national ranking for these services. 

Think about it.

Awakened from my sleep while thinking out loud. . .

Please refer to yesterday's post.  Go ahead.  I'll wait for you.
_______________________________

Okay, now. 

Cost to keep a person locked up in Texas:  $140 per day or $51,100 per year.

Ready for this? 

Cost of one month of mental health care via Medicaid per patient:  $145 per month or $1,740 per year.

Anyone out there see any clue as to why we have a few problems in the Great State of Texas?

Anyone, just anyone at all awake in Austin? 

Hello, down there? 

Any preacher gotta sermon to preach?

Any voter a letter to write?

Any business owner a call to make?

Any neighborhood association a trip to organize? 

Come on, people, let me hear it for some better thinking! 

How on earth did we get here? 

Long way from "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Texas Values

Wick Allison, conservative journalist and Editor in Chief of DMagazine here in Dallas, has an interesting comment on his blog relative to the multi-billion dollar budget surplus that Texas enjoys these days. . .especially in view of the horrid living conditions facing our state's most vulnerable citizens.

Makes you think. What are "Texas values" these days?

.

Mental Health Services in the Lone Star State

More "good news" on the status of public health in Texas:

· Mental illness is a leading cause of disability in the U.S.

· One in five Texans (20%)faces some form of mental illness.

· Texas ranks 49th in per capita spending on treatment of mental illness.

· Inadequate community-based mental health programs increase the likelihood that persons with mental illness will wind up in the criminal justice system.

· Approximately 900,000 adults in Texas met the DSHS mental health priority population definition in 2005, yet less than half in greatest need received mental health services.

· Forty-six percent of ER visits have behavioral health issues as a basic or contributing factor.

· Untreated mental illness results in increasing pressure on state and local resources.

· Community-based services reduce the rate of costly care in emergency rooms, hospitals, jails and prisons, and reduce the need for transportation to state hospitals for stabilization.

· Every $1 spent on mental health services saves $5 in overall health care costs.

· In Fiscal Year 2005, Texas average monthly emergency room costs were 27% lower for Medicaid clients receiving needed community mental health treatment than for those who received no such treatment.

· In Fiscal Year 2005, Texas average monthly emergency room costs were almost 35% lower for Medicaid clients receiving needed substance abuse treatment than for those who did not.

· Untreated mental illness costs Texas $16.6 billion per year.

· Treatment for mental illness is highly successful. (Depression: 80%, Panic Disorder: 75%, Schizophrenia: 60%, Heart Disease: 45-50%).

[Mental Health Association of Greater Dallas]

If you live in Texas, you might want to pass this information along to your State Senator and your House Member.

Mental Health and Dallas Jails

In Dallas County our public hospital system, Parkland Health and Hospital System, provides medical services for the County Jails.

Recently, I participated in a panel discussion at the Dallas County Commissioners Court regarding housing and homelessness.

One aspect of the presentation shocked me.

Dallas County operates the 7th largest jail system in the United States.

Currently, our jails “house” 1,270 inmates who have been diagnosed with mental illness.

Of these folks, 272 have been determined to be homeless.

Sixty-four of these persons take psychotropic medications, or they should, to manage their illness.

One hundred-twenty-seven are addicted to some sort of drug.

Is it just me, or doesn’t it seem logical and much more humane that these men and women might do better if they were placed in an environment other than jail?

Of course, Texas ranks 48th and 49th respectively in mental health and addiction treatment services. I guess with so little funding available, we've just decided as a community that jail is as good a place as any for the “throwaways” in our population.

But, we are compassionate here, please don’t lose sight of that fact!

Maybe this is something we could pray about this weekend in church, temple and mosque.

What do you think?