Comments on: Mental Health: An Interview with Rep. Patrick Kennedy

By: Dyre42

Dyre42 — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:17:40 +0000

Nice job Pete!

By: Donklephant » Blog Archive » TMV Talks To Rep. Patrick Kennedy About Mental Health

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:29:14 +0000

[...] out the whole thing here. This entry was posted on Friday, October 31st, 2008 and is filed under Democrats, Legislation, [...]

By: JSpencer

JSpencer — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 23:42:52 +0000

“We need people with mental illness taken care of because it saves us money.”

Absolutely. Like so many other medical problems, the ounce of prevention applies. Why should there be any stigma? Look at this world around us and the way supposed rational people behave in so many outlandish and inhumane ways, yet there is no stigma for them! This nation is so badly in need of growing up. I'd love to see a few signs of it in my lifetime…

By: dianalo

dianalo — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:48:21 +0000

I had no idea there were any questions about if there were a stigma to mental health issues. Of course there is a stigma attached! People discuss cancer, heart disease and other important illnesses in quite a different way than they do mental health.
Hopefully, as people learn more, they will better understand mental health issues and will not treat them as less important than more obviously visible ailments.
To say there is no stigma only discounts the problem and makes it worse. Denying the stigma does not erase it.

By: pabel

pabel — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:35:42 +0000

Harold Maio — Not sure I understand your point.

I do believe the Congressman, as someone who has personally endured such stigma, simply meant that Congress could not eliminate that stigma but could take steps to help lessen its occurence, i.e., give comfort and courage to those who suffer from mental illness by showing them that their struggles will be treated — in law and in society — no differently than physical ailments.

Net: You, the Congressman, me, and many others — we all believe such stigma is unfair, but that doesn't mean it will ever be permanently erased. Unfortunately, there will always be ignorance; and where there is ignorance, there is prejudice; and where there is prejudice, there is stigma, no matter how wrongly applied it is.

The Congressman's not defending such stigma, he's only speaking honestly about it, as one way to understand the importance of this legislation. That's productive, I think.

By: HaroldAMaio

HaroldAMaio — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:54:27 +0000

There’s no way to completely dismantle the stigma associated with mental illness.

Dare you to print that about rape. Women are not as timid as Kennedy. Thousands of indignant letters would reach you instead of this lone one.

Kennedy of course errs, our society dropped its prejudices several times, this particular prejudice is already on a steady course for total demolition.

Harold A. Maio (retired)

By: HaroldAMaio

HaroldAMaio — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:53:13 +0000

Harold A. Maio (retired)

Advisory Board
American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Former Board Member
Partners in Crisis
Former Consulting Editor
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal
Boston University
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UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration
of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities
Home:
8955 Forest St
Ft Myers FL 33907
khmaio@earthlink.net
239-275-5798

By: AsherJ

AsherJ — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:46:34 +0000

It's quite likely that within 10 to 15 years we'll be able to screen fertilized fetuses for propensity for mental illness. Unfortunately, this rationalist-scientific approach to mental illness will be adamantly opposed from both ends by leftists, who desperately cling to the blank-slate ideology that all human suffering is caused by socially constructed oppression, and evangelicals, who think that all life is sacred, having been created by God.