Our Health Policy Matters

Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia  is now in the Columbia University Press catalog. Cover Photo Credit: Hartford Courant, Shana Sureck You can find it using this link:  http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16828-1/losing-tim It will be available in the Fall of 2014.  It is a story of how the mental health policies of the last generation of policymakers (of which I was a member) failed my son, and how the policies of this generation of policymakers continue to fail him, and so many like him. I can't say that I hope you will enjoy it, but I do hope you will find it moving.   And that it will help move us all - including the next generation of policymakers - to action.  It is long past the time we could pretend that neglect is a synonym for common sense and compassion.

Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia  is now in the Columbia University Press catalog. Cover Photo Credit: Hartford Courant, Shana Sureck You can find it using this link:  http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16828-1/losing-tim It will be available in the Fall of 2014.  It is a story of how the mental health policies of the last generation of policymakers (of which I was a member) failed my son, and how the policies of this generation of policymakers continue to fail him, and so many like him. I can't say that I hope you will enjoy it, but I do hope you will find it moving.   And that it will help move us all - including the next generation of policymakers - to action.  It is long past the time we could pretend that neglect is a synonym for common sense and compassion.

I was asked recently why I didn’t actively seek out a specialized school setting many years ago in which to educate my son. My son has a serious mental illness, one which first manifested when he was a child.  I’ve written about this before in Health Affairs and will write about it again in a book scheduled for publication later this year. The argument is this.  If you put children with a special condition – such as serious mental illness – into a classroom with other children with the same condition, then you can adjust your educational services to meet the needs of those children all at the same time – and you will get better outcomes. That’s essentially how our health care delivery system has often been built, too.  Through most of the twentieth century, people with mental illnesses were treated in one set of hospitals (usually state hospitals). And people with most physical conditions were treated in a different set of hospitals. I wrote “mos...

I was asked recently why I didn’t actively seek out a specialized school setting many years ago in which to educate my son. My son has a serious mental illness, one which first manifested when he was a child.  I’ve written about this before in Health Affairs and will write about it again in a book scheduled for publication later this year. The argument is this.  If you put children with a special condition – such as serious mental illness – into a classroom with other children with the same condition, then you can adjust your educational services to meet the needs of those children all at the same time – and you will get better outcomes. That’s essentially how our health care delivery system has often been built, too.  Through most of the twentieth century, people with mental illnesses were treated in one set of hospitals (usually state hospitals). And people with most physical conditions were treated in a different set of hospitals. I wrote “mos...

Should all school children be screened for mental health? The evidence suggests that if we do not screen them, then we will be continuing a persistent and historical pattern of neglecting the mental health needs of our children.  But why let evidence get in the way of fear? Over the past several months, legislators in a number of states have considering mandating – or at least offering – mental health screening for all children, either in the schools or in pediatricians’ offices.  But when the Connecticut Legislature had a public hearing on a mental health screening bill recently, opponents came out in force .  One parent called mandatory screening an “unnecessary invasion.”  The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union argued that mental health screenings should be optional.  A treatment provider asserted that the problem wasn’t with a lack of assessment, but the lack of treatment options. And in recent days, a Palm Beach Post writer in Flor...

Should all school children be screened for mental health? The evidence suggests that if we do not screen them, then we will be continuing a persistent and historical pattern of neglecting the mental health needs of our children.  But why let evidence get in the way of fear? Over the past several months, legislators in a number of states have considering mandating – or at least offering – mental health screening for all children, either in the schools or in pediatricians’ offices.  But when the Connecticut Legislature had a public hearing on a mental health screening bill recently, opponents came out in force .  One parent called mandatory screening an “unnecessary invasion.”  The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union argued that mental health screenings should be optional.  A treatment provider asserted that the problem wasn’t with a lack of assessment, but the lack of treatment options. And in recent days, a Palm Beach Post writer in Flor...