This is a Guest Blog by Kathy Day Kathy's articles can be found on MyHelios.com Those of us who have family members diagnosed with schizophrenia know that this is a brain illness and not a behavioral disorder. We know this because we’ve already tried everything we’re told to do and nothing helps. Except meds. Meds … Continue reading It’s Time to Reclassify Schizophrenia

  This NYT article shows how the national discussion about "mental health" and school shootings has been irrational and misguided. Vermont Teen Charged for Ideation of Violence Excerpt: Mr. Sawyer was charged with aggravated assault, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder — all felonies — and held without … Continue reading Ideation of Violence is not a Crime

“Trying the case wasn’t the proper thing to do. I couldn’t ethically prosecute the case,” he said. Mentally Ill Defendant Puts State In a Bind What followed the prosecutor's ethical decision not to prosecute illustrates why states need to examine the intersection of the Olmstead Ruling and Criminal Justice (There is commentary on this issue … Continue reading Prosecutor Refuses to Put Mentally Ill Man on Trial

County Launches Program To Help SMI Detainees “Society has decided it’s cheaper to hold these people in jail than a mental health facility,” Judd said Friday. “It breaks my heart..."

This blogger happens to think that some commonsense gun laws that keep guns out of the hands of people who have certain types of serious neuropsychiatric disorders would be prudent.  The common good would also be better served if we would consider that guns don't have minds, they don't drive mass shootings, but they most … Continue reading Guns or Mental Illness, That is the Question.

The following linked-to article does a fairly good job of explaining clinical depression. Clinical Depression Is Not Sadness The reader should take note of how hard the writer had to work to explain what clinical depression is not - rather than what it is. Many an article attempts to clear up the misunderstanding but leaves … Continue reading Clinical Depression – Misunderstood

The title of this brief post is abstracted from the preface to a white paper produced by the Council of State Governments Justice Center.  CSGJC is passively critical of the behavioral health community's tendency to distance themselves from the criminalized "4 percent", yet fails to recognize that their own positions (undergirded by controversial research studies), … Continue reading Behavioral Health Community: ‘Public Safety is Not Their Mission’, Really?