Dear Editor,

The Board of Supervisors proclaimed May as Mental Health Month again this year. Clients of the mental health system can look back at the cessation of frontal lobotomies, insulin shock therapy and the almost extinct electro-convulsive therapy, yet the care of those in the programs that are to serve them, can be quite similar today. It is still “maintenance therapy.”

Pharmaceutical and insurance companies determine the level of therapy a person can get. What is cheapest and fastest, is the most expedient today. Clients rarely see the same doctor at any two visits. The average time spent with their doctor is seven minutes. Doctors don’t know their patients and the patient doesn’t know his/her doctor. How can anyone get quality care with this assembly line system?

Client groups are advocating better or even some “care.” Funding keeps going down and the government does not realize that by ignoring these needy people, it will see them again in homeless shelters, missions or jails.

The “care” mental health clients get is nothing more than drugging with the favorite pharmaceutical company product of the day. Has mental health care improved? Maybe, but the people are still controlled and drugged. Major improvements are yet to be made.

Peer counseling, peer congregate sites, and peer advocacy are the tools of the future. May these efforts increase as the dollars for the “professionals” decrease. Peer helping peer. Those who truly understand, helping each other. That is the wave of the future. May we have less dangerous drugging and more individual “care” and support. That will bring true “recovery.”

Henry Willey, Far North Regional Director (16 counties),
The California. Network of Mental Health Clients
Eureka