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by Mike Bundrant
December 19, 2012
from
NaturalNews Website
The mental health system in America is an embarrassing failure.
Here
is an outline of principles upon which a new one might be based.
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Regulated by the people, not
government
Who determined that
government was an effective regulator of mental health? It
was a triad of sorts, a collusion of
pharmaceutical giants, the
American Psychiatric Association and the FDA.
The entire process is documented in the history of
psychiatry by well-known psychiatric reformer
Peter Breggin, MD and
other concerned activist organizations.
The point here is, government "regulation" has wreaked havoc
on the nation's mental health, sponsoring the mass drugging
of American citizens (including children), psych-ward
torture chambers in which innocent people's brains have been
shocked into oblivion, erasing decades of memory on some
occasions.
Of course, incarceration in a mental hospital leaves some
hapless victims open to kidnapping and Mafioso style medical
experiments. No one can advocate for these lost souls and
the government has been known to take advantage of that.
People - real, caring people - need to regulate mental
health in America; people who want to make a career out of
helping others and can use their resources and connections
to find a way to do so.
This would most likely take
place on a small scale, through local organizations.
Read more under point #10.
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Decisions by people, not
accountants
Do you think your agency
mental health counselor is calling the shots in how he or
she determines to treat you?
Wrong. The vast majority of
mental health professional sheeple in America determine both
the quantity and type of treatment you are allowed to
receive in conjunction with your insurance company.
How many sessions do you get? What kind of therapy can be
used? Should you have a medication evaluation? (Yes, of
course). The bean counters are the decision-makers. Your
therapist is the bean counter's bitch. I lived in this
nightmare scenario as a young mental health counselor, until
I figured out what was going on.
A skilled counselor or other compassionate people helper
should decide the type and length of treatment you get -
ALONG WITH YOU.
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Therapy by skilled, caring
people, not licensed professional sheeple
Mental health counselors,
psychiatrists and social workers these days are largely
products of the sheep herding system.
After getting an education, they
are indoctrinated during an internship and required to pass
state sponsored exams to make sure they fall in line. The
college education and state exams have NOTHING to do with
real, therapeutic skill. You can get an M.A. or Ph.D. -
passing with flying colors - and still have ZERO skill to
help people.
People with skills - regardless of where those skills came
from - should be allowed to intervene on behalf of other
people who are suffering mentally or emotionally. We all
know this intuitively.
The current system has shunned
all sense of reality.
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Biochemistry by nutritionists
and fitness trainers, not psychiatrists
Biochemistry should be
regulated by diet and activity, not pharmaceuticals.
Nutritionists and fitness
experts should oversee the physical aspects of mental
health. Get rid of the junk food and couch potato lifestyle.
This works wonders on its own.
Get on supplements that regulate brain chemistry naturally.
Get back in touch with nature. Exercise. Check your
vitamin D level!
A skilled functional
nutritionist works healing miracles. Psychiatry doesn't.
Psychiatry doesn't heal anything at
all.
Isn't this a clue?
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People, not pathology
You should hear
counselors and psychiatrists talking shop in the staff room
over lunch.
"Yeah, I got a major
depressive disorder coming in after lunch. Poor guy is
hopeless."
"You should have seen the borderline I dealt with last
week. I was actually scared of him."
"Yeah, but the social phobics are the worst - so friggin'
paranoid. I told one to carry his sedative with him and
put it under his tongue when he needs it, but he's
afraid people will see him doing it. Nuts."
While there are certainly
exceptions, some counselors do not see people as people, but
as diagnoses. They look for pathology, see pathology and
treat pathology.
If your 'counselor' does not see
you as a person with potential, who will?
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Freedom, not restriction
When someone is having a
meltdown, it is often because they feel restricted, trapped,
with no way out. The conventional solution is often to
restrain them, lock them down and drug them up.
I have personally seen people jumped by psych techs,
restrained and drugged, when they could have been easily
talked down if given some space and access to a person who
had real communication skills.
The idea is to safely increase
inner freedom and choice, not stifle it.
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Truth treatment, not drug
treatment
Nothing heals like the
truth.
Drugs do not heal at all. A
mental health model based on taking responsibility for the
truth in one's life may be all we need to live full, healthy
lives. The enemy is denial.
The problem is, no one is in greater denial than those
running mental health in America today. Drug therapy rules
the day. Bean counters determine eligibility for treatment.
State regulators determine what training practitioners need.
And the professional sheeple follow along.
How can we even begin to help each other gain insight when
the entire system is a mass of ignorance and repression?
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Funded by people, not insurance
Beware of 'counselors'
who accept insurance as reimbursement.
This is not always the case, but
many of them are pathetically lacking in skill. Counselors
with a lot of skill rarely accept insurance reimbursement.
For one, insurance companies pay peanuts. For those peanuts,
you have to put up with a mountain of paperwork and subject
your practice to their control. Not worth it!
Counselors should get paid like any other professional in
the free market. People will pay you if you are worth it! If
you can't deliver results, you won't have a practice, AND
YOU SHOULDN'T.
Insurance companies don't screen providers for skill. They
screen them for credentials, state sponsored sheeple
credentials. Get your paperwork done. Make medication
referrals. Don't invite any lawsuits.
All this has nothing to do with
helping people. In fact, it takes a good counselor's energy
away from helping people.
As a consequence, insurance providers are often those who
cannot build a practice on their own merit and therefore
must take referrals from the insurance company if they want
to practice at all. These are usually the ones to avoid.
This reality doesn't occur to most clients, who will usually
just do what the customer service agent at the insurance
company tells them to do.
If you have a hard time paying for good therapy, ask for a
sliding scale. Many good practitioners offer this.
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Choice, not control
The system doesn't seem
to understand that even those suffering from mental health
issues (as we all do) are capable of making choices for
themselves.
Who says people need to be
coerced into drugs, confined and threatened into submission
if they don't follow the rules as laid out by their
psychiatrist?
People are remarkably resilient and capable of making
choices in their own best interest, when given healthy
options.
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Respite houses, not hospitals
A mental health respite
house would be a wonderful alternative to a hospital psych
ward.
I have some great ideas for how
they might work. They would be private homes in normal
neighborhoods, funded by private citizens, and offer a
refuge from life, skilled counseling, functional nutrition,
yoga, meditation and a variety of alternative therapies.
They would be free or low cost.
No drugs and diagnoses, just
people helping people.
I actually have the means to create a respite house right
now. I have skills to work with just about any mental or
emotional issue. I count as friends some of the finest
psychotherapists, alternative nutritionists, doctors and
health freedom advocates in the world.
Why don't I march out and do this?
I refer you back to point #1. Government
regulations are unbelievable, costing hundreds of thousands of
dollars and years of red tape just open a group home or addiction
treatment facility.
Once you have it open, then you are
subject to their regulators snooping into all of your operations,
ready to fine you, imprison you or shut you down if you are out of
line.
I am not the only one who is capable of starting a great safe house,
of course.
There could be one in every community,
if a functional system were in place.
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