Thought this may be interesting.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. — The first almshouse for mental health patients in Tennessee opened in 1826 in Anderson County, according to Ben Harrington, director of the Mental Health Association of East Tennessee (MHAET).
That’s why Anderson County is the “cradle of mental health” in all of East Tennessee, Harrington told members and visitors at a recent Lunch with the League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge.
In the early and late 1850s, society as a whole was afraid of people with mental illness, often locking them away in insane asylums “because we did not have the science to help us understand,” Harrington said.
That started changing in the 1950s, he said. The Human Genome Project, among other studies, has determined humans are 99.999-percent identical.
“The differences are what makes us all distinctly unique,” Harrington said of eye and hair color, as well as skin tone.
And, just like heredity can determine what a person looks like, it can also “play a big key” in mental illness, he said.
“If a parent has a mental illness, the likelihood increases that the children will have it,” Harrington explained.
Research shows that for two-thirds of people with a mental illness there is “a biological switch” that causes it; a person’s environment (traumatic events) can also cause the onset of mental illness.
As for Anderson County, statistics show that of its 74,849 residents, 26 percent (about 19,000) will need mental health care in 2012, but almost 11,000 won’t get the help they need, Harrington said.
And, not getting help could be attributed to three things: Not recognizing the symptoms of mental illness, a person’s denial, and finances.
Mental illness, which impairs one’s ability to think, cope and relate to others “can be real and diagnosable. The trick is to get them (a person) to the doctor so it can be diagnosed,” Harrington said.
Symptoms usually start early in life -- in 50 percent of individuals onset begins by age 14; in 75 percent, by age 24 -- and people often delay seeking treatment for 10 to 12 years, he said.
Waiting to seek treatment often leads to more problems -- “the snowball effect” -- and can lead to conflicts with employers, family and friends, or law enforcement.
That’s why the Mental Health Association of East Tennessee is working with area middle and high schools -- including Jefferson Middle, Oak Ridge High School and Clinton High School -- to teach “Mental Health 101” to students in wellness classes.
The organization also leads “Mental Health Matters in the Workplace,” a workplace-based outreach program for employees and business leaders.
The MHAET also partnered with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) to implement training for law enforcement officers to form crisis intervention teams whose members are trained to de-escalate crises involving mental illness.
“The ‘take-charge attitude’ of a law enforcement officer is the exact opposite of what someone in the middle of a mental health crises needs,” Harrington explained of dealing with such issues before the creation of CITs.
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As for funding mental health services, Harrington said “the state budget has been underfunded for a long, long time. Any new money has always gone into something else.”
Now, Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration has challenged state departments and officials to “think outside the box and be more effective with the money you do have,” Harrington said.
Part of that effectiveness for the state Department of Mental Health involves the potential closure of the state-run Lakeshore Mental Health Institute in Knoxville.
“They want to reinvest Lakeshore money to change how other mental health facilities are staffed,” Harrington explained of the state’s proposal.
However, there are a few potholes for which the state must be prepared, he said.
Those include finding placement for the 52 long-term residents of Lakeshore and planning for an increase in outpatient mental health care for indigent citizens.