Mental illness truly does not discriminate, but I certainly don’t see 5X the number of black & other races to whites when my son has been in the hospital & we live in a very diverse area.
I’d say it’s about even black & white with a one or two people from other ethnic groups mixed in each time.
Definately agree, it’s not the case I don’t think anyway.
Non discriminate , we are prof of that, all of us .
Think who most likely gets help instead of going to jail/ prison or becoming homeless: affluent white people.
That’s why you don’t see black people with psychotic disorders where you go; you’re not visiting the jail. You’re not spending time among the homeless. You have good insurance and a lifetime of social belonging.
You are right. Like other illnesses, mental illness does not discriminate. But society does.
I have good insurance, but I’m not so sure about the lifetime of social belonging. I grew up really, really poor & pretty much have a white trash background to put it bluntly. I’m OK with that - I kind of embrace it. But, I’m too ambitious to fit in where I came from and don’t care to be polished enough to fit in where I am now.
I see the homeless. I work in the inner city. And, I’ve been to jails plenty of times - I’ve had plenty of friends & family go in.
That’s why I’m so fearful of my son ending up like the people I see - I don’t care if they’re black, white, brown or yellow. And, I still see just as many white homeless people shuffling around lost as I see black - and the same goes for the jails, except for our inner city jail where the entire population is mostly black.
What I don’t see in the jails & on the streets is very many Hispanic, Asian or Middle Eastern people with mental illness, but I do see it in the hospital. I have to assume that they have more family & community support because they are still very tight knit here.
I’m sorry I made that assumption about a lifetime of belonging; it’s very hard to reach that degree of success and I am sorry I did not give you credit for that huge amount of effort on your part.
Based on the amount of times your son has been in the hospital with the good insurance, I truly believe he is receiving a much higher level of treatment than the vast majority of people with serious mental illness.
No worries. It’s so hard to know what anyone is like based on what they write on a forum.
I hope he is getting good treatment, but with his lack of insight, even the best treatment in the world would be of limited value. I think I posted this somewhere else, but I would bet that he tops the $100K mark for total treatment in the past 10 months with his recent hospitalization, and he’s no better than some of the people on the non-medicated thread.
We also had to fight to get Medicaid to get him into the ICT program, so he’s actually getting the exact same level of care he would have gotten if I didn’t have good insurance. I choose to use my insurance for his prescriptions because it’s easier & requires less pre-authorizations, but he could get the same meds for free through Medicaid if I had the energy to pursue it.
Maybe my area is better than most for treatment options?
We have at least 4 places he could go within 30 minutes of our house. One is a teaching hospital.
And, we have a new laws because we have a state senator who’s son couldn’t get a bed even after he was deemed a danger to himself and others. Tragically, he stabbed his father multiple times within a few hours of his release and killed himself. That has made a huge difference.
I live in an urban area with people from all over the world. I have seen this phenomenon here and I believe access to information, understanding how systems work, and having the ability to advocate for your loved one makes the difference in whether they get treated or detained in a lot of cases. First generation immigrants face stressors that many who have not immigrated cannot imagine. Add that on top of families who may not be informed on navigating the complexities of the MH systems and lack of a support system, it’s no wonder they have more difficulties. In the school where I work with teens with behavioral difficulties, we currently have 9 students with a history of psychosis, 2 Caucasian, 3 biracial, 2 Latino, 2 Black (4 of the 9 are first gen immigrants). Not a large sample but when nearly 1/2 are immigrants as compared to the non immigrant population…it’s disproportionate.
That explains why I don’t see many people who are not straight black, white or biracial in the hospital.
This time, there is someone who looks like he’s from the middle east. Some of the family speaks English, but when they visit, they speak their native language among themselves & the mother had to have an interpreter during a meeting with the nurse.
My son is sure they’re aliens. Not because of how they look but because the language is so alien to him.
That’s curious to me because there was a huge immigrant population in his high school, but I guess they were mostly Hispanic and Spanish must sound more familiar to him. Some of the nurses sound like they are from the Caribbean and that doesn’t bother him either.
He’s not scared of them, he actually asked them a question last night, but he’s still sure they’re aliens.