The Broken System

 -Sarah Spiers

I was interviewed by a St. Joseph News Press reporter yesterday in regards to St. Dymphna's. The question was posed: What systemic failures are there? I really was at a loss for words, because there's so much.

An example of how difficult the mental healthcare system is to navigate, let me tell you a story. A woman with many health issues, including debilitating depression, ends up in the hospital in acute psychological distress. She's diagnosed, treated, watched for a few days, released.

She goes to fill her medicine so she can cope with the outside world and her inner demons. She can't afford them because Medicaid forced her to go by her husband's income, rather than hers, which is 0. She finally gets them, and they don't work. She gets a new prescription and, voila, same problem. She can't get them filled because she's on spend down.

She knows she is destined for the hospital again if something doesn't change. She's said it herself.

And, she's experiencing difficulties in getting disability to approve her claim. She's at a breaking point. She's a strong woman, but strength wears down eventually.

All she needs is the system to work in her favor.

That's just one example of the system failing someone. It's everywhere, at all levels of government, the pharmaceutical companies, the lack of funding for mental healthcare, lack of psychiatrists, therapists and counselors... it's failing everywhere.

We mentally ill, as a whole, need representation. Right now that is up to NAMI, the biggest mental health advocacy group in the U.S. They are doing their part, but if you listen to the media, there is almost no representation on the patient's behalf. Decisions are being made about us and for us without our input.

The systemic problems can be fixed if everyone comes to the table and we actually brainstorm.