Posted by beammeupscotty (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 4:46 a.m. (Suggest removal)

We can shoot them up with drugs or put them in this padded cell until transport. It is amazing what an election can do to educate someone, now Watts is an attorney and doctor. I hope he becomes an astronaut and leaves this planet

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 8:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)

You wouldn't feel that way if your family member needed treatment, beammeupscotty, and they had to be placed on a very long list to get into Whitfield.

Posted by SayItRight (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 8:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)

No kidding Peace007. You have to do something about family members that may be endangering others. Even if it makes you the "bad guy" of the family. You can get them help and if they need meds you hope that they can afford and will take them everyday. It's like having a ticking time bomb sitting in your family tree. You have to follow the law and it only does so much in preventing someone from hurting themselves or others. It is usually geared toward punishment afterwards. Nobody knows the feeling and how hard mental illness of a loved one is unless they've been through it.

Posted by localyokel (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 8:48 a.m. (Suggest removal)

This editorial is liberal drivel. There are more people in need of CT scans and heart procedures than mental patients. Health care has always been about dollars. People don't create/research new drugs and procedures for free. They don't go to work out of the kindness in their hearts. Are health care costs out of control, absolutely, but they've never been free. Consider prisons and hospitals. If there were money in (violent?) mental illness, there would be private contractors knocking down our doors to build shiny new facilities to house our unfortunates. The statement "Too often, they’re left with no other option than to call law enforcement for help". There are always instances where someone slips through the cracks in the system but most of these issues are addressed. I'd like to review the logs and see just how many of those cases we've had and compare the figures on a per capita basis to other cities. Let's see if those numbers justify facilities beyond what we have and what's available. You guys must have had a slow editorial night.

Posted by genlee (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 9:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)

beammeupscotty, that's the best post I've ever seen here. I am LMAO!

Posted by roberth33 (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

a good point. maybe Watts is pushing for a mental institution that will be Natchez next big employment opportunity???

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 10 a.m. (Suggest removal)

If your are interested, The National Alliance for The Mentally Ill website is a good source of information. The Inform Yourself link at the top of the page will lead you to statistics on the cost of mental illness. It does cost the tax payer for someone to stay in jail. There are ways of addressing this issue. There is no way of knowing how many homeless people, people on disability, and or people in jail could be productive members of society if this issued were addressed.

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 11:23 a.m. (Suggest removal)

If there isn't that big of a need, then why is the waiting list so long at Whitfield? I remember several instances here in Natchez where people suffering from mental illness committed suicide while waiting on a bed to come open at Whitfield.

If we can find the money to wage wars (kill), we should be able to find the money to heal. Many countries have national healthcare and their doctors make very good money, live in fine homes, and the patients get great medical care FREE. Why not study those countries and find out how they do it? Check out Canada, France, UK and see how they can have free healthcare. I realize that we are told that US has the greatest healthcare in the world, and this may be true...(I have no way of knowing this for a fact, since I've never been out of the US)...but the greatest healthcare in the world isn't worth anything to those who can't afford to pay for it!

Posted by gemccull (Gary McCullars) on January 24, 2008 at 1:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Supertrucker must be working for the ND.

My! what a stretch to go from two padded jail cells for protecting deranged prisoners to thinking that these two cells will not solve our societal problem with mental health.

Way to go, Supertrucker. You are at it again!

Posted by peaceout (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 1:53 p.m. (Suggest removal)

why do the Police Dept and The Democrat allow the names of these ppl to be put in the paper when they are arrested for "lunacy"??? if it's an illness, why do they treat it as a crime? i always feel so bad for the person when they do this. it's just wrong!!!!!

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 2:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I think the point is that mentally ill people shouldn't be prisoners unless they have broken the law, and even then they should be stabilized before they are incarcerated. Hospitals in this area will not admit a person for mental illness unless they have some pull with the hospital administration, of course. This means that if, say a person with bipolar disorder, who is ordinarally a functioning human being, for some reason has a manic episode or a severely depressed episode that needs treatment, and if that person has no insurance, they go onto a waiting list to go to Whitfield. That person, if he or she exhibits violent behavior or suicidal behvior, will go sit in a jail cell until a bed is freed up for them. I know a lady who suffers from a severe form of mental illness. She is sweet, kind, a great mom, works for a living, and does everything a normal person does. Once her medication quit working, as it does sometimes, and she sat in jail in this town for 2 months. She never broke the first law, just behaved erratically.

Posted by madpop (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 2:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Is a person with mental illness a criminal, I dont think so, so why should they be treated as one, If they want to make a room(or cell)for these people, why not at the local hospitals where a patient can be monitored, it doesn't matter what time of night the person is picked up, hospitals are open 24/7. I have a love one who is bi-polar and I would hate it if she was having a moment, to be put in a jail cell.

Posted by madpop (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 2:46 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Thanks notabigot,I must have writing my post the sametime as you

Posted by madpop (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 2:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Can someone please tell me why I hear all the time that our jail cells are over crowded, If you look at the courthouse records in this paper 99% of the cases brought in front of the jugde were given a suspended sentence

Posted by america39120 (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 4:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)

BEAMMEUP JUST CRACKS ME UP!!! ~~LOL~~

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on January 24, 2008 at 11:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I agree with most of you that all mentally ill people don't necessarily need to be locked up in a jail cell...perhaps a few do, but the point I was trying to get across-- is the need for an inpatient/outpatient mental treatment and care center in Natchez which could also be a substance abuse and rehab facility.

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 2:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I agree with you on that for sure. Mental illness is an illness carries a stigma. Most medical personnel is not trained in how to deal with it and hopitals won't admit mentally ill patients because of that. Do you remember in the 80's when HIV/AIDS made an appearance. The medical field had no idea how to handle it or treat it, and it also carries a stigma. Can you imagine if hospitals would have turned AIDS patients away or put them in a jail cell. The roars of ATTROCITY and CIVIL RIGHTS would have been deafening. That is exactly what is happening to mentally ill people in this country, and it is going to take a lot of voices to change that. I was so relieved to hear what you and a couple of other people had to say on the matter, because a couple of posts on this article, well, I guess they hurt my feelings. Glad you are serious about the issue

Posted by madpop (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 3 p.m. (Suggest removal)

According to a program called Muskie school of public sevices, community reps. such as supervisers and alderman can issues a request for a temporary mental health facility and it be funded by the state goverment, this facility will be for patients who have temporary relapse or other problems.

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 4:05 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Someone informed me a little while ago that funding for some sort of psychiatric care in Adams County will be discussed at the supervisors meeting in February. Might be worth attending.

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 4:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I hesitate to be this self-disclosing on this fourum, but it is important to me that everybody, not just people who have mentally ill family members or who are mentally ill themselves understand the importance of addressing this issue. First of all, it is the compassionate thing to do. But there is more to it than that. I have bi-polar disorder. I went from about 16 or 17 years old to 29 years old undiagnosed. From 29 years old to 41 years old misdignosed. I was given medication that in most instances flipped me from depressed to manic. In 2001 I got help from the good people at Catholic Charities. They got me to a good psychiatrist and provided me with social services and a counselor. At the time they stepped in, I was homeless, jobless, and alienated from my friends and family because of my behavior. The right medication helped so much that now I have a home, a car, friends, family and a real good life. Not only that. I have trained for a job that provides a valuable service. So instead of being on disability and medicaid and getting food stamps, I am providing for myself completely. Furthermore, I pay about $6000.00 a year in income taxes. So instead of being a drain on society I am a contributing member of society. Isn't God Good! There are thousands of people like me still undiagnosed. I want everybody to have the help they need because I know how miserable they are without it. But on another note, can you see how it is good for society as a whole for this issue to be addressed ASAP?

Posted by Annebelle (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 5:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Notabigot, can you please tell me what medicine they gave you for bi-polar? I may not be the only one that needs to know. I can't afford the help either, no insurance but I do have a good Doctor that can help me but now he just puts me on Paxil. Please, can you help?

Posted by gemccull (Gary McCullars) on January 25, 2008 at 5:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)

My comment above could have been stated a lot better.

Let me try again.

I think it was a great idea to have a couple of padded cells to prevent individuals from hurting themselves. There is an issue as to whether a person with a mental health problem should be there in the first place.

The other point, I was trying to make was that the mental health issue should have been addressed in a separate article/story. Mental health is a serious issue for our society and I do not have a solution for resolution.

Does this explanation clarify my position?

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 5:54 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I have been on several medications. It took a while to find the right combination of drugs that help me manage my bi-polar. Paxil is one of the antidepressants that works for a period of time for bi-polar, but not usually permanently. Because of my experience I firmly believe that only a psychiatrist or a doctor under the supervision of a psyciatrist should prescribe psychiatric medication. Southwest Mississippi Mental Health usually has a waiting list to see their psychiatrist. I think you should get on that list immediately. They will also be able to help defer some of your costs by providing you with samples of medication and directing you to the PPA program. That is a program drug companies have to provide medication to those who can't afford it. To answer your question, I take seroquel(helps with the sleep disorder that accompanies bipolar and controls the mania) wellbutrin(Contereffects the sedating effect of seroquel so I have enough energy to work) and lithium(stabilizes my mood). There are blood tests required for these medications because of potential kidney and liver problems and with the seroquel, diabetes. Feel free to contact me via The Democrat by clicking on my name to go to my profile. There is a contact option there.

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 6:08 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Annabelle, I realize now that you are not in Natchez. Search by putting mental health care in your town and state and see what you can find. I tried, but i am not familiar enough with the area to help you with that

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 25, 2008 at 6:20 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Yes, gemccull, that clarifies things. Thank you.

Posted by Peace007 (anonymous) on January 27, 2008 at 1:47 a.m. (Suggest removal)

notabigot, you said that Catholic Charities got you a psychiatrist...is the psychiatrist in Natchez? Could you post the doctor's name?

Glad to hear you got better.

Posted by notabigot (anonymous) on January 28, 2008 at 3:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I am not sure about putting names on here. I answered you throught the Democrat