Mental Health First Aid

Re: mental health first aid, the first step that shoud be taken is take the person to a good medical doctor that can check to see if anything physical is wrong such as thyroid problems etc.  Then proceed to a psychiatrist.  Psychiatrists cannot diagnose right away usually.  They have to listen to your history and observe you, sometimes for a long time.

It took 3 trips to the hospital, the last one lasting 3 weeks to be diagnosed as Bi-Polar for me. 

ankshus

I think that it is a great concept to educate the general public about mental illness and mental health crises.  I think that if people are given tools to identify a family/friend in need before it comes to a crisis, then perhaps there can be an earlier intervention and decrease the need for acute hospitalizations - which are not a long term solution.

I have been impressed with some of the new programs that have developed in MN over the past ten years that train emergency personnel how to work with a person in crisis.  The police are usually the ones that get called when someone is suicidal, psychotic, out-of-control and their basic training can usually escalate a situation.  The Minneapolis PD has developed a special response unit of officers with extensive training that can respond to crises and provide options and support.

There are also new COPE (community outreach for psychiatric emergency) teams that are on call 24/7 to go into the community and evaluate persons who are at risk of or already in crisis and provide them with resources and on-site counseling.  This has decreased emergency room visits for evaluation and decreased hospitalizations by providing alternate crisis housing or support.  This has been invaluable with the shortage of beds in the state.  People are being shipped all over the state or even out-of-state for hospitalization or they can sit in emergency rooms for days without treatment or be admitted only to be discharged a day later with no changes.

Any improvements to community based treatment options and improved understanding of mental illness in general will go a long way to improve a system that just isn't working.  Perhaps if the general public is made more aware of the issues they will be more likely to advocate not just for treatment for their family/friends but for systems change on a government level.