In a story written by Ed Yeates for KSL Television & Radio, Salt Lake City UT, on August 18, 2008, the headline reads, "Statistics show many mental health patients die prematurely".
People undergoing treatment for mental illness are dying prematurely in epidemic proportions. The stats are so alarming, Utah is adopting new monitoring guidelines to redefine the definition of wellness and recovery.
Dr. Joseph Parks, with the Council of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, said, "It's a shocking number. It's 25 years earlier than the general population."
"The majority of deaths are due to heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure or stroke or respiratory illness. The majority of deaths are not due to suicide," he said.
One reader commented: "Did they ever stop to think that if you are not healthy in general causes early death, maybe these people that are mentally unhealthy may also happen to have other problems making it more likely for them to die early. I just think this is more natural than they are trying to make it out to be."
Another responded to the first comment: "Agreed. I don't want to write people off, because people are someone's son or daughter, husband, wife, father mother. But it seems like nature has a way of cleansing itself of diseased organisms, and this may be one of those ways. If I am born with a certain genetic disease that will shorten my lifespan, that's terrible, but it's the way nature strengthens a species. Until medicine learns to actually cure the underlying genetic material so that it is not passed on to future generations, medicine will simply be allowing many more diseases to permeate the whole species. I know it sounds harsh, and I hope that soon we will be able to cleanse terrible diseases out of the gene pool. But that's simply the way nature has always done it and does it today in just about everything."
UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE!
As someone who has had daily contact with many individuals, with many different types, and varying degrees, of mental illnesses over the past 20 years, I am quite certain that people with mental illnesses aren't genetically predisposed to die 25 years before everyone else.
The real contributing factors are:
1. Poverty
2. Long term effects of some Psychotropic Medications
3. The U.S. health care system, lack of coordination of care, difficulty accessing services, etc.
4. Public apathy
Let me know what you think and what your experiences are.
I will be following up on this issue over the next few weeks.
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