San Francisco Health Program to Expand Transgender Coverage

[CapnAwesome]

Yeah, I know. That combined with their extremely tolerant attitude towards GLBT folk is the reason they're on my short list of places to go when/if Texas gets too bat-shit, fundamentalist crazy for me. Even if I have to be homeless, if I'm homeless there, I may very well be in a better situation there than I would be here.

So why aren't you there?

[TaraJo]

Yeah, I know. That combined with their extremely tolerant attitude towards GLBT folk is the reason they're on my short list of places to go when/if Texas gets too bat-shit, fundamentalist crazy for me. Even if I have to be homeless, if I'm homeless there, I may very well be in a better situation there than I would be here.

So why aren't you there?

I have a roof over my head here, I'm in school here, I have a boyfriend here and he has his own job here, I have friends and my boyfriend has family here and I generally know my way around here. Can't say I would have all that in other places right now. The more of those things I lose, the greater the chance of my skipping town.

Anyway, I don't know exactly how I would get out to SF. Plane tickets or bus tickets can cost a lot of money that I simply don't have. Gas is expensive, too, especially when you have to load the car up with lots of stuff.

[Autumnlicious]

I think they should focus first on the homeless being fed and having adequate healthcare before doing something like this. Preservation of life takes priority.

Many of those homeless used to be institutionalized.

That is, until deinstitutionalization became fashionable.

One must find a way to force the homeless to take their meds, work with a social worker and stay in housing that is not concentrated into slums.

Else you just allow for the recreation of an environment that promotes homelessness.

[festive1]

I don't fully agree that we should force people into housing situations they don't want... But allowing people to continue living on the streets isn't an answer either. Social workers are a lot of time good eggs (not all, of course there are exceptions), I spoke to a slew of them trying to prevent my dad from going on the streets/shelter. They all gave me the same line, "You can't help someone who isn't willing to reach out to the resources available to him." I don't think there is a good, cookie cutter answer to homelessness. I think if we work on bigger social issues (drug addiction, mental illness acceptance and normalization, domestic violence, etc.) homeless rates would get better, slowly, but surely.

[Angrboda]

I think they should focus first on the homeless being fed and having adequate healthcare before doing something like this. Preservation of life takes priority.

Many of those homeless used to be institutionalized.

That is, until deinstitutionalization became fashionable.

Deinstitutionalization isn't the main problem, the defunding of the mandates to fund deinstitutionalization did the most damage. We're seeing that partially redressed by increased public awareness, improved parity in health care, and an improved lobby by the organized mentally ill and friends, but when they defunded Kennedy's initiative, that left a lot of folks between the proverbial rock and a hard place. There are still mental hospitals for the chronically unable to take care of themselves, but you have to get them there, and that's not always easy, in part thanks to the improvement in patient rights and institutional observance of those rights. But the services Kennedy envisioned simply were never provided.

But getting someone committed isn't always easy, and nowadays it's getting more difficult. I've been committed once, for two years, and as a long time occupier of the mental health system, I know just what I can do, and what I can't do, if I want to stay out of Anoka Regional. I probably belong there. I make no bones about the fact that I'm going to try to kill myself again at some point. But like I said, I know what I can say, and what I can't say, and so I don't, and they simply cannot touch me. festive1's dad is another case in point. Ill, but not threatening to kill himself or someone else. Should we lock people up on the suspicion that they might be dangerous, when we wouldn't do that for ordinary dangers? Because we know what's good for them? Because they don't know what they're doing, so we should take their right to decide away from them? Help me out here, I'm not getting what your chosen rationalization for locking up the non-dangerous and reasonably safe, but free, mentally ill is supposed to be. I get the impression that in your world, I would have never left the hospital in 2008, after a serious suicide attempt, and talking about returning to the mother ship, and doing it again if given the chance. Would you like to see me locked up? Somehow, I don't believe that, and as noted, if anyone belongs there, I probably do. So you tell me, why would you like to see me locked up?

[festive1]

My dad had an overdose this past spring. That's what got him out of a squatter situation, he was living with my 21 year old brother who wanted him out. When he was hospitalized to be treated for the OD my brother had to tell him he couldn't come back home with him, which left dad homeless. But dad was only hospitalized for a couple of days, because he said he mixed up his ibuprofen with his Xanax. It was unclear if it was an accidental or intentional OD, so they couldn't commit him. But now he says that my brother must have given him the overdose (which is so completely false it would be funny if it wasn't so serious). I think because dad's losing cognitive functioning and that really scares him, so he doesn't want to admit that he's as confused as he seems to be. Through everything, he's always been very intelligent, and to lose that... well, I don't think he can really handle it.
I've only ever been hospitalized for at most a week, just long enough for the meds to kick in. It's not a pleasant experience, and I totally get why people don't want to be institutionalized. Being in a lock down situation with a bunch of mentally ill people is enough to drive even the sanest person crazy, and the complete lack of privacy sucks. I had to have a nurse sit outside my shower and they did bed checks every hour at nighttime so you couldn't get a decent night's sleep even. And everything you say or do (or don't say or do) is recorded and questioned... It just plain sucks balls.

[The Grand Nudger]

"So why aren't you there?"

Why should Tara have to leave her home to find that which should exist at her home hooah? Besides, Texas is gorgeous.