ipl-logo

Summary: The Psychiatric Times

1139 Words5 Pages

news outlet that offers on line news and opinion covering a variety of topics to include politics, business, technology, and culture. The Psychiatric Times is a medical trade monthly publication. It offers news, special reports, and resources for psychiatrists and other mental health workers. The two articles reviewed are relative to the topics discussed in Slate et al. (2013) and Hopkins Burke (2012). The article from the Huffington Post, titled “Let’s Stop Treating Mental Illness Like It’s a Crime”, discusses concerns with mentally ill persons not receiving proper treatment while incarcerated. Another problem noted is the inability of communities to meet the needs mentally ill individuals within them. The author contends that these factors initiate a cycle that turns jails and prisons into “de facto asylums” with the likely hood that those in need of care will return to jail. This is supported by statistics provided by an article from the Texas Tribune which stated that from a sample of 900 subjects who had been in and out of …show more content…

It elaborates further on the concept of “jail diversion” explaining a program in Bexar County Texas that is having success in doing just that as well as helping mentally ill lead better more successful lives. The author states that there is a high percentage of homeless mentally ill in jails and too much is expected of law enforcement and the criminal justice system in regards to mental health care. This is corroborated in the readings of Slate et al. (2013) as police officers are described as “street corner psychiatrists” and “providers of “psychiatric first aid”. The author also describes the growing pressures on emergency rooms to treat mentally ill who are over twice as likely to be admitted to the hospital than those with other

Open Document