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Man dies after setting himself on fire outside Trump trial courthouse
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2024
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Another case for, at a minimum, universal mental health care.
I don't think you can advocate for universal mental health care without universal health care. Mental health care is health care.
There's a reason where I am that a mental health clinician is part of the cancer team. Having just the therapy aspect covered would do nothing for people unable to treat their physical illnesses.
Promoting better accessibility of mental health care is reasonable- even places with universal coverage mental health lags behind. The tricky thing is that some people will refuse to access care even if its available. Its more visible in cases like this but happens all the time with other chronic illnesses like COPD and diabetes where it gets out of control and the person succumbs quietly.
I don't know where I'm going with this. I wish he had sought help and I wish that help was available. I'm glad no one else lost their lives in this case.
Well, that's why I say "at a minimum". Once everyone has universal mental health care, then maybe we can get the real deal...
It seems to me, at least in suburban middle class liberal millennial circles, that mental healthcare is getting a lot more destigmatized.
I hope this anecdote is part of an actual trend, and it expands to other demographics.
I dunno, I kind of remain pretty skeptical of that being the case. For just as much as I've seen that mental health concerns are getting de-stigmatized, I've, in almost equal measure, seen all manner of people throwing around terms with absolutely no meaning, taking identification in certain terms without really understanding or elaborating a clear case for their use. I've also seen just as many people call, say, someone who sets themselves on fire "insane", and effectively use various mental health stuff as a thought-terminating cliche, as a kind of offhanded dismissal of anything that makes them feel bad, or they don't like. Just mechanisms by which they can slot people into boxes and promptly file them away to be forgotten.
So I dunno, I beware the idea that it's just gonna get swept up, like everything else, into like, middle class liberal self-help bullshit.
Agreed. Treating mental health separately from health makes about as much sense as requiring different health insurance for teeth as well as eyes.
While I do think that we do need universal mental health care (and universal health care in general), I'm not sure it would have helped in this situation. The thing about mental health care is that you can't force it on anyone, they have to want it themselves. He had friends who tried to get him help but he wouldn't take it, and there's only so much that can be done if he refuses. It's like the old saying you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
"so you're saying we need a fire suppressant grenade launcher? we'll get right on it."
A firefighting low-power 40mm grenade would actually be a dope idea, though I don't know how effective it would be. There's been attempts at similar "grenade" type extinguishers you toss.
My highdea is a firetruck that has cans of compressed nitrogen, and a firehose of sorts that's got some resistive heating elements lining all the inside of it (that can be turned on or off). Then it just dumps out nitrogen at a huge CFM/PSI/whatever, displacing the oxygen quickly enough to blow out the fire, but not long enough to suffocate the immolator.
Basically a huge, super powered hand dryer. That chokes the fire. And a 50/50 shot as to whether it's nice and warm or freezing fucking cold.
Ill call Raytheon, see if we can get the unit price below 1 mil.
You think better access to psychological care won't reduce instances of self-immolation?
I would give your comment passing marks if the prompt were to give a general sense of smug disagreement without saying anything with actual content. Also, I get the distinct impression that you don't know what the word "patronizing" means.
Tell me you know nothing about mental health without telling me you know nothing about mental health.
Mental health problems are absolutely 100% real. It's not "in your head". Depression isn't something you can just walk off. Panic attacks aren't something you can fix by taking a sick day.
To imply that "mental health = not real" is not only destructive, but also incredibly insulting.
Sure, but no one said that the problems weren't real, and no one's being as reductionist as you seem to think.
My criticism was there to highlight how patronizing you are being while simultaneously illustrating that no one else here was. To be more specific, you're assuming a lot about everyone else's positions and giving the most surface-level explanations you possibly could.
My read on this is that you think access to mental Healthcare doesn't solve any problems. Am I mistaken, and if not why do you think that?
Also, what problem(s) did the self-immolator have that you think needs to be addressed so badly that it needs to be talked about to the exclusion of all else? After all, if you're so irritated about what people not talking about them, why not bring them up explicitly?