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by k-mcgrady
4856 days ago
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>> "But helping a mentally ill person (in the USA) is pretty much not an option." Could you explain why? Here (the UK) there is quite a lot of free help from the health service and there are a lot of charities I know of which provide counselling. Local GP's are also able to work with people and refer them to specialists if necessary. |
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A person can go to their GP to get treatment, and the GP will either treat (access to short form talking therapies and some medications), or refer on to a community team.
The community team provides access to heavier duty meds; long form talking therapies; ECT; hospitalisation; a variety of different clinicians, etc etc.
Note that treatment can be forced, and against the patient's wishes. Note also that there's the possibility of community treatment orders. These mean that a person living in the community (not in hospital or prison) could also be forced to take medication regularly.
All of this is free at the point of delivery. (With the exception of prescriptions, but there are so many exemptions they're free to most people.)
And let's not forget that people with mental illness are far more likely to be the victims of violent crime, not the perpetrator.