• bmsok@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The US has both a gun problem AND a mental health problem. We need more immediate access to long term healthcare.

    The addition of the 988 hotline is an ok start but mental health issues are still demonized and have limited resources.

    Tragic underfunding + stigma = tragedies

    Everyone check in on your friends and loved ones, too.

    • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We need universal mental health care full stop. Even if you're against universal health care in general, and I don't know why anyone would be, start with universal mental health care.

      Get people assessed, get them the treatment they need. If they need to be held the rest of their lives, figure out how to make that work safely and humanely.

      • _dev_null@lemmy.zxcvn.xyz
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        1 year ago

        Even if you’re against universal health care in general, I don’t know why anyone would be

        To break it down:

        1. Degenerates want free shit, I don't want to pay for other people's free shit; make them get a job like everyone else if they want healthcare
        2. Free healthcare is the first step to full blown communism
        3. Free healthcare means death lists made by the government
        4. Liberals are trying to use free healthcare in order to turn the people against us conservatives
        5. Our country can't afford healthcare for everyone

        I feel dumber for having written in that voice, and dirty too, yuck.

        And now the retort for these arguments:

        1. Guess what, hoss, we're all paying for it either way, and usually a ton more if it's emergency instead of preventative care.
        2. Is that what your foxnews/oan/newsmax has been telling you? Do you think medicare is communism? Do you think the military is communism? It might be a form of socialism, but more like a single payer system, where the providers are everyday private doctors.
        3. Does medicare have death lists? Do the military hospitals have death lists? Does obamacare have death lists?
        4. Trying to give the people what they want and need for the better health of everyone is going to politically sway voters? Then better get on that boat before it sails, there's room for everyone!
        5. Our country can't afford the current mess of a medical system that we already have, largely due to spending the most out of any industrialized country, yet having worse health outcomes, and for the fewest percentage of citizens even getting care in the first place.

        So yes indeed, it is beyond me why in the fuck a large portion of my fellow citizens are hellbent on keeping the status quo (oh wait, it's due their thorough brainwashing that keeps them in that trance).

        • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Gotta keep funding the insurance companies so they can profit by denying care. What was that about death lists?

          My wife also points out that for entirely too many people #1 reads as:

          "1. Black and brown people want free shit, I don't want to pay for black and brown people's free shit; make them get a job like everyone else if they want healthcare."

          But you know they wouldn't be polite enough to say "black and brown people".

          • ChronosWing@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            Idk about that, these days they are pretty emboldened by Trump to just say all kinds of racist shit out loud.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          #3 Insurance companies exist as death panels currently. Their entire purpose is to deny life saving procedures as frequently as possible.

    • crashoverride@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      But let's be clear here, this guy did not do these things because he had a mental health problem. Dude had a plan, a really complex one, and had extensive training in the army to carry a plan out like this , to avoid being captured and to cause as much damage as possible. If he was just suicidal, he would have just offed himself instead of 22 plus other casualties he caused. Do not blame on what he did on his mental health problem and failure to get it sorted

      I blame it on society as a whole, the failure to take away his guns whenever he checked into a mental health place, and for failure to take care of his veterans.

        • Fox@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Problem is lumping in his problems with other mental health problems that are nothing like his, worsening the stigma.

        • crashoverride@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Had problems with an ex, some old friends, and it looks like he was fired recently from a job. Wanted revenge I guess.

          • bmsok@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I mean, that's sort of exactly why everyone needs someone to talk to and process stuff. If you've lost a relationship, friends, and a job you should be able to access care when you start having dark thoughts like this.

            • crashoverride@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Exactly, small things that build up can lead to tragedy. Especially when you're mentally unstable to begin with. What happened with him was horrible and tragic, but not totally his fault. Society has some blame to take too because they let him out of that facility without a support system in place and they didn't take his guns. Two things they should have done. In addition to help and support we also need trigger laws that take all your guns and other weapons, and inform your family and friends that this person is not allowed to have guns, and closely monitor his financials to see if he's trying to buy a gun. Any ONE of those would have prevented what happened in Lewiston.

    • nutsack@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      the hotline is a copout to help people ignore the systemic problems fueling depression epidemic

      • bmsok@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Oh the whole thing is definitely a broader socioeconomic and societal issue, for sure. That's why it's a crisis line and not a therapy line.