HI group members,
The following article was written by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times.
The largest mental health center in America is a huge compound in Chicago, with thousands of people suffering from manias, psychoses and
other disorders, all surrounded by high fences and barbed wire.
Just one thing: It's a jail. The only way to get treatment is to be arrested. "Some people come here to get medication," says Ardell Hall, a superintendent of a women's unit at the jail. "They commit a crime to get in." Cook County has implemented an exemplary system for mental health support for inmates. While in jail, they often stabilize. Then they are released, go off their medications and the cycle repeats.
Psychiatric disorders are the only kind of sickness that we as a society regularly respond to not with sympathy but with handcuffs and
incarceration. And as more humane and cost-effective ways of treating mental illness have been cut back, we increasingly resort to the
law-enforcement toolbox: jails and prisons.
More than half of prisoners in the United States have a mental health problem, according to a 2006 Justice Department study. Among female
inmates, almost three-quarters have a mental disorder.
In Chicago's jail, some prisoners sit on their beds all day long, lost in their delusions, oblivious to their surroundings, hearing voices,
sometimes talking back to them. The first person to say that this system is barbaric is their jailer who said that mental illness was being criminalized. Up to 60 percent of the jail's intake reported that they had been diagnosed with mental illness. It is an expensive way to treat mental illness -- but there is
no choice but to accept schizophrenic, bipolar, depressive and psychotic prisoners delivered by local police forces.
People are not officially incarcerated because of psychiatric ailments,but that's the unintended effect. Dart says that although some mentally
ill people commit serious crimes, the great majority are brought in for offenses that flow from mental illness.
The sheriff asks: "How will we be viewed, 20, 30, 50 years from now? We'll be looked on as the ones who locked up all the mentally ill people. The same society that abhorred the idea that we lock people up in mental hospitals, now
we lock people up in jails."
Here are some statistics:
Nationwide in America, more than three times as many mentally ill people are housed in prisons and jails as in hospitals, according to a
2010 study by the National Sheriffs' Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center.
Mentally ill inmates are often preyed upon while incarcerated, or disciplined because of trouble following rules.
Some 40 percent of people with serious mental illnesses have been arrested at some point in their lives.
In 1955, there was one bed in a psychiatric ward for every 300 Americans; now there is one for every 3,000 Americans, the 2010 study
said. So while more effective pharmacological treatments are theoretically available, they are often very difficult to access for people who are only borderline functional.
Taxpayers spend as much as $300 or $400 a day supporting patients with psychiatric disorders while they are in jail, partly because the
mentally ill require medication and extra supervision and care.
As Dart puts it: "We've systematically shut down all the mental health facilities, so the mentally ill have nowhere else to go. We've become
the de facto mental health hospital."
You can read the full article at:
http://www.sunherald.com/2014/02/10/5327159/nicholas-kristof-nations-largest.html#storylink=cpy
Do any of your adult education programs work specifically with students that have mental health problems?
Please share your thoughts.
Rochelle Kenyon, SME
Comments
As I read the articlethat Rochelle posted on the dilemma of person's with mental illness [MI] in our country to find treatment I was so saddened. It is shocking ,and true, that people with MI are being incarcerated in prisons far more than admitted to hospitals today. I wonder how we justify this; economically, is it sound? from a values perspective do we believe that MI is a crime [we certainly are acting that way]? Do we beleive that MI is more effectively treated in the criminal justice system? It feels as if we have just shifted from "warehousing" persons with MI, especially poor ones, from large psychaitric hospitals to large penal faciltiies.
I do intend these questions to be provocative. i'd really ike others to weigh in on this dilemma. Lauri DiGalbo
That is a powerful article.
Though I am not yet functioning in the capacity of an adult basic educator, it is a strong area of interest, in part due to experiences and observations living in rural South Carolina. My master's degree is in Adult Education and I really don't want to go back to school any time soon (a bit tired of being a student and can't afford it), but if I did I think I would choose social work as an area of study, to blend with adult education. To me it seems that mental illness, poverty, and substance abuse all have a relationship (e.g. mental illness may be caused or exacerbated by poverty-related conditions; substance abuse may lead to harmful actions and can exacerbate symptoms of MI, etc.).
I don't know exactly how, but to me it seems that creativity could be a means of addressing these types of issues in a learning environment. Also fostering a respectful learning environment. Community-based work seems really valuable though perhaps not simple or easy -- but when there is a successful program or endeavor in one place, I think this can act as a model or partial model for other programs and can even help boost morale.... it is good to see successful endeavors :) I may be naive in some of my thoughts related to adult basic ed... I believe that as an educator I will always learn from learners, and that even if someone lacks what seem to be basic skills in reading, writing, math, etc., they may have more wisdom and richness of life experience than I do. To me the ideal learning / teaching environment would be one where a stable environment is cultivated for learners, and where what goes on in the learning environment is not results-driven (i.e. where the facilitator / instructor is not rewarded or penalized by learner performance but is able to support learners towards goals and milestones).
Though I have experience with disadvantaged learners, I don't have experience with incarcerated learners. I hope this is a contribution to the discussion, regardless.
Hi KP: Your insights about MI ,substance abuse and poverty being connected to learning in some ways is right on. They all also play a role in lack of educational opportunity which in turn impacts people's mental health and standards of living. An approach such as the one you suggest of facilitated learning that allows for real life opportunites to use new information not only cements the content but also increases self esteem and self efficacy. I beleive that this methododlogy is helpful for all disadvantaged learners no matter the reason. Lauri
Thank you, Laura! I am still trying to get a sense of whether I am off the mark in terms of where I need to coming from if I am able to work in the capacity of an adult basic educator. This is very encouraging.
Pat
Hi Pat,
Thanks for your contribution to this discussion. I agree with your statement that "mental illness, poverty, and substance abuse all have a relationship (e.g. mental illness may be caused or exacerbated by poverty-related conditions; substance abuse may lead to harmful actions and can exacerbate symptoms of MI, etc.). Mental Illness is also "comorbid" to quite a few other specific disabilities, so all of that can be hidden inside the same person. What a lot to manage and overcome if one is already at risk.
When I have worked with Correctional educators during training, I was never surprised to hear how much they loved their job and specifically working with this population of adult education students.
Rochelle Kenyon, SME
Hi Laura,
Thanks for jumping into the conversation. Of all the topics that have been discussed within the group, I definitely agree that this is a most provocative one. It is at the heart of how we treat people who are unable to manage their own lives. I hope that we hear from group members who work with corrections as well as any adult educator who is interested in this population.
Rochelle Kenyon, SME
The thing I've noticed most about correctional education is that it is a "multiplicitous" discipline. Our country's current criminal justice approach effectively criminalizes the marginalized by over-policing poor neighborhoods, where those who already have the most trouble living effective, independent lives often end up, and by failing to offer effective treatments and/or education to them when they land in our prisons and jails. It seems instinctive, and indeed many other countries and cultures throughout the world follow the principle that, "a high tide raises all boats" or "the chain is only as strong as its weakest link" and our society's low boats and weak links most often end up in corrections classrooms with overlapping needs such as low literacy and learning challenges, or substance abuse and mental health issues. I believe correctional educators are in a position to lead the charge and raise loud voices that will alert legislators and foundations to the needs of this population -- and take note of the fact that meeting those needs, in a meaningful and effective way, will inevitably increase safety and save taxpayer dollars. So not only is the corrections population a multiplicitous one, but so are the educators, taking on the jobs of instructor, advocate, reformer and lobbyist under the title of teacher. Thanks so much for such a thoughtful discussion.
-- Heather Erwin