From inside the mental health industry it doesn’t feel like we’re pushing drugs because we’re too hooked on this model and afraid to be scrutinized; we all know none of this is actually getting solved until there’s widespread social reform. Being able to hand out the drugs just feels like the only tool we’ve been handed.
It’s like being on a tiny life boat boat full of life jackets in the middle of a sea of people thrown into the ocean. I could start pulling people onto my tiny boat but eventually that’ll sink it. I do have all these life jackets I can throw at them though, which will buy a little more time for somebody with a bigger boat to come along and scoop them up. I don’t think it’s the people in tiny boats handing out life jackets that’s the issue; I think it’s whoever actually does have the resources to actually come get them and just won’t. I also think I would be generous to say it’s that they don’t care when the truth is they’re actively benefiting from people being afraid of falling getting pushed into the water. And yeah, nothings really going anywhere until we stop dumping people overboard in the first place.
I’m going to abandon that metaphor before it loses its usefulness. But yeah TLDR, I don’t hand people drugs because I think it will fix them, I’m just trying to buy this person time until they can either fix themselves, or until someone cares enough to give them the support they truly need and that I don’t personally have in me right now. I guess I can’t speak for everybody in the industry but all my coworkers seem to know we’re at best just handing out life jackets and its ultimately on the patient and particularly society at large to not waste that extra time bought.
And honestly if you want one issue that I think will legit just solve about 3/4 of the mental health crisis it’s housing. It’s literally just housing. And not shelters, I’ve never met anyone who really feels safe in one, they all tell me they got beat or raped or stolen from in one. No we need to just start putting people in houses. But I could write a wholeass Manifesto on this (and I think I may have somewhere in my comment history).