Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/11/insiders-americas-largest-c.html
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Oh, so this is what the GOP is backing when they suggest that “mental health care” is needed in the wake of any mass shooting.
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Oh finally. A feel-good story.
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See? The Free Market™ can take care of vulnerable populations just fine.
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The people who need to be locked up are the people running this company, preferably in a privatized prison.
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Has Drumpf nominated anyone to head HHS yet? Once he can find out who the CEO of this outfit is, they’re going to be at the top of his shortlist for the post.
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Well, d’uh. If they didn’t want to get kidnapped then fleeced, they should’ve been more rugged-individualist-y and not have gotten sick. John Galt wouldn’t get sick.
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I’m guessing this means they’re not making any distinction between patients who really are suicidal and those who aren’t. The ones who really need help are losing out because of this too.
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Yes, a private company failing and having unethical policies is clearly the fault of the GOP. o_0
Over worked, underfunded, and crowded hospitals isn’t unique to mental health facilities either. And the Gov. run VA has some of the worst examples of this, unfortunately. That you could at least partially blame on the GOP since they have a hand in how it gets funded.
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John Hinckley Jr. is out and about. Sounds like the perfect fit for Trump.
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Deregulatory ideology and promotion of private industry over public health leads to human rights abuses? Yes.
Yes, Republicans also fuck the VA at every given chance.
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Not really because the ones who weren’t to start with probably will be soon. So it’s all for the best.
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The whole “mental health and mass shootings” connection is just a smoke screen. It enables everyone to talk about hospitals and insurance and conveniently ignore the elephant-sized issue of gun control.
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But, elephants are afraid of mice! So, in this analogy, the elephant is utterly unrestricted access to firearms, and the mice are a few souls with mental health issues who the poor old elephant imagines is ruthlessly bullying him.
Never mind that the elephant regularly steps on the mice and kills them. That’s not important. What is important is that the elephant feels afraid, so it needs to get bigger (ie, get moar gunz!), and the mice need to be swept away somewhere so they’re out of sight and out of mind. At the mice’s expense. Of course.
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Cue someone calling Cory a “troll” and that this is “fake news” in 3…2…1…
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What is great is about your analogy is that is starts off based on myths and misconceptions, similar to most of the anti-gun rhetoric.
And ends with the same fear mongering, that while an elephant is capable of stepping on mice or dogs or people, they rarely actually do that.
If you have to use fear and tragedy and appeal to emotion to make your point, then your premise is inherently flawed. Though governments are super good at using such excuses to increase their power. See 9/11, see Reichstag fire, see USS Maine.
But hey, let’s not divert too far from the topic at hand which is over crowded and poorly run hospitals who seem to be abusing public health programs.
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Situations that occur because of deregulated, drown the gov’t in a bathtub forces okay with privatized profits and fraud.
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I spent ten years as a geriatric psych nurse in locked units. None of this is shocking. Once you’re in, you are in. I worked at a dozen facilities in that time, and chemical restraints, bad patient care, medication theft, you name it. The entire industry has very little oversight except for our once a year audit, and that was a joke.
My last job was at a facility that is still running in WA state. One patient’s percocets were stolen, and replaced with a similar looking sleep med. Like, they literally peeled back the bubble pack, and scotch taped the new med it. It almost killed the patient. The med admin said she refused to investigate, because she was the queen of the castle there. (Direct quote) and later I found out from the accountant she routinely pocketed cash from the patients. We had state called on us every other week, and the coverups were massive. I had a patient die, due to a mismanaged broken hip with a fall that had been ignored for 48 hours. I was asked to re-write charts for days back, and when I refused, she started dogging my every step.
I quite, and handed proof to state, but nothing happened. You know why? The oversight agencies are understaffed and incompetent. One investigator told me we were getting better, but it was because the admin was getting better at covering up.
These locked psych units are run under boarding home licenses at best in my state. Anyone can open one up, and run them. They used to be Alzheimer’s homes, but now they put anyone with a psych disorder in there. Dangerous for the elderly alzheimer’s patients, and not the care the actual psychic patient need.
I could wax on angrily about this for days. It’s why I left the profession.
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if the crazy people don’t like the care they’re receiving they can just pick another they prefer. capitalism fixes everything! prisoners can do the same if they don’t like their corporate-run conditions. and if cows don’t like their slaughterhouse, they can chose a more humane one.
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It’s been pointed out by everyone that I misread.
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