Hi Ann – my biggest concern is that the cases of which I’m personally aware are just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t live anywhere near the three urban centers in our State – these are people who live mostly in the suburbs. Although the State does pay for gang members in a city south of us to be bussed up to a local clinic weekly for drug abuse “relapse counseling” treatment.
These guys are a menace when present, and openly sell drugs in the lobby and out in front of the clinic with the full (fearful) knowledge of clinic staff, who are of course deathly afraid to report the activity. The State requires the clinic to “treat” these vermin in order to maintain their State-funded contracts, and will pay for the gang members to be bussed and “treated”, but won’t pay for security personnel to be hired by the clinic, so this situation goes on unchecked. The clinic’s upper management – who of course work in an office building 30 miles from the clinic itself – don’t seem to care as long as they’re paid on time by the State.
I shudder to think how much worse this is in the cities.
Knowing that entitlements and social services in California are far more comprehensive than here, it’s no mystery at all to me that they’re on the verge of bankruptcy – with the rest of the Republic close behind.
Chris Cree – likewise, State social services systems are built to keep people dependent upon them. Once supported by this system there are numerous mechanisms in place that will actively penalize a recipient for trying to become self-sufficient. The problem in large part is caused by a conflict of interests in the mental health care provider area and the bureaucracies responsible for managing the cases.
Clinics can actively prevent a person from going back to work by declaring them ‘unfit’ once they’re in the system. I personally know of at least three individuals who are prevented from earning their own living because State mandated psych evals keep coming back “unfit”. Conveniently, the clinic which controls their psych eval continues to receive payment for their ongoing treatment. One person, who was originally admitted after and attempted suicide, following a nasty divorce where he was literally taken for everything he owned (a business, home, cars, boat, custody of his toddlers), has been trapped in this situation for almost ten years! State funds have been supporting this individual 100% throughout that time. He is legally not allowed to work!
To add insult to injury, many clinics now have their own internal pharmacies. Think about that. The clinic controls who’s prescribed what and then bills the State and/or insurance companies for the retail cost of a drug they purchase wholesale. No formularies, of course. Patients are routinely prescribed between two and five SSRIs, Abilify, Ambien, Lunesta, high BP meds if they’re over 120/80, insulin treatments for (I sh!t you not) “pre-diabetes” if they’re “overweight” (who isn’t?). The list goes on, again, endlessly.
It is utter madness – we’re talking Hieronymus Bosch madness – created by bureaucracy and lack of accountability (but I repeat myself). The biggest part of the problem, and the reason no one thinks of doing anything about it, is that the entire system is seen by those in the system (i.e., those who receive their paycheck from the system OR who are supported by the system via entitlement) as paid for by… State funds, not taxpayers like me.
