I wish it WAS just a matter of better care that makes some people, diagnosed with mental illness, lose control or have a break.
Almost always, from what I've seen, it's the patient that causes the decomp'g... when he chooses to be non-compliant with his meds.
Despite all the budget cuts within the Depts of Mental Illness, I've seen most patients functioning on higher levels.. mostly due to the new meds in the past 25+ yrs.
Casemanagers have had to learn to juggle larger caseloads. When I was a Nurse Casemanager, (out-patient department) for 2 yrs, my caseload (# of pts) went from 30 to 75. It was during a huge budget cut.
But as teams, which included a psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers, nurses, even tho they were cut smaller, we were still able to continue with the same treatment... it's just that the pts weren't getting as much individual attention, when they needed it.
I've worked with Dept of Mental Health in several states and nothing compares to CT. I had to deal with D-MH in California a few months ago, trying to get help for a friend in CA. I was so frustrated & so angry at how difficult it was... and for the lack of resources in many of the counties. (CA's D-MH is run by the individual counties. CT is state run.)
