Crisis Care Centers vs ERs

The first time Mike became psychotic, I drove him to a hospital emergency room. We didn’t know any psychiatrists and Mike needed immediate help. Taking him there turned out to be a mistake.

Emergency rooms are where everyone goes nowadays whenever they have any kind of health-related crisis, but many are poorly equipped to deal with psychiatric patients in the midst of  a mental break.  

Some patients are turned away, as Mike and I were, without getting help. Or a patient might be held down and given a shot of Haldol or another strong anti-psychotic  that will help stabilize him but also can turn him into a walking zombie for days.

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Making Burger King Accountable: Part TWO

I writing again about the need to make Burger King accountable for the objectionable television advertisement that it is broadcasting and to bring you up-to-date about my campaign to make the company pull this ad off the airways.

 After writing about the ad in my Wednesday blog, I sent out appeals to four different mental health advocacy groups.

 My friends, Bob Carolla and Ron Honberg at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the largest grassroots mental health advocacy group in the nation, responded immediately. Bob, who heads up NAMI’s media relations, and Ron, its director of policy and legal affairs, told me that NAMI Executive Director Mike Fitzpatrick already had written a letter complaining to Burger King. 

Mike had mailed it March 4th, but Burger King’s Chief John W. Chidsey had not had the courtesy of responding. (Mike’s letter is attached at the end of this blog.)

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