Budgetary Mandates

After yet another evening at work, and while reading another of the countless articles written about the VT shootings, I was struck with a thought, when I took in yet another comment about someone stating how the shooter had feel through the cracks of the mental health system.

That thought is this. Who is going to pay for all this? Will this be yet another example of a knee-jerk legislative period that federally mandates a solution looking for a problem, without actually doing anything to fund the legislation? Or, will it be much like is going on now health budgets being slashed (especially in the mental health fields) all over the country on federal, state and local levels? We cannot deal with the people that we have now in “the system”, let alone add to it by making colleges and other public institutions add to it with anyone that writes a disturbing play, or who may or may not be a threat to themselves or others, etc. Most people think of these type of situations as an either/or type of issue, where one is either mentally sick or not. And that we can just look at a person, on the street, or in a classroom and just tell if they need psychological counseling, or even non-voluntary incarceration in a mental health facility.

Too often we look at the short term situation, a way to deal with the symptoms, instead of the illness, and even less at what brought about the illness in the first place. Where are we going to find more of these mental health professionals? I do not see there being a huge influx any time soon as would be expected by the new legislation which I am sure will come soon. After all, someone has to take all those case loads. Look at all the issues we have with over working counselors and case workers with the Child Protection System(s) about the country. Are we going to depend upon new MH professionals that have less training and less experience then what we have now to take up the new caseloads? And, how are we going to pay for those medications that many of these patients will need, especially if they are poor and/or homeless and otherwise not insured? Are we looking at increasing our own insurance premiums? Will we see more employers drop even more health programs because they just cannot afford them, when given a choice between keeping the health program or the workers themselves?

I can go on and on. The thing is that everything is inter-connected. We talk so much about the earth’s eco-system and how it is so finely balanced and how the disruption of one small sub-system will eventually affect them all, and thus the planet as a whole. Well, social balance is much the same way. It is just that most things are not readily apparent to us on the surface, and that most problems that we see are not seen in years or decades (people individually), or in generations (neighborhoods and cities, for example). We will see that the decisions of one bitter and most probably mentally unbalanced young man, will affect a campus for many many years to come, that the state of Virginia will be affected in a number of ways in the way that they treat mental health issues, and by the United States government, in issues of freedom of speech and gun control.

And, while we are a society that demands instant gratification, and instant results, this is a situation that will take years to fully (if ever) to understand. There will be demands of legislation to give politicians the feeling of doing something useful and important, and indeed, some of those laws may actually be beneficial. But, again, it will take time. And money. Lots and lots of money. Both in the initial outlay to the lawyers and the doctors and the researchers and the lobbyists (etc), and for the cost of the bringing the legislation to the people to vote for on a national and/or statewide level (especially if it is in regards to any constitutional issues), to the monies needed to pay for the ongoing costs of the actual practices of caring for those with mental health problems, most of who we do not care for now!

Where is the money to come from? Maybe we should not build a couple of those multi-billion new stealth fighters to pay for the increase in funding that the mental health field would require to help these needy people. How many terrorists have we shot down of late with them? How many of our own wounded soldiers do we have being released from the military out into society with undiagnosed and/or untreated mental health problems, since we spend thousands and thousands of dollars on each to train them how to become killers (I am not anti-soldier here, I was in the US Army myself and served proudly), but when their tour is over we just let them out without any de-briefing or re-training, beyond that of a 8 hour class or two and a couple of booklets. We don’t even give those that serve us now what they need to cope and survive in this modern society we live in, how can we expect to help those people that are out on the streets and in our schools and in our places of work that have mental problems, unless they come to us first. And even then, most of the time, since such aide is not funded, those that need the help are sent on their way, without any assistance given… beyond perhaps a 8 hour class and a booklet.

On a different note, I had an interesting conversation with a person on my messenger. Apparently this person was referred to me because I “did it all” in regards to the genre. The person thought that to mean that I did Poser art, and wanted to hire me as an artist, to illustrate a story that she would write. This person then got pretty darn upset when I told her that I was not an artist of that type, and that I did not know anyone personally who would immediately take upon this project. No, this person did not actually visit my website, else she would of known that I do not do such things myself.

That said, does anyone know of any Poser type artist that would be willing to take upon a lesbian superheroine story project? She stated that she would be willing to pay $20 to $50 per page, based upon the quality of the work. She also seems to want the project to be started immediately. I have told her that most artists of the caliber that she is wanting are already sub-contracting out to professional sites, and that most, if not all, have a number of projects they are already working on, and that it may take some time before such a contract could be started, let alone completed (and it sounded like a big project at that). So, if anyone can help me out in this regards, in any manner, I would sure appreciate it (I said I would ask around, and here I am. I am certainly not going to let this dictate my life and my time as I think she is wanting me to)! Doc? JT? MM? Any advice here? Thanks!

(Originally posted April 23rd, 2007 on my Yahoo 360 blog)