SOME PEOPLE NEED TO BE INSTITUTIONALIZED - RETHINKING MENTAL HEALTH

SOME PEOPLE NEED TO BE INSTITUTIONALIZED - RETHINKING MENTAL HEALTH

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

This conflict between individual freedom and the community protection has constantly popped up over time. In the 1950s and through the early 1960s there was a movement to close state mental health institutions while increasing funds for local mental health centers. Investigative reporters exposing scandalous behaviors of large mental health centers throughout the nation accelerated this deinstitutionalizing movement.  Patients were not receiving acceptable treatment, caring and sometimes received horrific abuse according to these investigative reporter narratives.

The answer to these shameful conditions came in at the same time as the advancement of modern medicines. The psychotropic drugs were promoted as “wonder drugs” to stabilize mentally ill people. These patients were supposed to be able to function outside of the confines of secure lockup institutions and be placed back into the community. Local mental health clinics were beefed up with substantial government funding allowing the deinstitutionalizing of mental health services to be taken over by the local mental health clinics. This was supposed to better meet the needs of these mental health clients.

A similar wishful-thinking concept in our federal prison system has been put in place. The First-Step criminal reform bill was passed in December 2018 to shorten the prison time of drug related crimes.  The inmates were given the opportunity to earn credits to shorten their drug sentence by as much as 1/3 if they successfully participated in vocational or rehabilitation programs or were model prisoners. Under these new guidelines of releasing non-violent drug convictions back into the community was a requirement that dangerous criminals not be released. Understandably, some of these convicts had committed other violent acts of various degrees. Many opponents of this new law argue that many of these so-called victimless crimes are killing many addicts. They point out that half a kilo of fentanyl would kill 50,000 people.

Mental Health institutions and prison incarceration are not pleasant places to be housed. Individuals are locked up against their will. Their freedoms are significantly curtailed and the other inmates are not people you want to be around. They are not mentally balanced and are often dangerous. The accommodations are Spartan-like facilities. It is not a lifestyle that many people would prefer but some purposefully break rules to “jam their time” in order to remain institutionalized.

Clearing out our institutions sounds as great as every citizen will receive free everything from the government. The reality is we have to have laws to protect others and we have to enforce them to protect others and people hurting themselves.

The experiment to de-institutionalize our mental health facilities is becoming too obvious to ignore. The “tent city enclaves” in some of our previously beautiful city landmarks are revolting places. The defecation, filth, disease, shooting-up on the street and offensive verbal attacks on innocent passer-bys is shocking and truly deplorable. No increase in “injection-sites” will alter or prevent this debasement of humanity.

Many of these street people have mental health issues, drug addiction, severe and multiple medical issues. Their life styles are not conducive to physical, mental stability and overall health. This cannot be denied.

The “supposedly” miraculous drugs that helped spur on the deinstitutionalization of mental health turned out to be a mirage, as it did not account for human nature. Mentally ill people as well as normal ones tend to avoid terrible tasting pills, complicated time schedules for taking and consistently visiting local mental health centers. Most mentally ill people just drop out of this confusing, demanding, and degrading commitment. Most of these impaired people turn away from these unrealistic regiments often ending up on the street.

This same problem happens with the deinstitutionalization of prisoners. Once they leave their home, the prison, most have learned or accepted that they have to suffer with their past reputation. They will be tested to deal with suspicion and unfairness. Inmates are of average intelligence but their frustration tolerance, patience and appropriate social skills are often lacking. The transition of prisoners back into normal society is a complicated process that requires new ways of thinking and interacting with others.  

Criminal and mental health institutions can never be eliminated. Both will have people who need to be removed from the public because of their violent criminal and mentally destructive behavior.

The ultimate question is how much can our professionals improve non-functioning people’s ability to integrate back into our mainstream society. This ability will determine the number of people who will need to be institutionalized. Mental illness and drug addiction should determine the type of facility needed for the individual’s treatment as well as the public’s safety, not progressive pipedreams.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

ONLY CHILD NEEDS TO BE SOCIALIZED BY HIS PEERS NOT ONLY PARENTS

ONLY CHILD NEEDS TO BE SOCIALIZED BY HIS PEERS NOT ONLY PARENTS

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist                             

Parents should be the most influential people in a child’s life. In our cultural meltdown there often are one or no biological parents raising their children. One-parent families are not optimal for all the responsibilities and wisdom are solely in one person’s hands. An increased number of grandparents have stepped in to take on this incredible responsibility with limited energy, vitality and longevity concerns.

As the American family shrank, the need for peers became more important for children as well as their family’s authority. The parents need to know how the child acts with others in specific situations and soon realize their child is not perfect. The child learns peers can act positively or can stab others in the back. The parent and child get educated through this experience.

As an only child, without siblings to interact with, it is harder to determine how and when the youngster will be more prone to lie, to defend himself, join in with the shenanigans of others or reject it all together. When parents observe their child with friends, they are better able to evaluate their behavior outside of the parent’s presence.  These informational observations assist the parents to open their eyes to realize the complexity of the child. This helps them gain a more mature and accurate understanding to arrive at better decisions with a child.

Modern children are at a significant disadvantage from those in the past. They have smaller families, more divorces, less direct and unsupervised interaction with their peers. Our culture is starting to become aware that today’s children’s major contact with their peers is through the Internet. Parents often have little knowledge of these online people and less what is transpiring in these conversations. Putting a child in adult supervised activities does not provide the parent with firsthand knowledge of the child’s social skills. The child is isolated from his peers in constantly supervised activities.  This does not allow the child to just be a kid.

The child has to learn how to react in social situations with their peers. There are many single child families who naturally do not have the opportunity to witness how their children interact with other children. Single children families often place the full burden of childrearing on themselves without other siblings, friends or elders sharing in this process. The parent figure has a void in understanding their child’s actions with others.

Our modern culture has limited the possibility of children mixing with others outside the home. Our suburban isolated living and dangers in the city streets have convinced parents to sign up the child in adult supervised activities instead of letting their children play unsupervised outside the home. These youngsters are not free to learn games and rules that have historically been passed down from one generation to another.

Most importantly, peers teach each other how to act in a group. When a child is initiated into a group of peers the youngster has to decide how to be accepted. Are they going to be friendly, aggressive, an observer, attempt to be a leader or a follower? They might try to be one kind of personality and wind up being perceived by the group as the exact opposite. This process is a great learning laboratory for every child to develop different aspects of their personality.

As the child matures he develops new relationships that open up new types of behavioral options.  This allows the youth to see the consequences of certain actions, which could help him make better choices to reach his goals. The experience with their peers helps them better focus on their vision and the direction they would like to take in the future.

This involvement with their peers also teaches the adult that the child acts differently in different situations. They begin to view youngsters more objectively and realistically. The parents realize in different situations the child acts differently depending on many variables. The ages of the peers, the setting, time of day, the activity and many other circumstances have a definite impact on the child’s behavior. Probably the most important lesson the parent learns is their child is neithger perfect or a future loser but a work in progress.

Conscientious parents are beginning to organize home events to select and get to know their child’s peers and the parents who drop them off. This organic process is growing to meet the modern family and child’s needs. They understand the importance of other children in their own child’s life.

Peers are an essential part of the equation in the child becoming a well-rounded social individual. Parents cannot do it all.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

LIVING A LIE IS EASIER TODAY THAN EVER

LIVING A LIE IS EASIER TODAY THAN EVER

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

Lying has become an art form. Not only is it common now people do it with pizzazz.  Most of the lies are still the “little white” variety.  Nevertheless, the more outrageous and exaggerated the deception, the more likely it will appear credible. Too many Americans are being inundated with lies and remember some whoppers as the truth.

We have television pharmaceutical advertisers who say in one breath the drug has miraculous curing properties without any side effects and then list horrific possible fatal effects on the patient. Federal, state and local politicians make a living saying one thing to one audience and the opposite to a different one.  Lying has become so blatant that we now accept it as part of the role of any politician to be an artful deceiver of the public. There is no longer shame or loss of face when the person is exposed. Habitual lies are prevalent from authority figures in the helping profession, business world, and even in the sanctuary of the family. The truth has almost become extinct.

In toady’s virtual world there is little real connection between people. It is easier today than ever before to be someone you want to be rather than who you are. Being a liar has lost its stigma in our culture. Pathetically lying has become acceptable since we no longer feel outrage when someone lies to us. We are not even prosecuting people who falsify information to law enforcement such as Jusse Smollett.

Without social media a person’s reputation usually evolved from word of mouth by their deeds and misdeeds. Our modern electronic age has provided the public with a quicker and easier way to gain a positive reputation. The Internet automatically feeds one’s ego needs, which helps a person believe they are important. Stores where you bought one item send you a Happy Birthday electronic message. Every selfie and “enhanced” photo creates an image that is more glamorous than a Hollywood star.

Currently in our social media, non-judgmental world anyone can be whatever they choose to be without any consequence. We are living in a virtual world. The majority of adults spend an incredible amount of time on their electronic devices. People are more absorbed in the cyber world than in the real face-to-face interactional world. Most cyber friends have never physically met. The social media biography is written with little adherence to the facts of the individual’s life.

The problem with being boxed in by a fictional narrative is the person needs more elaborate lies to keep the charade going. This tangled web of lies incentivizes the individual to develop more elaborate and less feasible lies to keep the shaky credibility from exposing them. This phony biographical self-branding eventually becomes a cross too heavy to bear. The problem is many of us are living lies that are hard to keep up with when we meet followers in person.

Hopefully the dishonest individual will come clean with an intimate person they admire to rid themselves of living a false self-history. This intimate person may encourage the friend to correct the record and start again. This time the individual starts on a firm footing. This will keep the person on a truthful track to be a functional and successful member of the community. The focus on the individual’s true success will build on each of them increasing the person’s self-confidence and legitimate successes.

Prestigious leaders of the community should be an inspiration to others by earning their reputation through the traditional method of honest effort instead of “instant false successes.” People will realize that a lasting reputation has to have a foundation based on truth. Truth, not lies builds strong relationships, strong families, and country.  The honesty of our citizens has been the backbone of our U.S. exceptionalism.

This epidemic of lying is unraveling the social fabric of our society. We need to return to punishing our children for lying. Certainly we have to follow through on people who falsify information be it a common criminal or famous person: they should be treated with the same blind justice.

Parents should return to dedicating themselves to giving significant consequences to stamp out lying and cheating with their children and their own interactions with others. Teachers should make a big deal about cheating and outright lying to demonstrate that this behavior does not pay.

Once we return to truth, honesty, and blind justice of the law our nation will be revitalized. Lying will again become a character defect that will shame many people from using it and critical thinking will once again supersede feelings.

Truth will have resurgence and dishonesty will be again stigmatized.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.

“WASTING TIME STUDYING” IS NOT STUDYING

“WASTING TIME STUDYING” IS NOT STUDYING

By Domenick J. Maglio PhD. Traditional Realist

If you want something done, give it to a busy person not someone who does little. This observation is as true today as it was in the past. People who complete their tasks in a timely manner are well disciplined and have learned time management. Daydreaming is not allowed or even thought of in their daily routines. They have internalized an awareness of time that motivates them to complete the task efficiently.

These doers were often trained by their parents in completing chores around the house or shown by another role model or are self-trained. The training process by parents optimally should start as early as possible. Putting their possessions in the proper place is an excellent place to begin. As the child matures, the work expectation should increase to complete activities promptly. Any praise or material reward should happen only after the chore is completed correctly in a particularly stated time period.

Shoddy work or poor effort needs to be noted and corrected. Lying about what they actually did for schoolwork has to be followed by a significant consequence and then a discussion. The next parental directive should review the things they did not do well the first time and firmly tell the child the way they can correct this. Noting the improvements followed by parental approval of a job well done motivates the youngsters to incorporate these positive lessons into their lives.

Obviously this takes time and effort by the parents in a harried world. Working as a family around the house is less likely with both parents working. Many families have hired people taking over the outdoor chores. Any chores assigned to the child, like caring for a pet or cleaning their own room, should be carefully monitored to be sure the chore is done well.

In modern children’s lives the major work responsibility is in school, no longer at home. At first parents are eager to help with homework that comes home in the early grades to help their children start off on the right foot. At times they help too much, doing the entire assignment. This does little to prepare their child for future homework.

The problem with homework is not the level of ability of the student to do it but the desire and will. In our “instant gratification” society too many youngsters expect things to come easily. Some of the academic material, especially science, math, literature and history, require more concentration and effort to grasp terminology and concepts than in less demanding courses.

Another major problem is most parents do not realize the child’s ability to lie by omission when a parent asks, “did you finish all your homework” and the child answers, “yes.”  The child’s “yes” often means the part they like to do is completed but not all of it. The more difficult the task, the more likely it will be put aside for another day.

The teachers might list the times and dates the homework was not handed in to them. The student often argues that the teacher’s record book is wrong and she missed marking the assignment. The parent’s response is often to insist that their child is in their room studying for four hours each night.

The older the student gets, the more sophisticated the deviance becomes. Instead of direct falsehoods, the older student realizes it is best to turn to their acting skills. “I spend hours in my room doing homework and I still do not get it done.” Is the child actually, efficiently studying or just “wasting time studying?”

Time spent in one’s room is not indicative of the effort or work completed and comprehended. Children have been sent to the “time-out” area of their room for decades. They go to their “safe place” to play video games, use their phones, receive messages or listen to music. Some even take a nap. This is hardly studying. Daydreaming or counting the bumps on the ceiling does not qualify as studying either. Parents need to sporadically check the student’s work to see what has been completed.

Time management is the answer to gain additional time to master one’s studies. Studying takes focus, concentration, repetition and comprehension of specific concepts. It takes hard work, not faking it to an authority figure.

Parents have to stop being tortured by their child with their homework. The sooner parents understand and correct the youngster’s games, the better.

Domenick Maglio, PhD. is a columnist carried by various newspapers, an author of several books and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. Dr. Maglio is an author of weekly newspaper articles, INVASION WITHIN  and a new book entitled, IN CHARGE PARENTING In a PC World. You can see many of Dr. Maglio’s articles at www.drmaglioblogspot.com.