Bipolar Today

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The National Alliance on Mental Illness has recently taken the unusual step of intervening on behalf of a local clinic set to open in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The clinic, named Psychamore, is set to offer outpatient services to the local community, but is facing opposition within the community with security concerns. NAMI decided to get involved when they saw one of the flyers being passed by the opponents of the clinic, which argued that the clinic is uncertified (it is certified) and compared it to the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Public discussions are set for later this month at the Ocean Springs city hall. More information can be found in this article.

Commentary

At first, this looks like it might just be a case of “NIMBY” or “not in my backyard” thinking on the part of local residents. Unpopular facilities need to go somewhere and people where they end up will often complain, even if they are placed randomly. We just had a bunch of issues around NIMBY and power plants in our recent Ontario election.

However, for the most part, that doesn’t seem to be what is going on. Instead, the residents targeting Psychamore seem to have some serious misunderstandings of mental illness and mental illness facilities. An outpatient clinic is not remotely comparable to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; even modern inpatient clinics are not. Instead, this case is more along the lines of local people opposing a mosque than it is a power plant.

Nonetheless, local residents should be reassured about their security. Psychiatric facilities are safe and actually provide services to the community (after all, who else is using them?). Hopefully, NAMI will have the opportunity to assure the local residents of the security of these facilities.

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3. It’s NAMI Mental Illness Awareness Week
4. Swaziland Moves To Improve Community Mental Health Care
5. China Mandates That Mentally Ill Be Reported To Public Security