Research discussing healthcare debt ...

Photo Credit: Towfiqu Barbhuiya, Unsplash

The healthcare and health insurance debate in America seems to overlook this very significant detail.    I've said it for years,  in my podcasts,  in my blog,  in my book,  in many posts for many many years the insurance debacle is making people sick.   Something must change.

https://news.yahoo.com/1-5-households-medical-debt-173420850.html

Mental health and law enforcement - slowing down will be part I ...

       PHOTO CREDIT: Josh Couch, Unsplash

This story is an escalation if it's own - readers will jump in and pick sides....but the last 8 words of this one quote is worth a second take:

"De-escalation tactics are no longer suggested or preferred — they are mandatory prior to using force to effect an arrest unless it would be unreasonable to do so..."

Mental health professionals on the ground with crisis phone calls makes sense but this mental health and de-escalation campaign (and again, I'm all for it) must be grounded in the reality of science.   The brain takes over when death or the threat of death is real ... for all humans.   You cannot untrain an automatic trauma take over of the logical brain when adrenaline,  cortisol,  and norepinephrine take over during life threatening events.  This is not trainable.  What is trainable is slowing down.   I'll say that again ... what is trainable is slowing down.   

That slowing down thing is about all humans,  particularly in the US.  High stress is a disaster for everyone.   Now add unsafe careers to the mix of high stress.  Then add a 911 call for the police.   Next add a grab for a gun.  This is a horribly tragic tragic story.  And it saddens me immensely. 

To summarize this event,  by media,  political action and/or by race is only a few factors that,  to me,  makes this story even more depressing (to an already very depressed culture).  To call it a mental health only thing,  a de-escalation only thing is also yet another factor. 

In my own training of de-escalation to schools,  teachers,  to patients going back over a decade... this technique works where the safety (and the safety perception) is present. If someone, even a well trained de-escalation seasoned professional is unsafe - or perceives being imminently in harms way - deescalation techniques will fail as the literal (not fear or scared or uncertainty or even bias) biological hijack of fight/flight hormones splashes the logical brain making it largely - well - kind of dumb if you will.  

The only if I can see time and again in these kinds of stories is that ... IF EVERYONE COULD SLOW DOWN A BIT IN ALL HUMAN INTERACTIONS  this stress response will drop.  

Bias training will help.   De-escalation training will help.   Mental health will help.  

This is not an all or nothing thing.   And the saddest thing of all is that people are dying. 

https://news.yahoo.com/police-video-fatal-encounter-shows-233117194.html 

Insulin price caps - making the news: the argument is wasted money frankly.

For the past week there has been this ruckus over price caps on insulin.  The two party system is blaming the other as bad.  And the masses seem to be on board with the two party blame game.  Here's a different perspective .... there was a report that the pubs voted to block a $35 cap on insulin. Presumably the good idea here was the price cap and presumably it was from the other side ... the dems. Now consider this two party solution for a moment.  $35 for insulin isn't a really a cap; it's still a rip off.  If the pubs voted no,  and the dems put this on the table,  neither set of "representatives" were intending on making a change here.   You see,  $35 isn't the item that should have been in the law ... $8 would be reasonable (and still high frankly).  When the pubs are pushing for change and when the dems are too (#workingtogether) then real laws will be voted on.   It seems like we're continuing to look at the two parties as if they (either one) are really helping the people.     That's not a dem or a pub debate you know?  Helping people; that this is even a debate is telling too, isn't it?  Think about it... people are arguing about a cap that is not affordable for the most vulnerable and most in need... as if excluding some people from needed medical care is reasonable?!?  It's time for real change - like we the people seeing us as allies, not foes.  Narratives are just that ... pitches to convince and sway.  If you had a job for two years and you couldn't improve things ... would you still have that job?  If you had a 77,000 page tax code as your direction manual - could you even begin to get something done?  The ping pong of one side or the other bashing it out closer to elections where billions (read that again - billions) are trashed (into "the other side sucks" marketing) could be changed. Billions into people programs would destroy a BS price cap argument by both parties. Idealistically, we the people could consider that what is being placed into the media narratives continues to divide us as we lash out at one another.   Help is only helpful when it helps.  Can you and I and help? PHOTO CREDIT: Towfiqu barbhuiya, unsplash.

Equality, idealism, mysticism - the law and politics

Equality is so much simpler than our country - myself included - make it.   As PRIDE  and protests abound on this very day -  I simply long for equality.   For you,  for my neighbors, my friends, my family - and for me too.  Idealism, a personality trait that at times seems to hinder and feed my passions of care, and then the nostalgia of my high school youth studying constitutional law and things like indepedence and revolutions for freedoms - I have come to realize how sacred mysticism can blind a soul.  As you and I post hate messages, as we say divisive words against one another we overlook our majority power - caused by a few.  Let that sink in a moment ... "caused by a few" I said.  You see privileged, seasoned, lifetime positioned lawyers and lifetime positioned men and women of wealth on any side of the aisles - a few unaware people of power who cause our collective and cyclical divides. Equality is too too simple - even if some document of anitquity espoused that all are equal - all have inalienable rights ...  The problem is that "all" with any exceptions (and there are so so many exceptions in the rules of law and in the rules of politics - ran by a so very few people) makes equality a falsehood - not an ideal - not a passion - not a truth. And we continue to divide.  Our hate spewing, our side taking and our rock throwing enables the few to continue.   Ideally, we,  the majority would gather in hand holding,  in equal judgements for the greater collective -US- and being to tell the few that they no longer have the power.   We do - as a majority of equals - who when blame is quieted - can begin to see our role in creating change. #equality

~Kurt LaRose

In Her Words and Not Theirs; A Supreme Court Justice Speaks

      PHOTO CREDIT: Anna Sullivan and Unsplash

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These words are so powerful...[I have tried to do my] “best to stay in my lane and to reach a result that is consistent with my understanding of the law and with the obligation to rule independently without fear or favor.”  Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson.  

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Note: I did not hear these words myself ... I read them in an online article that I chose not to reference due to its political spin.  I do believe these are her words however ... that was credible enough.   I also found these words powerful ... while the slant in the media article tragic.

Courts, Cases, Costs and Care: What about that Care Thing?

This legal case started in 2015; that was 7 years ago.  Get this - this case is said to be heading "back to the supreme court."  I'm curious about the money spent,  the time spent,  the stress of all involved.

         Photo Credit: Eric Mclean and Unsplash.

Americans continue to give away money over terms like "Republican, Democrat, Christian" and in supposed "principled arguments" standing on some ground - to limit previously decided laws.  And then to change a word or two,  to retry cases and attempt to hair line tweak cases to find the next precedent on which to stand.
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Do you know that we keep spending money to fight over freedom - supposedly in the freest country in the world?  Has anyone considered how expensive our divisions are?
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A Christian believed that God needed help in a court room?  4 people who wanted to be married had to go to court to get the system to anti-sanction, religious freedom, sexual freedom and marital freedom laws? 
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Does any of this make any sense?
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Look I know that many things in life must be fought for.  
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But you and I remain palpably divided.  Why?  Who benefits when these divisions distract us from liking each other and us simply getting along?
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Our country has the high honor of more covid deaths in the world than any other country.   We are arguing over gender and race and education.  The number one cause for bankruptcy in the US is healthcare costs.  Homeless people need housing.   Retired people need actual healthcare.  Schools need money to teach.  We have gazillions of folks in prison for non-violent crimes.  We argue and continue to perpetuate laws rooted in racism, oppression and inequality - in a democracy where 51% supposedly is considered sufficient cause to establish anything as "legal."  Our foods are soaked in carcinogens and our water is so cloudy we can see things floating about.  The tax system is a mammoth 70,000 pages (where more lawyers are needed).
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We are not divided solely by principals.  We are divided by nearly everything we read and the talking points we grab onto.
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Nearly every article I read labels the republican or the democrat in the one up and one down (opposing and binary) arguments.  Nearly every story I read talks of the next legal implication about to unfold.
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One day,  idealism will shape reality.   The idea that you and I, as a majority, really do care - and can care - about each other will begin to sink in.   The idea that love is unconditional not conceptual - but practical - where actions to drive love first will be in the communal consciousness. One day,  any reason to justify the non- caring and the non-protection of another human being will become the rejectable - instead of the cause.
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I hope even in dismay.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/kim-davis-lawsuit-violated-rights-of-same-sex-couples-ruling/

Kids talk. Teachers teach. Laws might just make them both very very sick.

Kids, teachers and so many others are going to seek help to find a safe place to just be - and a counselor's office will quite possibly be the next best stop (in some states anyway).  But should it be?

     Photo credit: Wesley Tingey and Unsplash

Imagine a kid, 4 years old, who has two dad's ... or a kid whose aunts are married.  At school this 4 or 5 year old kid does what kids do ... starts talking about an everyday dinner event with Dad or with "aunty" at school.   And the hush that is legally mandated overtakes the 5 year old as this little kid discusses a funny moment at home last night.   Here in this moment,  a sanctioned legal policy enacts secrecy, ostracization, bullying and potentially creates a criminal if the teacher acts in any way to address the very natural and normal conversation of the child.

I have written about this topic in many different ways and a number of times, in a number of places for a number of years .... on the talkifuwant website .... in the book Psychobabblejabble, on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook (personal and professional)... and many many years ago I was interviewed in Florida regarding reparative therapy and treating children ....I've posted things in a podcast too ... all with various angles and takes looking at what  I guess is controversial.

LGBT is not a moral issue, it's not a legal issue ... it's not a political issue ... it's not a prohibitive one ...  it's not something to be protective of or about ... it's not taught, it's not contagious, it's not a fad or a phase ... it's a human thing.... it is a scientific reality - and nearly all components of LGBT (however you attempt to classify or judge) are biologically grounded - like real and hard sciences kinds of stuff.

So I'll say this ... again ... But. The. Children.

When that child just talks .... she and her entire cohort, teachers included will be faced with an actual > created < crisis.  And when the dust settles (weeks or months or even years later) allot of harmed people will seek mental health care - because the stress alone will lead them to need it.  And, to get treated ... a diagnosis must first be added to the insurance billing system (a whole other podcast) to effect care.  Because a kid just talks.

Missouri, Florida and DC are all mentioned in this article - Montana, Kentucky and others...a poll is mentioned where in one example 51% of the public support this legal criminalization... the split is palpable. 

The damage and harm and the societal and cultural trauma inflicted upon the children and the adults as these traumas will no doubt occur is a hidden iatrogenic affect of laws that prohibit talking and teaching. Trauma created by laws and courtrooms... impacting the places of learning at the most impressionable times.  

The mental health business is about to grow again ....because of laws that ban things like talking, teaching, being open,  honest and respectful....directed to one people ... lgbt.  Laws contradicting science, academia ... creating criminal teachers and soon to be secret keeping 4 year olds.

And some laws are now regulating if and how counselors might talk to or with lgbt identified youth and their parents.

Read this ... please. Think about this one little kid having a simple conversation at school.  Think about this one teacher in that moment.  Then consider the counselor's office next. 

My heart aches a bit ...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teachers-florida-parental-rights-in-education-dont-say-gay-bill/?ftag=YHF4eb9d17

Prejudicial trauma induced by helpers...

Florida and Texas are front runners in hurting children, parents, teachers, doctors, mental health professionals... these two States are adding to a prejudicial stress that literally is traumatizing a society. 

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One day, a little ... a very very very little bit of science will hopefully enter the threshhold of this gazillion years long trajectory of hurting people "in the name of good" - aka in the name of some religious ideaology or one up and one down judgment (the "I know for you,  what you need,  more than you do" principle).  

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Texas and Florida are among the front runners in States who are taking actions that will lead to more deaths of children and more child abuse....suicide among transgender is off the charts high (as it is in lesbian, gay and bisexual) ... child abuse and oppression and  of these same suiciding folks (lgbtq) is correlationally very high too.   

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Lawyers, child welfare professionals, doctors, parents and children themselves have rights, ethics, moral, sexual and social codes...again, just a very little bit of science can help .... to separate the mystical from the biolgical.  Without a bit of common sense, even, people are going to be killed - indirectly suicides will go up is what I mean - by these very kinds of rules.

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Fortunately, I suppose if that's even fair to say,  some folks have the power (and this is key) to resist and withstand a harmful  position - some. But many do not. Many,  especially children, do not have their own voice. Many parents grapple with finding their vouce too ... telling the righteous that maybe it is THEY who are wrong is hard for anybody.   

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So the elite take to the causes of justice - instead of sitting down with the people and having real face to face conversation.  All the while more and more children will be harmed.  These DA's are smart and brave.... but know that they have a lawyers ability to say no.  They have power.   A mandated reporter in Texas and possibly soon in Florida too (their House just passed the "don't say gay" bill) can lose their careers over this stuff.  

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Counselors,  teachers ... these ones are being asked/ordered/mandated maybe to not help those most vulnerable - and those seeking help.  

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And like many in the US who know it as experientially true ... prejudicial stress is a societal trauma ... done to itself by perpetrators and levied upon victims - in the name of the law, or God or ... whatever. 

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But this ... just this ....

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The children.

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~Kurt LaRose