I got up this morning, made my coffee, massaged my old dog’s hips and got the newspaper. On the front page was a story about a team of nurses who had been specially trained to provide immediate medical care to rape victims and collect evidence. It’s a great program and desperately needed. Often the victims are taken to a special exam facility near the hospital so the victims don’t have to wait hours in an emergency room.

The special exam facility opened in 2011. It is lovely and now with specially trained nurses, victims can be assured of getting compassionate care in a comfortable, private setting. There is only one problem: the facility is located in a fairly affluent area west of the city. So, how are the victims’ loved ones supposed to get to the exam facility if they don’t have cars? How are the victims – who been given a ride to the facility by police or paramedics supposed to get home?

It’s a helluva long bus ride to get out there.

Part of my job as a newspaper reporter is to analyze crime data and I know that there are very few sexual assaults in the community near the exam facility. Most rapes occur in urban areas miles away. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to build a special exam facility near a hospital that is closer to the communities where rapes occur?

I asked this question at a meeting of a women’s group that a friend had invited me to. The meeting fell silent and the women looked at each other, surprised. They hadn’t thought of that.

What does any of this have to do with mental illness?

Well, in the aftermath of the Newtown shooting it looks like lawmakers have finally decided to free up some money to beef up and build more mental health facilities. Amen. But before we start spending and building, let’s take a really good look at those we need to help and their caregivers and loved ones. We cannot assume that everyone has a car and can drive themselves to a mental health facility.

Transportation is a really big issue for people with mental illnesses. For many, their mental illnesses are so debilitating that they cannot work or have lost their jobs and cars. We can build the best mental health facilities in the world but if people with mental illnesses and their families/caregivers and loved ones cannot get there – what’s the point?

We need to work with public transportation agencies to make sure people can get there. We need to make sure people know – and make it easy to know – which bus routes will take them to the facility. We need to make sure they have the money to get to and from mental health facilities. What good is it to offer free or discounted medications if we people can’t get there?

We need to ask ourselves, what are the hours of service and how often do buses stop at community mental health centers that offer drop-in respite, recreational and vocational programs? We need to make sure the bus shelters are protected from the elements. We need to speak with clients about their needs. Perhaps most important, we should get input from the workers and volunteers on the front lines. How would they improve services. What needs and waste do they see?

It took the horrific deaths of 26 children and teachers to convince lawmakers we need to spend more money on programs and services for people with mental illnesses. Let’s use common sense. Let’s squeeze the most out of single every penny allocated for mental health care.

I lost faith in politicians in the late 1980′s.

I was a cub reporter and my editors decided to send me to Tallahassee to cover the legislative session. I looked a little different then. Actually, I looked a lot different: thin, long blonde hair and great legs. I was shocked at how the lawmakers looked at me and invited me out for cocktails.

It felt like a bunch of middle-aged white guys had been dropped off at summer camp and had morphed into horny, junior high nimwits. They would get what they wanted by bullying, belittling and extorting whoever and whatever was in their way. I remember thinking, “Wow, these are the people running the state of Florida. ”

I was reminded of my spring at the capitol yesterday when a friend sent me a link to the Mother Jones story about Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and his aides discussing ways to undermine McConnell’s potential opponents, including actor Ashley Judd. According to the article:

The aide who led the meeting began his presentation with a touch of glee: “I refer to [Judd] as sort of the oppo research situation where there’s a haystack of needles, just because truly, there’s such a wealth of material.” He ran through the obvious: Judd was a prominent supporter of President Barack Obama, Obamacare, abortion rights, gay marriage, and climate change action. He pointed out that she is “anti-coal.”

 But the McConnell gang explored going far beyond Judd’s politics and policy preferences. This included her mental health. The meeting leader noted:

 She’s clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. I mean it’s been documented. Jesse can go in chapter and verse from her autobiography about, you know, she’s suffered some suicidal tendencies. She was hospitalized for 42 days when she had a mental breakdown in the ’90s.

In her 2011 memoirs, All That Is Bitter & Sweet, Judd discusses her depression, her thoughts of suicide as a sixth grader and her stay in a rehab center for depression. There is a lot of laughing by the aides, who go on to poke fun at her thoughts on religion, gay marriage and abortion rights. I shouldn’t be surprised by any of this. I learned my lesson back in the 80′s. I know both Republicans and Democrats do this. (I am not affiliated with any party.)

Still, as a woman who has had bouts of depression, suicidal thoughts (and attempts) and a stint in rehab for depression – it hurts. Even though it has been years since my last major depression and I have worked very hard to manage my mental health (I take my medication without fail, participated in years of therapy and have been sober for nearly 15 years) I realize there are some things I will not be able to do without having my mental health thrown in my face as proof that I am not fit for many of society’s positions.

Forget about the marathons and triathlons I have run, the journalism awards I have won, the hurricanes I have survived, the boo-boos I have kissed and my 195 lbs. deadlift – in certain circumstances my mental health would trump them all. To Sen. Mitch McConnell and his aides I would be a divorced, mentally ill, alcoholic single mother who must take medications to maintain her mental health.

Stigma. Ugly stigma.

But my favorite part of this story is McConnell’s response to the secret tape. Three times at a press conference yesterday, McConnell was asked about the comments made by his staffers about Judd’s mental health. Three times McConnell denied answering the question.

Instead, he offered a response that sounds like it came straight from the mouth of his spin doctors: “As you know, my wife’s ethnicity was attacked by a left-wing group in Kentucky and apparently they also bugged my headquarters. (McConnell’s wife is former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.) So, I think that pretty well sums up the way the political left is operating in Kentucky.”

What does that have to do with questioning Judd’s mental health? Nothing. Of course McConnell failed to mention that Judd responded to Progress Kentucky’s tweet about Chao by tweeting back: “Whatever the intention, whatever the venue, whomever the person, attacks or comments on anyone’s ethnicity are wrong & patently unacceptable.”

I don’t know the status of Judd’s mental health. It’s moot now because Judd has decided not to run. I also don’t know whether McConnell is morally fit to hold office when he allows his staff to entertain the idea of using someone’s mental health against them.  Instead of stepping up to the plate and making a benign statement, such as depression is a horrible and potentially debilitating illness and how we, as a society, need to do something about it, McConnell’s re-election campaign has asked the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate how Mother Jones obtained the recording of the strategy session.

McConnell’s behavior reminds me of a second-grader trying to explain to the teacher why he said something nasty on the playground about a classmate. “Oh yeah? Well, you should have hear what those guys said about my mom last week!”

None of this is going to get us any closer to eliminating the stigma surrounding depression or formulating a comprehensive national policy on how we are going to deal with depression – the #1 one workplace disability in the U.S.

Unfortunately, we – the people – cannot respond by making McConnell and his staffers write on the board 100 times: “I will not make fun of mental illness.” It’s too bad because with the way they are behaving, it might be the only thing that works.

Politician photo available from Shutterstock

Seems like every state has some kind of bill pending that would limit or prohibit ownership of a firearm by a person who has a mental illness.

I looked at Florida’s bill last night and did a Homer Simpson “D’oh” after reading it. You know legislation is messed up when it contains phrases like, “as provided in sub-sub-subparagraph b.(II).” What?

The Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee unanimously approved the NRA-backed measure on Monday. I expect it will move up the food chain fairly quickly and by summer, it will be law.

As someone who has depression, hypomania, alcoholism, a couple of suicide attempts and 12 years of sitting in courtrooms covering humanity’s inhumanity as a reporter for the local newspaper, I would like to weigh in on this bill; It is a subterfuge deliberately created with so many bureaucratic obstacles and constitutional pitfalls that it is destined to fail even if it passes.

The bill (HB 1355) would expand the definition of commitment to a mental institution to include those who voluntarily agree to outpatient or inpatient treatment and would prohibit them from buying guns, applying for or keeping a concealed weapons permit.

Sounds like an admirable thing to do. While the current focus of such laws is to protect us from homicidal, mentally ill “lunatics” (a Wayne LaPierre word – not mine), it will more likely save more lives by preventing suicide, which is far more common among people with mental illnesses than homicide.

The bill requires a “preventative assessment” that enables the state to suspend a person’s right to purchase or possess a gun or ammunition and obtain a concealed weapons permit for at least 90 days after a physician determines they are a threat to themselves or others.

Hurdle #1: The bill requires a physician to notify the Florida Department of Law Enforcement within 24 hours of such a finding. Do you have any idea how many suicidal people end up in emergency rooms having their stomachs pumped after botched suicide attempts? Then there are self-inflicted gunshot wound and wrist slashings.

What about alcohol poisoning and unintended overdoses? These people are clearly a danger to themselves and possibly others. Do these people lose their ability to purchase, possess, “or to have in his or her care, custody or control a firearm or ammunition, or to carry a concealed weapon for at least 90 days?”  Does this mean emergency room physicians must do a preventative assessment on these patients and fill out the paperwork  and submit it to the FDLE within 24 hours of the patient coming into the ER?

Hurdle #2: How are we going to make sure that a person who was court-ordered to a 30-day drug treatment program won’t be released and go home to their guns and ammunition? Are we going to expect them to surrender their weapons and ammo or are we going to have an official go to the house and remove them? You think the NRA is going to stand for that? And who gets custody of those weapons and ammunition for the remainder of those 90 days or as long as it takes for the person with a “firearm disability” to get well and petition the court to get their firearms back?

If you want objective understanding of what this bill will do, look at the “Government Sector Analysis” done by the Senate staff. Because the bill requires the state to issue a 90-day-suspension of a concealed-weapons permit upon a finding of a “firearm disability,” “an indeterminate number of suspensions would result.”

Hurdle #3: Florida has issued more than 1 million concealed weapons permits and the way the proposed bill is worded, a gun owner could lose their concealed weapons permit because of what is said during a counseling session. The agency that issues concealed-weapons permits ” would have to track any licensee whose license was suspended pursuant to the bill as the (agency) would be required to automatically reinstate the license after 90 days,” if the “firearm disability” is not renewed by the physician.

“If only one percent of the current one million concealed-weapon licensees were to be the subject of a preventative assessment, more than 10,000 concealed-weapons licensees would require immediate suspension, to be followed 90 days later by either an immediate reinstate or suspension extension,” the staff wrote. Depending on the number of suspensions, “the bill may significantly affect the timeliness of other suspensions, revocations, and reinstatements that the division’s legal section currently handles.”

Hurdle #4: The portion of the bill that I believe could give the NRA heartburn is the process by which a person who has lost their gun ownership/possession rights because of a  “firearm disability” can get those rights back. That person must file a petition with the court. The petition then goes to the state attorney. If the state attorney objects, a hearing is held.

The state attorney and the “firearm disabled” person can subpoena witnesses to testify, present evidence and cross-examine witnesses. The hearing must be recorded and the judge must issue a written order. If the judge denies the request, the person with the “firearm disability” can appeal to a higher court. Do you have any idea how much that will cost? It’s easier – and cheaper – for a felon to get their gun rights restored. Do you thing the NRA is going to sit still for this?

Consider this: In Florida, state attorneys and judges are elected. That means they must campaign. Imagine their chance of re-election if they allow the gun rights of a “firearm disabled” person to be restored and then that person goes out and kills himself or someone else.

I am not against restricting the access and ownership of guns of certain people with mental illnesses. It would prevent many deaths – especially suicides. I am just not sure this bill is the best way to do it. It has been thought through by lawmakers who are responding to public outcry after the Newtown massacre.

I do not have a solution. I do have a suggestion. Invite representatives from organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, emergency room doctors, clerks of court, licensing agencies, the judiciary, state attorneys, community mental health centers, law enforcement, correctional facilities, mentally health organizations and, yes, even the NRA to come together and share their concerns. Hold a hearing. Convene a blue-ribbon panel. Whatever it takes.

More importantly, ask them for recommendations. They are on the front lines. They need to be involved in drafting new laws.

Gun law image available from Shutterstock

I started drinking and drugging when I was 14-years-old. I eased into it. I didn’t drink or use drugs everyday and it would take decades before I was. But it definitely started when I was 14. I was a freshman and I did it more to impress the 16-year-old junior I had a crush on that because I wanted to get high.

But as the years went by, I realized that despite the horrific hangovers and drama that followed my drinking bouts – many of them that ended in a blackout – I discovered that for a little while – maybe just a few hours – drinking made me feel good. I did not know that alcohol was a depressant and was making my depression and mania worse. All I knew was that a drink or a joint took away the darkness for awhile.

That is how self-medicating begins. And it will always – ALWAYS – end badly. It did for me.

I am telling you this because we need to screen our youth – all of them – for mental illness and we need to do it in school. Why? Because maybe it would have helped a kid like me. Back in the 1970′s we didn’t know a lot about mental illness, especially in kids. We do now. And we are ignoring the greatest asset we have – teachers – in helping our kids.

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ALS seems to have withered all the muscles in Susan’s body except her smile muscles. She smiles and smiles and smiles even though her husband, John, had to hold the ink pad and help her roll her inked thumb on the title page of her new book, Until I Say Goodbye, at a book signing last Saturday.

Susan, our colleague at The Palm Beach Post, is dying. For several years we knew something was wrong but Susan said nothing. I remember CNN interviewing her in the newsroom and listening to her answering questions so slowly – each word deliberately spoken with such difficulty. “Is Susan okay?” we asked over and over. No one knew anything, which was odd because reporters are magnificent gossips.  We are paid and trained to pay attention to the smallest detail and listen to every conversation within earshot. We can read upside down.

There was no goodbye party for Susan. One day she left and never came back. We didn’t gather in the newsroom at 3 pm on a Friday, listen to her editors tell irreverent stories about her career and then eat crappy cake with waxy frosting from the cafeteria. Nope. She was just gone – her cubicle empty but filled with  mounds of files and paperwork acquired -in Susan’s case – over a decade of sitting in courtrooms and covering a relentless stream of human depravity and sorrow.

She did it so well. Always in high-heels. Always in sleek, stylish fashion.

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Next to gun control, the new “it” cause is mental health care. There have been dozens of bills introduced in state legislatures and in Washington aimed at helping people with mental illnesses – especially adults.

News reports are chock full of stories about the lack of treatment for people with mental illnesses and the horrific consequences. There are tales of severe budget cuts, increases in homelessness and research programs eliminated.

Well, I don’t want to sound like a smarty pants, but I’m here to tell you I can solve most of these problems. The programs we need to care, medicate and conduct research are already in place – or were until some ignorant lawmakers decided to eliminate them by eviscerating their budgets. We just need to fund these programs – FULLY fund these programs.

People who work in mental health don’t do it for the money or the benefits. No one gets rich working in mental health care – except pharmaceutical companies. The armies of nurse practitioners, therapists, psychologists and staff at community mental health centers do it because it is a calling. They are devoted to their work and their patients. They take a lot of abuse, not only from people with mental illnesses but also lawmakers with out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentalities.

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For those of us with depression, opposites do not attract.

We are not drawn to happy, upbeat, positive people and they are not drawn to us. In fact, we repel those who dare crack a smile at us. Occasionally a happy person tries to help us but inevitably we push them away. I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to hang around someone with depression. I don’t even want to hang around myself when I’m depressed.

In fact, happy, upbeat people are really annoying when you have depression. “Can’t you see how much pain I am in? Don’t you realize that I have no interest in you? Would you please just get your happy ass out of here?”

But years of therapy, sobriety and watching Forrest Gump a few dozen times has taught me that just as “stupid is as stupid does” -  “happy is as happy does.” In other words, happiness is not going to come knock me upside the head. I have to do the work. I have to seek it out and that means seeking out people who have the kind of happiness I want.

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Last week my employer held an “Innovation Retreat” to help us become more creative. They taught us how to do something called “Design Thinking.” It started with us ripping up our business cards and throwing them up in the air. Then we were allowed to shoot styrofoam finger rockets at the boss.

They divided us into teams and gave us an assignment – a problem to solve – and told us the steps we should use to come up with ideas and channel our creativity. We used poster boards, pipe cleaners,  magic markers and smiley face stickers to create our project. At one point, I got a couple of steps ahead of the “design thinking” process and was told to go back.

We watched some videos and learned about IDEO, the design firm and Stanford’s d Center -the epicenters of design thinking. I have no doubt that for many businesses and people, design thinking is a great way to solve problems. However, it totally torqued my creative process.

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I find it really ironic that we’re being forced to look at the consequences of the horrendous lack of care and compassion we have shown the mentally ill while  many lawmakers and the “53 percent” are simultaneously doing their damnedest to cut what they call “entitlement” programs.

Have we really sunk so low as a society that it takes the death of twenty little kids and the six adults who tried to protect them for us to look at how lwe have ignored, shunned and stigmatize those who roam the streets mumbling to themselves, sleep in urine stained stairwells littered with empty bottles or carry a cardboard sign asking for food?

Let’s collectively admit we are hypocrites and bigots. Let’s stop going to church on Sunday and professing to love Jesus and all he stood for and then turn on Fox television and cheer for the lawmakers who want to cut what they call “entitlement” programs for these lazy addicts, alcoholics and mentally who we believe have chosen to spit on our American work ethic.

Do you really believe that when these people were kids they said, “When I grow up, I want to be a junkie with rotting teeth” or “I want to hear voices that scare me,” or  “I want to be a mass murderer?”

No, they didn’t say that. That is not what they wanted. And the only way we’re going to get to a point where we are willing to give a penny of our hard-earned money to care for and about the mentally ill is if we get over our self-righteous indignation, admit we have not “loved our neighbor as ourselves” and that we have judged – oh boy have we judged – while professing  to live a judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged lifestyle.

Food stamps, residential treatment, free and low-cost food, housing, therapy, prescriptions – you’re going to have to get used to paying for these things for people you don’t like. Get over it, accept it and make the best of it. Or, you can keep on painting everyone who gets government assistance as inferior, bad human beings who don’t deserve what you call a “free ride.”

Let’s be honest. We really don’t know how many people getting government assistance are gaming the system. We also don’t know how many of them have an untreated mental illness, such as alcoholism. (Yes, alcoholism is a mental illness). We have a choice. We can continue to do a half-assed job of taking care of people – especially adults with mental illnesses – and continue down the road we are on or we can change.

Change is not only going to take a monumental shift in our feelings and behavior toward people with mental illnesses, it’s going to cost money. A lot of money and you and I are going to have to foot the bill. There will be money wasted. People will game the system. But people are gaming the system now and we are already wasting billions of dollars warehousing the mentally ill in prisons and to refusing to pay for their medications, housing and food and care.

Look where that has gotten us. We cannot keep doing the same things and expect different results. We are going to have to suck it up, open our pockets and hearts and do it. If we fail, we try something else. We pay for programs and research until we find what works. That’s the way we do things in this country. We don’t give up.

Depressed man in stairwell photo available from Shutterstock