Healthcare/mental illness -a global issue!!

Gunman Was Once ‘Revered’ on Campus












How many school shootings, actors going to rehab , people dying from prescription drugs and general rebellion & chaos amongst many of our young people have to occur before we realize that we are in a crisis . One that is a global crisis, where the healthcare system is based first on how much money you have rather than the Hippocratic oath, where there is no real governance over the assurances of the Hippocratic oath , No real laws on the books being upheld to grant & take care of the rights of family to have the ultimate ability & say without stigma, to easily & lovingly handle the needs of the family. We are not taking care of our mentally ill children or the adults. The continual drugging of our young people under the auspices of prescription/legal drugs that are administered to keep them in line, to keep their demons down & to help their brains function properly etc. , has turned into out of control dependency & the battle thereafter to go back to "feeling like yourself again".

It turns into a rejection of drugs & those things who they feel is holding them from feeling like themselves again. It's a battle of mind & body & when the body wins, it lets go & unleashes the manic where it feels no pain. Some maybe able to come out and deal with the mind, but many are not able to find the ability to find that balance or to go back. The battle is there on the smallest of levels with my grandmother just feeling out of control & wanting to feel like herself again, by not taking the medications that were all for non- mental conditions, just elderly ailments. The feeling of not feeling like herself & not having any control of it was taking her into a craze, but then there is the level of someone who is bi-polar, wanting to feel like themselves again & not having the capability to fully balance & control both mind & body, which can turn into disastrous results like the school shootings & many mentally ill people who seem to be lashing out lately -according to news reports. How many more before we do something about it! It is a public health issue that will effect all of us -one way or the other.

While in Ghana my grandmother was going thru a hard time healthwise & was feeling weak & "unlike herself" as she told me. She prayed to God & asked him to bring her out of this period & told me it's all in God's hands. She did not want to take anymore of the countless medications being administered to her, by a young caretaker who knew nothing about what she was giving to my grandmother outside of the instructions on the bottle on how many pills to administer. I looked at the bottles & tried to figure out what was what , what ailment each pill was to cure or ease etc. I, as a college grad could not figure it out , but there was also no real explanation outside of the instructions on how MANY pills to administer. My aunts & mother in the States ended up intervening, in order to take my grandmother to a private doctor. The private doctor was a lot more expensive, but took the time to check her thoroughly & realized that she was taking about 4-6 medications too many for ailments she no longer suffered from & it was now causing her deterioration. All of these prescriptions were prescribed by doctors at the public hospital that takes her health insurance.

My grandmother immediately left the private doctor's office with a new attitude & automatically felt better because of the type of care she received & the doctor interacting with her & making sure he knew of any pains , illnesses & feelings that she wanted to express. Doctors are not gods & none of them are fool proof, but the one thing that is full proof is the desire to do good, truly abiding by the Hippocratic oath & having a good bed side manner , which is just based on basic human interaction & allowing your patients to be part of the process & to be listened to & heard.

My Grandmother's own body told her that she was "Not herself" & was finally rejecting the drugs in a way that she had to listen. This time it was not just the basic not wanting to take the pills because she didn't like it or was making her feel weak type of rejection. This time it felt very different & she no longer wanted to take the pills because it was too much for her & she ended up being right!

It's unfortunate that money determines what level of care one receives or if they receive any at all, world wide. People are battling the overdosing of prescriptions & taking people outside of themselves. In Ghana there is still a system of local herbal remedies that do work & have been the solution for many. A proper, thoughtful balance with both traditional ( being the one of traditions, no experiment here, many centuries of practice, long before so called traditional medicine as we know it existed) and Experimental ( being the one which we see as traditional in modern times). Prescription drugs & prescribing many of them at once is experimental because you are mixing up chemicals that have not been pre-mixed & tested in a lab together, while with natural remedies -it is of nature in its purest form without any chemicals unless it has been added by people. It is already clear in its formation & growth what natural herbs do & do not mix together naturally. The balance of these worlds with people truly dedicated to taking care of the people's health is what I truly hope can occur, but it takes individuals to see past self & monetary gain to be able to really see "the human being -just like you"!

We really need to start caring about one another & ourselves because it is destroying us. I came back to find out many more celebrities are in rehab, more school shootings, more diagnoses of mental illness, more campaign talk on the need for proper healthcare without any concrete easily implemental plans that can occur as we speak, instead of waiting until after the election year. Sometimes government seems to think its job is to campaign instead of the actual job of governance. I came back to hear more of the same reporting & no real action taken by government, the people, healthcare unions, systems, workers, etc.

We have been trapped with the greed & why bother to fight the system type of attitude amongst our collective healthcare systems, along with the greed of pharmaceuticals putting out drugs like a fashion house puts out a new collection every season. Having to be sexier, hotter , more powerful, bold & exciting than last season, in order to sell. Unfortunately people's lives & the amount of prescription drugs being pushed & administered has more lethal consequences than how many layers of clothing & labels you choose to put on your body in a given day!

There's a whole lot of money everywhere in the world right now because of countless resources that are indegenous to each place in the world & the collective need for these resources. We should all be able benefit in it's fruits! MTN spent millions on hosting the Africa Cup of Nations, while half of the money could have gone to countless people in need of healthcare & health insurance . Look at a Black Star player like Stephen Appiah providing basic health insurance for his town in Ghana. Individuals can make a diffrence & sometimes it takes individuals make sure government is taking care of it's people without the excuses on how things take time & the impossibilities rather than getting rid of the red tape & just doing it -just as an individual like Appiah was able to do. Look at the billions of advertising dollars spent on sports events & every type of event. a 1/4 of some of these budgets could fund a lot that ails us a s a country & global community. We all have a collective responsibility. Let's take care of the basic needs of the people as coperations , individuals & governments, so we can all be at ease with fruits of profit! Sometimes it is the responsibility of the people to show government that it can be done & that the excuses are no longer palatable when individuals have taken it into their own hands & made it work.

The future to me looks bright because while there's suffering, there is also greatness occurring thru out the world. We have to fix the basics & get back to being Human Beings instead of robots!




The Oath Hippocrates
Hippocrates was a Greek physician born in 460 BC on the island of Cos, Greece. He became known as the founder of medicine and was regarded as the greatest physician of his time. He based his medical practice on observations and on the study of the human body. He held the belief that illness had a physical and a rational explanation. He rejected the views of his time that considered illness to be caused by superstitions and by possession of evil spirits and disfavor of the gods.
Hippocrates held the belief that the body must be treated as a whole and not just a series of parts. He accurately described disease symptoms and was the first physician to accurately describe the symptoms of pneumonia, as well as epilepsy in children. He believed in the natural healing process of rest, a good diet, fresh air and cleanliness. He noted that there were individual differences in the severity of disease symptoms and that some individuals were better able to cope with their disease and illness than others. He was also the first physician that held the belief that thoughts, ideas, and feelings come from the brain and not the heart as others of him time believed.
Hippocrates traveled throughout Greece practicing his medicine. He founded a medical school on the island of Cos, Greece and began teaching his ideas. He soon developed an Oath of Medical Ethics for physicians to follow. This Oath is taken by physicians today as they begin their medical practice. He died in 377 BC. Today Hippocrates is known as the "Father of Medicine"

The Oath By Hippocrates Written 400 B.C.E

I SWEAR by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation- to reckon him who taught me this Art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work. Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption; and, further from the seduction of females or males, of freemen and slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional practice or not, in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this Oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse be my lot!
THE END