4 ms·

In the same breath, my step-father ended up with a criminal record due to his delusions during a psychotic episode. The problem is the lack of accountability a

In the same breath, my step-father ended up with a criminal record due to his delusions during a psychotic episode. The problem is the lack of accountability and access to solutions within Western countries. IMO, if cannabis can be made so readily available on a legal basis and easily accessible, the treatments for schizophrenia must be too. The risks generally aren't highlighted, only the benefits of cannabis are. The media would have you believe it's a wonder drug with no dangerous side effects. He ended up coming back from Canada where his family live to live in the UK again because he couldn't get access to a specific monthly injection he needed for his schizophrenia. Lived in the street for about two years in Canada, until his delusion led him to commit a crime, and he agreed to stay in a psychiatric hospital for x time. After which, they simply released him into the street again...

pixl97 4y ago
>The problem is the lack of accountability and access to solutions within Western countries. The lack of viable, affordable, healthcare in the US is a tragedy of huge proportions that scales far past just drug abuse itself in to pretty much every part of our lives for the people that live here. The fact so many of us live in fear of losing our jobs because we're at risk of dying if we do is a joke for a country as wealthy as we are.
- hammyhavoc 4y ago
  What has always baffled me is the coupling of health and publicly traded businesses whose goal of record year-on-year profits is in direct conflict with helping as many people as possible. Profiteering from suffering is surreal. As an outsider looking in, whilst the UK's NHS isn't in a good place right now due to mismanagement and underfunding, I can't help but feel that in a land of many billionaires, healthcare should be means-tested in its pricing, or there should be an equivocal for the NHS. This'll be an unpopular take on HN, but what is it going to take? Government intervention? Wealth caps? Heavier taxation over x for the mega wealthy? Heavier pricing for the mega wealthy? If people can accrue billions in personal wealth and sit on it then there's a problem. Access to healthcare shouldn't be limited by money. Society would be more productive if it were well. There would inevitably be less crime too. The UK risks losing the NHS as-is. It's terrifying for most folks. No health insurance required to access it. Sure, you may wait for help, e.g., there's a six months waiting list on entering titration for ADHD meds, but access to the same private healthcare provider is there via the NHS, and the waiting list is generally no different than if someone were to pay for it out of their own pocket other than an additional week or so as part of the "Right To Choose" system to be referred.

pixl97 4y ago

>The problem is the lack of accountability and access to solutions within Western countries. The lack of viable, affordable, healthcare in the US is a tragedy of huge proportions that scales far past just drug abuse itself in to pretty much every part of our lives for the people that live here. The fact so many of us live in fear of losing our jobs because we're at risk of dying if we do is a joke for a country as wealthy as we are.

hammyhavoc 4y ago
What has always baffled me is the coupling of health and publicly traded businesses whose goal of record year-on-year profits is in direct conflict with helping as many people as possible. Profiteering from suffering is surreal. As an outsider looking in, whilst the UK's NHS isn't in a good place right now due to mismanagement and underfunding, I can't help but feel that in a land of many billionaires, healthcare should be means-tested in its pricing, or there should be an equivocal for the NHS. This'll be an unpopular take on HN, but what is it going to take? Government intervention? Wealth caps? Heavier taxation over x for the mega wealthy? Heavier pricing for the mega wealthy? If people can accrue billions in personal wealth and sit on it then there's a problem. Access to healthcare shouldn't be limited by money. Society would be more productive if it were well. There would inevitably be less crime too. The UK risks losing the NHS as-is. It's terrifying for most folks. No health insurance required to access it. Sure, you may wait for help, e.g., there's a six months waiting list on entering titration for ADHD meds, but access to the same private healthcare provider is there via the NHS, and the waiting list is generally no different than if someone were to pay for it out of their own pocket other than an additional week or so as part of the "Right To Choose" system to be referred.