Hvornår er man for syg til at vide, - hvad man gør ? - Personal Care - http://maxpages.com/bannister/Mentally

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Nogle af de emner der diskuteres mere og mere er mentalt syge på dødsgangen og mennesker som begik forbrydelser mens de stadig var under 17-18 år.

På denne og kommende sider vil vi tage et kig på forholdene og vise dig, hvad det drejer sig om.

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TEXAS: (death penalty implications)

Texas doesn't provide adequate care for children with mental illness,
parents and mental health advocates say, leaving many families desperate
and bankrupt as they try to find help for their children.

Texas ranks 43rd nationally in funding for its mental health system and
many children must do without treatment, the Austin American-Statesman
reported in Sunday's editions.

Parents, running out of options, sometimes file minor charges against
their children so they will go to juvenile jail, making them eligible for
more mental health services. Others give up care of their children to the
state.

More than 655,000 Texas children suffer mental health problems, ranging
from depression to schizophrenia, the newspaper said.

Many need intensive help, services like hospitalization or residential
treatment. In Texas, only the bare necessities of medicine, therapy and
some training are offered, and can take weeks to receive.

"I call it `Solomon's choice,'" said Deborah Bradley Berndt, children's
services director for the state Department of Mental Health and Mental
Retardation. "Do you spend $50,000 to give 1 kid 6 to 9 months in
residential care? Or do you use that money to serve 30 kids in the
community?"

Many mentally ill children end up in the state juvenile prison system.
Of the 5,524 children in the Texas Youth Commission system in August 1999,
42 % were diagnosed with high mental health needs, the newspaper said.

After years of trying to control her son's tantrums, Austin resident
Mattie Dixon let police take 11-year-old David to juvenile jail last
year.

"There is no help," Dixon said. "I didn't know what else to do."

Hospitalization isn't always an option, since 25 % of the state's
mental hospital beds, about 900, have been cut since 1992. In addition,
many private psychiatric hospitals are closing because of financial
problems, said Amanda Engler, spokeswoman for Texas Hospital Association.
In 1998, Texas had 47 private psychiatric hospitals. Today, there are 34.
Parents must often battle insurance companies to reimburse them for
private care, said Melanie Gantt, director of public policy for the
Mental Health Association in Texas.

Austin residents Sherri Gothart-Barron and her husband, Kevin, looked for
years for help for their son, Chance, who has a disorder in the part of
his brain that controls emotions, resulting in outbursts of rage. At 3,
when he violently fought being taken to school day after day, his mother
asked Chance what he wanted her to do.

"I want you to take me where I can be by myself and die," he answered
without hesitation.

He celebrated his 6th birthday at the Austin State Hospital. By the
time he was 8, he was a regular at psychiatric hospitals, and had been
kicked out of 10 daycare centers.

His parents were financially ruined. They had defaulted on a $16,000 car
loan and $4,500 in credit card bills. They decided to give their son to
the state, making him eligible for federal money for long-term treatment.
But a social worker told his parents that if they gave him up, they would
be labeled as bad parents by the state and risk losing custody of their
baby, Cheyenne.

Some states are seeking more money to help children like Chance. Others
have developed community programs to help the entire family. In some
cities, agencies pool money to address children's mental health needs.

Texas has not come up with funding or innovative programs for mentally
ill children, said Christine Siegfried, senior director of justice
programs for the National Mental Health Association.

Do other states have mentally ill children? Yes," she said. "Do other
states have mentally ill children in detention centers? Yes. Have other
states stepped up to the plate to answer these problems? Yes. ... But
there is a lack of political will to invest in children in Texas."

--=

On The Net:

Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health:
www.ffcmh.org/enghome.htm

Texas Youth Commission's programs for mentally ill children:
www.tyc.state.tx.us/programs/index.html.

State services for families and children with mental illness from the
Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation:
www.mhmr.state.tx.us.

(source: Associated Press)

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Nej, bøddelen kender ingen nåde, slet ikke et år hvor der er valgkamp til præsident,
syg eller ej....ikke straf, men koldblodig, beregnet hævn; så enkelt er det sagt!

Oct. 6

TENNESSEE:

The Tennessee Supreme Court set a new execution date yesterday for
death row inmate Philip Workman -- Jan. 31, 2001.

The order follows Monday's refusal by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals to reconsider its Sept. 5 decision that denied Workman a hearing
on recently discovered evidence that, his lawyers say, shows he did not
fire the shot that killed a Memphis policeman in 1981.

Workman, 46, now is scheduled to become the 2nd Tennessee inmate executed
under the state's current death penalty law. The state had not executed
anyone for almost 40 years before Robert Glen Coe was put to death by
lethal injection on April 19.

One of Workman's lawyers, Chris Minton, declined to comment yesterday on
what legal action he will take next.

Workman could try to pursue further appeals in either the state or
federal court system, or he could ask Gov. Don Sundquist to commute his
death sentence to life imprisonment.

Workman came within 2 days of being executed in April, when the 6th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed an earlier execution date set by the
state Supreme Court. The federal appeals court gave Workman's lawyers
time to present their argument on new evidence.

But the court split 7-7 on whether to order a federal trial judge in
Memphis to hold a full hearing on the evidence submitted by Workman's
lawyers, meaning the request was denied.

State Supreme Court Justice Adolpho A. Birch issued a separate opinion
yesterday in which he restated his belief, expressed when the Supreme
Court set Workman's earlier execution date, that the court should
recommend that the governor commute Workman's death sentence "to life
imprisonment, either with or without parole."

Workman was sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of Memphis police
Lt. Ronald Oliver outside a fast-food restaurant that Workman, who was
then a cocaine addict, has admitted robbing.

(source: The Tennessean)

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Reiner Stensgaard Goldau
Ydbyvej 184
DK	7760	Hurup Thy
Denmark
+45-97-407628
goldau@adslhome.dk

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