Oh For A Self-Correcting World

Good bye, 2017.  Personally, it was a good year.  Politically, not so much.  Our country has become so alarmingly polarized, and it seems we have so many problems!  Here in Baltimore, things are difficult for so many people: firearm deaths have surged, with 345 deaths this year -- a far higher number than New York City where there are under 300 deaths, even though New York has many times the population that Baltimore has.  Overdose death have surged as well. Crime, poverty, homelessness,--they are all big problems.  The latest tax cuts promise to help corporations, and perhaps they will be good for the overall economy, but I worry about the effect these legislative changes will have on access to health care, and on our country's most vulnerable people.  And even among the "haves," depression and anxiety is rampant, suicide rates are high, substance abuse disables and kills, and we talk about doctor burnout and suicide in a country with physician shortages.  It's all disheartening.I wish innovation were easier.  Our war on drugs has been a failure, and in moments of desperation, all sorts of things get tried.  Then sometimes, the 'solutions' become part of the problem.  For example, Physician Health Programs were an innovation to help struggling docs, and they have been very helpful for many, but there have been reports of abuses, and over on Clinical Psychiatry News, I wrote an article asking if PHPs werediagnosing f...
Source: Shrink Rap - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: blogs