Overview

"When hospitals release seriously mentally ill patients too soon without outpatient follow-up, the patients can end up homeless, jailed, harming others, or even dead. When patients are deemed suitable for inpatient care, they can languish for weeks in hospital emergency departments before placements become available. Meanwhile, patients who fake the need for care are smoothly and swiftly moved to inpatient settings. Breakdown opens a dialogue with anyone interested in improving the system of care for the seriously mentally ill population. This book helps to answer questions such as: Is inpatient care too inaccessible to those who need it most? Do mental health professionals discriminate against mentally ill patients? Are more stringent measures needed to ensure that patients take their medication? Is borderline personality disorder too serious to be classified as just a personality disorder? Using vignettes based on real interactions with patients, their families, police officers, and other mental health providers, Lynn Nanos shares her passion for helping this population. With more than twenty years of professional experience in the mental health field, her deep interest in helping people who don't know how to request help is evident to readers. A woman travels from Maine to Massachusetts because she was ordered by her voice, a spirit called ""Crystal,"" to make the trip. A foul-smelling and oddly dressed man strolls barefooted into the office, unable to stop talking. A man delivers insects to his neighbors' homes to minimize the effects of poisonous toxins that he says exist in their homes. Breakdown uses objective and dramatic accounts from the psychiatric trenches to appeal for simple and common-sense solutions to reform our dysfunctional system. This book will benefit anyone interested in seeing a glimpse of the broken mental health system way beyond the classroom. It can guide legislative officials, family members, mental health professionals, and law enforcement officers toward a better understanding of the system."

Full Product Details

9780692168424

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Reviews

"Lynn Nanos guides readers in Breakdown: A Clinician's Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry through our nation's shameful treatment of Americans with debilitating mental illnesses. Only someone with her in-the-trenches experience can articulate the flaws with such authority. Her dedication to helping throw-away patients trapped on a treadmill of hospitalizations, homelessness and jails is heroic and inspiring.--Pete Earley, Author, Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness Lynn Nanos provides a gritty and extremely candid look at our dysfunctional mental health care system. Her extensive experience in this trying environment provides a view of that world that few ever see. If you've ever wondered ""Why don't we do more for the mentally ill?"" read this book and you'll understand.--Chief Mark K. Leahy (retired), Executive Director, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association In Breakdown, Lynn Nanos draws upon years of clinical experience to expose one of our society's most shameful injustices: the neglect of individuals with serious mental illness. By weaving together her own first-person account with historical, political, and legal background, Nanos issues a clarion call for the construction of adequate mental health services for our most vulnerable citizens.--Dominic Sisti, Ph.D., Director, Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Philosophy, Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Lynn Nanos' book Breakdown is a welcome addition to those that seek to educate the public about America's mental health crisis - one that too many willfully neglect. She offers a valuable perspective from the front lines of a broken treatment system, where psychiatrists and social workers are overwhelmed by people for whom fewer and fewer inpatient treatment beds are available. Many do not even know they are sick and, after being released to the streets, will wind up behind bars. Nanos sees clearly the consequences of failing to treat the most severely ill among us, and she understands why systemic reform is so badly needed, particularly in her state of Massachusetts - one of just three states without an assisted outpatient treatment program - where there is little to prevent the most severely ill from cycling through our emergency rooms, homeless shelters, and jails. ""One tragedy should be enough to sound alarms,"" Nanos writes. Indeed. Yet, human tragedies continue to befall people with serious mental illness and their families at a record clip. I hope that this book will open eyes, ears, and hearts to their suffering, motivating action.--John Snook, J.D., Executive Director, Treatment Advocacy Center Breakdown: A Clinician's Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry is yet another excellent example of our badly broken mental illness treatment system. The author, Lynn Nanos, is a psychiatric social worker within the Massachusetts state system which is one of the worst states. She clearly describes the failures of the system and consequent tragedies for the patients. I recommend her well-written book.--E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., Founder, Treatment Advocacy Center; Associate Director of Research, Stanley Medical Research Institute; Author, American Psychosis: How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System; Author, The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens"

Lynn Nanos guides readers in Breakdown: A Clinician's Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry through our nation's shameful treatment of Americans with debilitating mental illnesses. Only someone with her in-the-trenches experience can articulate the flaws with such authority. Her dedication to helping throw-away patients trapped on a treadmill of hospitalizations, homelessness and jails is heroic and inspiring.--Pete Earley, Author, Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness Lynn Nanos provides a gritty and extremely candid look at our dysfunctional mental health care system. Her extensive experience in this trying environment provides a view of that world that few ever see. If you've ever wondered Why don't we do more for the mentally ill? read this book and you'll understand.--Chief Mark K. Leahy (retired), Executive Director, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association In Breakdown, Lynn Nanos draws upon years of clinical experience to expose one of our society's most shameful injustices: the neglect of individuals with serious mental illness. By weaving together her own first-person account with historical, political, and legal background, Nanos issues a clarion call for the construction of adequate mental health services for our most vulnerable citizens.--Dominic Sisti, Ph.D., Director, Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania; Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Philosophy, Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania Lynn Nanos' book Breakdown is a welcome addition to those that seek to educate the public about America's mental health crisis - one that too many willfully neglect. She offers a valuable perspective from the front lines of a broken treatment system, where psychiatrists and social workers are overwhelmed by people for whom fewer and fewer inpatient treatment beds are available. Many do not even know they are sick and, after being released to the streets, will wind up behind bars. Nanos sees clearly the consequences of failing to treat the most severely ill among us, and she understands why systemic reform is so badly needed, particularly in her state of Massachusetts - one of just three states without an assisted outpatient treatment program - where there is little to prevent the most severely ill from cycling through our emergency rooms, homeless shelters, and jails. One tragedy should be enough to sound alarms, Nanos writes. Indeed. Yet, human tragedies continue to befall people with serious mental illness and their families at a record clip. I hope that this book will open eyes, ears, and hearts to their suffering, motivating action.--John Snook, J.D., Executive Director, Treatment Advocacy Center Breakdown: A Clinician's Experience in a Broken System of Emergency Psychiatry is yet another excellent example of our badly broken mental illness treatment system. The author, Lynn Nanos, is a psychiatric social worker within the Massachusetts state system which is one of the worst states. She clearly describes the failures of the system and consequent tragedies for the patients. I recommend her well-written book.--E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., Founder, Treatment Advocacy Center; Associate Director of Research, Stanley Medical Research Institute; Author, American Psychosis: How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System; Author, The Insanity Offense: How America's Failure to Treat the Seriously Mentally Ill Endangers Its Citizens

Author Information

Lynn Nanos is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker who has a lot of experience as a full-time mobile emergency psychiatric clinician in Massachusetts. After graduating from Columbia University with a Master of Science in Social Work, she worked as an inpatient psychiatric social worker for approximately seven years. She is an active member of the National Shattering Silence Coalition that advocates for the seriously mentally ill population.

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