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The [Thursday] Papers
"Something was wrong with the little girl," NPR Illinois reports.
That was clear by the time she was 10 years old. She raged often and was sometimes sullen. By the time she was 13, she was missing school because her anxiety was so severe. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is marked by periods of depression and irritability interrupted by extreme highs."We used to refer to her as Jekyll and Hyde before actually we had any idea of anything," said the girl's mother, who we are calling Jane because she has asked that we not use her name or her daughter's.
And when the girl was 14, her parents split up and the family's financial situation meant they were reliant on Medicaid for insurance. For Jane, that meant her daughter was on a waiting list for a year.
For the zillionth time: We ration health care in this country - to those who can afford it. And the more you can afford, the better care you get. It's that simple. And that immoral.
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"The only way we did get her to see the doctor . . . we had to hospitalize her and she was the doctor on staff at the hospital. So we kind of got in the back door that way. The caseload is just so high," said Jane, who lives in Lake County. "There's just no doctors, there's no psychiatrists for children that take Medicaid."
I've gone years trying to find a therapist in Chicago who takes Medicaid, and I'm (theoretically) and adult.
But my god . . . children? At least I can self-medicate with Old Style and a well-curated record collection. Straight out heartless.
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"The family is hardly alone. About half the children in Illinois are on Medicaid.
"About 850,000 children will experience mental health conditions across Illinois and its access to care can be extremely challenging. We have a psychiatrist workforce shortage, which is a national, as well as local shortage. And oftentimes, treatment is simply out of reach,'' said Heather O'Donnell, who is senior vice president of advocacy and public policy for Thresholds, a statewide mental health service provider."In Illinois, we have children that are psychiatrically hospitalized, and then they don't have placements. Whether it's for outpatient treatment, or residential treatment, there oftentimes is not the availability of services," she said.
The result is growing suicide rates and increased rates of drug and alcohol abuse. "Often, people turn to drugs and alcohol to self-medicate untreated mental health conditions,'' she said.
Like I said.
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"'The consequences of these conditions are substantial,' said Dr. John Walkup, who is head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.
Walkup said the vast majority of mental health conditions - 75% to 80% - begin prior to age 18. He points to a recent study that showed about 20 percent of Illinois children have an active mental health problem and slightly over half of them have ever been in treatment."So about a half of the young people who have mental health problems in the state of Illinois don't get access to care, and we know that the vast majority of mental health problems have very good treatments."
That's a lot of unaddressed pain out there.
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"Sara Moscato Howe, CEO of the Illinois Association for Behavioral Health, says the mental health services in general have suffered from a lack of funding for many years.
"We can talk about the suicide crisis that's escalating, we could talk about the opioid epidemic - there's all kinds of things we are happy to talk about in a public hearing. When you get behind closed doors, and you develop a budget, your priorities come out. And for the last 10 to 15 years, we have not been a priority in this state,'' she said.
That is the cold, hard truth.
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Where Are The Asian Pols?
"Asians make up about 7% of Chicago's population and 5% of Illinois' population, but they are now the fastest-growing demographic in the city, state and the U.S.," WBEZ reports.
"While more Asian Americans are running for office locally and in the state, the community is still underrepresented on all levels of government. For instance, there are none serving in the Chicago City Council, now that Ameya Pawar, the city's only Asian American alderman, stepped down after eight years leading the 47th Ward."
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Reminder: Our very own Kiljoong Kim wrote There Are No Asian-American Aldermen Here in 2006.
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ChicagoReddit
Is there a Toronto bar in Chicago? from r/chicago
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ChicagoGram
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ChicagoTube
Charles Norman Quintet - Little Joe From Chicago (1952)
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BeachBook
Stuck Inside Of Bakersfield With The Wienermobile Blues Again.
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UIC To Offer In-State Tuition To Students From Any Of The 573 Tribal Nations In The U.S.
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Meet The Security Company Building An International Database Of Banned Bargoers.
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Watchdog Group Sues Walmart For Selling "Nonsense" Homeopathic Remedies.
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New Louisiana Abortion Law Requires Fetuses Be Given Jazz Funeral March Through The French Quarter.
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Illinois Prison Removes More Than 200 Books From Its Library.
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TweetWood
A sampling.
The only thing that would have made Lori Lightfoot better at council yesterday would have been if she said, like David Byrne at the end of Stop Making Sense, "Does anybody have any questions?" and then traipsed off, triumphant.
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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He didn't explain his findings, he repeated them. https://t.co/cmZWhB1te3
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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Both sidesing the shit out of it.
To believe the idea that Trump supporters *sincerely* heard "Case closed" is as naive as believing Mitch McConnell sincerely thought the American people should have "decided" the next SCOTUS judge instead of Barack Obama when he nominated Merrick Garland. My god. pic.twitter.com/qE0B7ewWov
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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Isn't lying a violation of the Navy's honor code? https://t.co/BB91fGGpYf
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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Has Washington read the report? https://t.co/05FS4Vlq8R
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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50 percent of doctors finished in the bottom half of their class.
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
Alternate: Uber Announces Contest To Determine Uber Uber Driver. https://t.co/P1VEluGA4w
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Please don't call articles "jams" either. They are neither "jams" nor "joints." https://t.co/LUcDYw28YN
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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I pored over "Subway Art" back in the day, mesmerized. https://t.co/lNonKxS4Ma
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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Remember, the same media outlets that lionized Rahm Emanuel (and Ricahrd M. Daley, fwiw) and hired Emanuel as a "contributor" are the same media outlets making judgements about the news. Think about that.
— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) May 30, 2019
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The Beachwood McRibTipLine: One side: the truth.
Posted on May 30, 2019
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