Jackson Heights Life

Quote

Unfortunately the hard truth is that a person must take control of their own life.
A person must be responsible for their own life.
Help from others doesn't work when the person refuses to help themselves.
That is the difficult fact of living.
No amount of feeling sorry for folks is ever going to change things.
What that does is make the person who feels sorry "virtuous".

sounds like someone who has never dealt with mental illness, or who pretends to not have even a superficial understanding of mental illness.

I am absolutely no expert in mental illness. That's right. Nor do I pretend to be.
But what I could offer someone with mental illness is the advice that they seek professional help. Elmhurst hospital would be my first guess.

Just like I am no expert in people with cancer. I would also advise someone with cancer to seek professional help. Again, Elmhurst Hospital would be where to go, possibly.

I am no expert in alcoholism. But experts in that disease do exist. My advice would be to go to AA. They are the experts in this disease. Definitely not me.

If you are an expert in treating mental illness/alcoholism that is great. You are exactly the type of person they need for advice.

Thankfully, there is professional help for those with disease states. And we are lucky that Captain Flannel is one of those experts.   

Quote

But what I could offer someone with mental illness is the advice that they seek professional help.

Thosee words of someone without a superficial understanding of mental illness. Like read an article from Psychology Today superficial.

That's exactly my point. I am no expert in mental illness. I leave that for the professionals. Thank God you are a professional with expertise.

If the toilet broke, I am also no professional plumber. I would immediately call in an expert.
I am only an expert in my own field. That field is definitely not mental illness.

But what is your point? That amateurs must pretend to be experts in mental illness?
That's what experts are for. To use their expertise in situations where others have none.
 

Quote

That's exactly my point. I am no expert in mental illness.

We all see your point of making people with mental illness less than human.

Quote

But what is your point?

My point is blindly obvious to anyone who has ever dealt with mental illness in some form: people afflicted are often incapable of either seeing that they are mentally ill or able to reach out to get the help they need. I have no doubt you know this. Therefore, it seems quite apparent you are insincere and arguing in bad faith.

Are people with cancer less than human? I also know nothing about how to treat cancer.

When folks are incapable of seeing their illness, then the experts must be called in.  Whether that's cancer or mental illness or psoriasis.

God forbid, that someone might come to me to fix their toilet. Or cure their cancer.

Thankfully EXPERTS exist.

And hopefully those experts are far less cranky than others in this world.

It is all very well to argue about these points in a clean theoretical setting like this forum.

Trying to prove who is the most virtuous.

Meanwhile, the real life issues remain completely undealt with. Until the experts are called in.

While we try to establish who does and doesn't have expertise, let's all do something which I KNOW we are all Grade A, PHD-level experts in...

Using our fingers (and thumbs...and voices) to call and write to the elected officials, 311, and city agencies to ensure that we are being heard, our complaints are being recorded, and hopefully that translates into increased services to the area.

We all agree that the situation is untenable, correct? We need to be a united front now more than ever. There may not be a consensus as to the tone taken towards addressing the problem, but it seems clear that we know what we need to do to get the adequate services for these individuals and resources to the community. I hate to say it but we have to show up. We have to complain like hell and keep following up even if we get no response. 

food for thought indeed: how many crimes could we eliminate if we quarantined heterosexual males?

Sometimes community action works. The man who had set up a makeshift camp on 77th St and 37th Ave. has left. The advice Danny Dromm had given which was to alert city services by calling 311 worked quickly and amazingly well. Apparently this man accepted the offers of help which has addressed at least some of his problems. Jackson Heights is the better for it

What I take from this is that we should report instances of encampments through the 311 mechanisms. This can be an anonymous report or you can give your name. This is a win-win result for Jackson Heights and the men who feel that their only option is to make the streets their home.

Thankfully the EXPERTS came in and dealt with this mentally ill situation. Just saying.

For the record, the gentleman at the center of this conversation has not "left" the area. the cops simply seized his possessions and drove off with them. he has spent the last two days sitting on one bench or another. not sure where he's spending his evenings.

Quote from: E train on July 15, 2021, 11:12:24 PM

Sometimes community action works. The man who had set up a makeshift camp on 77th St and 37th Ave. has left. The advice Danny Dromm had given which was to alert city services by calling 311 worked quickly and amazingly well. Apparently this man accepted the offers of help which has addressed at least some of his problems. Jackson Heights is the better for it

What I take from this is that we should report instances of encampments through the 311 mechanisms. This can be an anonymous report or you can give your name. This is a win-win result for Jackson Heights and the men who feel that their only option is to make the streets their home.

Thankfully the EXPERTS came in and dealt with this mentally ill situation. Just saying.