This lawyer's recounting of his excruciating quest to receive mental health treatment shines a bright light on an often-ignored failing of the health care system -- it's inability, or unwillingness, to treat psychological dysfunction as a disease on par with more obviously physical ailments. His stories of consciously seeking head-on collisions while driving and traveling to Home Depot to buy a noose are searing, all the more so because his hell could've been so easily prevented with some decent care. That he finds temporary relief in a move to France, and eventual salvation in a third world health system, is all the more telling. Go read.
(Via Lindsey)
Update: if you're interested in the state of mental health care in this country, take a look at this Kaiser Family Foundation webcast on the subject. In addition to the mental health experts on the panel, notice that the best the Bush administration appointee is willing to say is that the situation is "improving." When department heads can't offer any more ringing endorsement than that, you've got a real problem.
