California Gov. Newsom: ‘Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing’
Newsom pinpoints origin of mental health related housing problems AND blames liberals along with conservatives.
We have been following the California homelessness crisis, including the ensuing public health issues related to the expanding encampments.
In his recent “State of the State” address, Governor Gavin Newsom addressed the housing crisis and offered doctor’s prescriptions as a potential solution.
“Health care and housing can no longer be divorced. After all, what’s more fundamental to a person’s well-being than a roof over their head?” Newsom said during his speech. “Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin or antibiotics.”
Newsom based his proposal on his claim that “ten million Californians, one in four, suffer from some type of behavioral health condition.”
Newsom reiterated the points in a series of Tweets.
Doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing the same way they do for insulin or antibiotics.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 21, 2020
We need to start targeting social determinants of health. We need to start treating brain health like we do physical health.
What’s more fundamental to a person’s well being than a roof over their head?
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 21, 2020
10 million Californians—1 in 4—suffer from some type of behavioral health condition.
It’s not a narrow issue.
It’s not a new issue.
Physical health and brain health are inextricably linked.
And our healthcare system has been designed to treat only one of those.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 21, 2020
The timing is interesting, inasmuch as President Donald Trump was recently in town to check on the progress of the state’s handling of the homelessness crisis. Newsom listed homelessness as his top priority during the state of the state address.
It would be easy to dismiss or mock this suggestion by Newsom. However, in the address itself, Newsom does actually pinpoint when homelessness began to arise as an issue:
President Kennedy envisioned a system in which, in his words, “the reliance on the cold mercy of custodial isolation will be supplanted by the open warmth of community concern.”
State mental hospitals were closed. But the promise of community mental health was never fully realized.
The states were burdened with the responsibility but provided little in the way of support.
Laws were changed that made it harder to compel mental health treatment. Governor Ronald Reagan signed the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967, designed to end the inappropriate lifetime commitment of people with mental illness.
And critically, in 1975, a U.S. Supreme Court decision, O’Connor v. Donaldson, ruled that “mental illness alone cannot justify a state locking a person up against his will.”
All of these changes, coincided with safety net cuts, block grants, and tightened eligibility standards of the 80’s and 90’s, along with wholesale razing of skid rows and SROs—which for so many was the only housing option.
The cumulative impact made county jails the de facto mental health institutions.
Patients and their families were left with inadequate options to get the mental health care they needed.
Points for Newsom: The first step in finding a solution is identifying the problem. One intriguing passage of the address leads me to suspect that Trump’s “Success Offensive” may be wearing down the #Resisitance.
In a politically polarized world, liberals and conservatives blame one another for these failures.
Historically speaking, both are right.
It’s time to stop pointing fingers and join hands in a transformational solution.
I will point out that just because a doctor writes a prescription doesn’t mean the patient will actually fill it and take it. Real solutions are going to have to address situations where the person who is prescribed housing uses it to ensure public health and safety.
Of course, no progressive solution is complete without throwing a lot of money at it. Newsom has laid out $695 million budget request to go forward with these plans.
And while Newsom may be correct in the foundation of this solution, the phrasing and promotion needs substantially more work going forward.
Doctors… should be able to write prescriptions for housing?!
Ok then, planners should be able to write prescriptions for Oxy
Hey, plumbers should be able to write prescriptions for Ferraris
Maybe teachers should be able to write prescriptions for rainbows
What the fuck https://t.co/FoboX5Uuht
— P.J. Kehres (@PhillenniumLine) February 21, 2020
if doctors should be able to write prescriptions for housing, real estate agents should be able to conduct physical exams for nursing https://t.co/7Iu02szpku
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) February 21, 2020
Wow! I can’t wait to see what the price of a house is after the government creates the need for housing insurance. I just hope he doesn’t think that doctors should be able to write prescriptions for food. It would suck to be homeless and starving at the same time.
— Steve Fusco (@StephenFusco3) February 22, 2020
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Newsom is nuts. Seriously, he is.
A DEM one….
Nuts in his head and none in his……..
The Gub needs to move to Tennessee to work….as a “Farmer.”
‘Despite No Income Tax, Tennessee Is Drowning In A Growing Budget Surplus [BUCK THROCKMORTON]
Tennessee has a budget problem – tax revenue is gushing in ahead of all budget predictions. This is “despite” Tennessee having no state income tax.
January tax collections drive Tennessee budget surplus higher
Another month and more surplus tax money is flooding into Tennessee government coffers — an additional $129.4 million in January, or almost 12% more than anticipated, according to Gov. Bill Lee’s administration.
“During January, total tax collections came to $1.55 billion, due primarily to strong growth in state sales taxes and corporate taxes, according to state Finance Commissioner Stuart McWhorter.
It was “driven by solid performances in retail and manufacturing sales,” McWhorter noted.
Oh, by the way, manufacturing jobs are flooding into the state. This is despite the grave dances performed by Globalist RINOs and Principled Free Traders back when Mr. You-Didn’t-Build-That had his regulators’ feet on the throat of businesses trying to employ deplorable Americans and engage in domestic manufacturing…..”
Lots more good reading on that at:
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=385959
A real Ravin’ Newsance, he is.
So now it’s about doctors? Why not astronauts? Or actors? Anyone but politicians themselves and their insane policies and ideas.
Why not Farmers?????????????????
Lanterman-Petris-Short Act in 1967 and the 1975 O’Connor v. Donaldson are in the “80’s and 90’s” ?
New math ?
DEMS don’t do 3rd grade math……..
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/bernie%2020200224%2001.jpg
East Coasters know mayonnaise to be Hellmann’s. But on the West Coast, the same brand is called Best Foods.
Now you ask what does that have to do with this article? Well it appears that Debbie Washerman Schultz uses Hellman’s on her hair and Newson uses best Foods.
There is only one Mayonnaise that Southern folk use…..Dukes!
Of course Gavin. How is that Perpetual Motion Machine you are working on coming along?
“State mental hospitals were closed. But the promise of community mental health was never fully realized.”
*****
True, but if severely mentally ill people, who make up a sizable portion of the “homeless”, can’t be legally compelled to take anti-psychotic meds how will out-patient clinics help? I remember, years ago, doing clinical rotations at an 8,000 bed Federal Mental Hospital and on a female residential unit, the patients would be typical of the homeless population today. Looking back, I can’t think of one of those women who liked or wanted to take their anti-psychotic meds and today would be happy and crazy living on the streets.
SHV
Please come back to hillaryis44, now the trumpet, you are missed and I know Wobbie and others miss your conversations .
We must open the state institutions again. People who are psychotic are a threat to themselves and others. It was a mistake to close them and many have paid with their lives for that decision.
Today they are either untreated, mistreated or circulate through all the psych facilities in the city till federal money runs and their stay has run out of days or some judge seems fit to let them out on the street again despite a Social Workers best efforts to find ever dwindling housing.
They absolutely will not take their medication orally and often court ordered long acting IM antipsychotics are the only, abiet, temporary solution. Once they are compliant, they are released only to never show up for further out patient treatment again.
It’s an endless cycle that benefits no one.
Ex-Hillary is 44?
Is that ran by a man in Chicago?
Sorry I was thinking of HillBuzz.
According to Newsom “ten million Californians, one in four, suffer from some type of behavioral health condition.” I think the rate is somewhat higher in the California legislature and colleges.
Is he the poster child?
Snark.
No. This jerk is a member of the 4 families that have been running California politics for years, and getting wealthy off it.
Makes sense.
I’m read in the early days of Arkansas state’s history, it was the same. They even called the group, “The Family.”
I’d like to see a breakdown of the homeless numbers, i.e., what percentage of people on the streets are mentally ill, as opposed to drug addicts and drunks (ignoring any overlap). Society may owe “community compassion” to the mentally ill. But we don’t owe drunks and addicts a thin dime.
There’s a difference between a process schizophrenic, whose illness is not his fault, and some drunk twenty-something who ran away from home.
Sidebar: Newsom is a complete ass.
They are all mentally ill. The question is what percentage are organic mental illness vs self-induced mental illness via alcohol/drugs. In my Portland neighborhood I’d say they are about 10%/90% and that the 10% also have a pretty severe drug issue on top of the MI over which they have no control.
An addict gets better when they become sick and tired of being sick and tired. But if you give them food and housing, what exactly is their incentive to change? Politicians believe that homeless addicts think like normal people and will respond accordingly, but the whole point is that they are where they are because they don’t think like normal people. So if one protects them from the consequences of their behavior, then nothing changes.
Local zoning boards won’t approve low income housing being built. That’s an affluent liberal crisis, not a mental health crisis.
HEAR HEAR!!!!!!!!!!!
We need thousands and thousands of articles and reports on that truth.
The DEMS should spend their own Wealth to solve this problem instead of wasting it on others rich DEMS with stunts such as this.
“Bloomberg Prepares to Blitz Bernie…
….More and more democrats are openly criticizing Bernie Sanders directly. ….about ten days to attack Bernie before Super Tuesday …
(DEM owned Media – all of it) carefully crafted and highlighted some of the more severe opinions and beliefs of Bernie…Fidel Castro…
… passive aggression…..
(But still a) direct aim at the front-runner (Bernie) from all directions…..
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/02/24/bloomberg-prepares-to-blitz-bernie/
Local zoning boards won’t approve low income housing being built. That’s an affluent liberal crisis, not a mental health crisis.
Back in the day, crazy people were committed, and they were sent to mental hospitals. Now that is considered cruel, Ca is the perfect example, where they are left to shit and then eventually die on the street. That is considered progressive, or woke, or something. Maybe it is time for the pendulum to swing the other way.
People(some) are not crazy because they are homeless, they are homeless because they are crazy. I think that the sad part is that some mental issues are temporary, and they would have a chance, with treatment.. but,, not in California.
I get Newsome’s point that it’s difficult to treat people with mental conditions or drug addictions if they are homeless. However, he’s assuming that if giving housing they would suddenly become willing and active participants in their treatment is incredibly naive.
There is a subset of the homeless that are there because of economic circumstances. These folks do not suffer from drug addition or a mental condition. Sadly, far too many of these are victims of California’s heavy-handed regulation driving up housing costs and making entry-level jobs harder and harder to find.
“Hmmmm, You’ve a really bad case of personal irresponsibility-itis. It’s gonna take a lot to cure this one. You’re gonna need a really strong Rx. I’m gonna write you an Rx for a four-bedroom home with a pool. And a maid to keep it clean”
I am absolutely in favor of this idea. My mental health would be GREATLY improved by a nice little house on the beach in a Malibu, if my medical insurance is paying for it……
I’d like a prescription for a Gulfstream!
He’s creepy and He’s kooky
Mysterious and spooky
He’s all together ooky
The Gruesom Calamity.
His state is a museum
When people come to see himm
They really are a scream
The Gruesom Calamity.
Effete.
Caprice.
No teeth.
So put a witch’s shawl on
A broomstick you can crawl on
We’re gonna play a call on
The Gruesom Calamity…
Apologies to the Addams Family.
They should also be able to write prescriptions for deregulation and tax cuts.
DOC: “Take 3 Bernie Style Mansions and call me in the morning.”
Bernie calls the giant mansion on the lake a camp. He says it is very common in his state, that people have their regular houses and a camp on the lake. I guess it is common for people in his state, never to have had a job other than government to be millionaires.
…and California elected this man.
Well at least all the dead Dems and illegals…..
Time to start draining our “loco” swamps folks!
Big DC Swamp Critters from Little Loco Swamp Critters Grow!”
Exclusive: Trump’s “Deep State” hit list
The Trump White House and its allies, over the past 18 months, assembled detailed lists of disloyal government officials to oust — and trusted pro-Trump people to replace them — according to more than a dozen sources familiar with the effort who spoke to Axios.
Simpleton
The diagnosis is… he won’t like this: California has dysfunctional laws, regulations, and social standards. The prescription to mitigate its progress is to lose your religion and let the market be your guide.
And then write prescriptions for the lawn to be mowed and the floors vacuumed and dishes to be washed and trash to be taken out and snow shoveled and the utilities paid…
But we don’t need doctors to write those prescriptions, anybody over the age of 18 knows those prescriptions need to be written. Can the doctor order that others pay for and perform all prescribed tasks?
So the solution is to build skid row slum housing and allow SRO housing because for many that is the only options available to them?
So now he wants our medical insurance to also pay for housing? Screw that! God save us from this fool!
So what’s the co-pay on a house?
“State mental hospitals were closed.
—————————
Not true, the governor’s mansion is still standing. Probably has extra rooms that can be prescribed. I’ll bet there is also a lot of space available in those mansions of hollyweird’s stars.
Why I’d bet we could house most of the homeless and the illegal aliens in just those locations above!
He’s just giving a preview of Medicare-for-all, Phase 2. Doctor prescribes you a house — taxpayers must buy you one. Doctor’s orders!
California, your Governor is a fool. Nice job!
Thanks Gruesome… Now, if only Democrats hadn’t gotten rid of the majority of our nation’s long-term psychiatric care facilities…
“It’s time to stop pointing fingers and join hands in a transformational solution” for problems that people just like me created (fixed it for ya’ Gavin).
Does the script say what type of housing? Do they get a mansion on the beach? How would the doctor know if the patient was actually homeless? Should the doctor go make a street visit?
There are two problems here: The first is that there is no definition for “social determinants of health.” Does that mean being happy? Or healthy? Or well-fed? Or in a relationship? Or a pet owner? Or relaxed? Or active? Since there is no way to apply a definition, there’s no target to shoot for. People will simply be given “prescriptions” which are actually never-ending orders to do things. If you don’t follow those orders, you’ll lose your medical coverage. So the whole thing is a communist power grab. They want to tell everybody exactly what to do.
The second problem is that this idea gives way too much credit to doctors. They aren’t healers anymore; they’re money-grubbing hacks, who try to bill your insurance company as much as possible. If you go to see the dermatologist, he’ll send twenty different billing codes to your insurance. So why would you want crooks like that to hand-out “lifestyle prescriptions”? Doctors are completely untrustworthy.
A “prescription” for housing is the argument that the government should decide who lives where. People will no longer be able to choose. And houses won’t be bought and sold anymore; they’ll be assigned, based on political patronage. Just like in Russia.
There’s one more thing that I would like to add: The entire Israeli economy is based on the political patronage system. The whole country is unionized, and union members sell their votes for jobs and apartments. It’s really terrible. If you don’t have the right political connections in Israel, you can’t do anything. That needs to change. The unions need to be disbanded, people who are receiving free apartments need to move out, token government jobs need to be eliminated, and the Russian mafia needs to be sent back to Russia.. Pronto. Israel is poor because it’s a communist country.
Unfortunately the only party serious about fixing this was Zehut, and something happened on the way from the polls giving it 7-14 seats and the election that gave it nothing.