Bipolar disorder

...ba href=/bipolar disorder/a/b, my family was shocked to discover his health insurance had little or no coverage for his mental illness.

This seemed so unfair, and we couldn't understand why." So writes Beth from Seattle.

While we have changed the names, Beth's story is real.

Her family learned the hard way that all health insurance plans in Washington state discriminate against the mentally ill.

If Dave had needed knee surgery, almost every bill would have been covered by his family's health insurance.

Because of Dave's limited mental health benefits, Beth's family now struggles with finances.

Mental illnesses are very common.

They strike one in five Americans every year.

According to the World Health Organization, mental illness tops all other diseases as a cause of disability in the United States.

There is some good news: Mental illnesses are as treatable as physical illnesses.

Most mental illnesses improve with treatment, and early intervention yields the best results.

Appropriate mental health treatment reduces the need for costly medical treatments, such as hospital and emergency room services.

Mental health treatment also improves health outcomes for people with heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Now we have reason to celebrate.

After eight years of hard work, a landmark mental health parity law was enacted last year in Washington state - a major step in ending insurance discrimination against the mentally ill.

"Mental health parity" means mental health services are covered by ...

...ba href=/bipolar disorder/a/b and at the time of the incident was mentally incapable of knowing what she was doing was wrong.Marion County Circuit Judge Jack Singbush found her not guilty by reason of insanity."This lady apparently had been very conservative sexually .

.

.

She had a manic depressive episode.

It was very mechanical.

She thought she had to save the world," Singbush said on Thursday, recalling the case as he looked through the court file.

"This was a very bizarre case, very unique."I don't think this was a pedophile case.

This lady was just insane."Oatman had adopted the teen because he was an illegal immigrant and she wanted him to have scholarship opportunities.No one will ever know what kind of testimony Lafave's attorney John Fitzgibbons planned to use at trial or whether he could have convinced a jury that the Tampa middle school teacher was insane.

In November, she pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery and was sentenced to three years house arrest and seven years probation.But one thing is clear, according to a Stetson University College of Law Professor: The insanity defense is rarely used at trial, and with good reason."The public has the impression that the insanity defense gets used a lot," said Robert Batey, who has been teaching criminal law for over 30 years.

"It rarely gets used and when it's contested it rarely wins," he said."A lot of attorneys call this the 'plea of last resort,'" Batey said, adding that most times lawyers are looking f...

...ba href=/bipolar disorder/a/b and just spent six weeks in a concrete cell at Risdon Prison's old hospital ward.

He was freed 10 days ago when a magistrate found him not guilty of breaching a restraining order on the grounds of insanity.

But not before he had his Centrelink pension stopped, lost his home of four years and racked up un-paid bills and $200 of bank default fines.

Yesterday he called for changes to the federal Social Security Act that guides Centrelink procedure.

He said Centrelink should not suspend the payments of people with mental illness when they were on remand.

Mr Paulin said a Centrelink letter had arrived on his second day in prison.

The form letter said that "after careful consideration" Centrelink had decided to stop his disability support pension.

"When I got that letter, I realised the full implication of the situation I was in," he said.

"I was suicidal.

"I thought I would be destitute, homeless and also bankrupt.

"I just thought my life was over.

My faith was at its lowest." A Centrelink spokesman said that the Social Security Act did not allow payments to people on remand.

The act also does not allow discretion or back payments for people like Mr Paulin, who are later found not guilty.

Mr Paulin said Centrelink should continue paying people on remand for a "two to three month cooling-off period".

That way, he said, they could keep their outside lives intact.

"People are being financially punished for crimes that they are later found not guilty of," he said.

The...