We took a crack at ranking the Top 10 public policy/political issues of 2006. We tried to give preference to local and state issues. But issues such as Iraq and illegal immigration that generated a lot of public passion were high on our list. Obviously, this is very subjective. So we’d like to hear your thoughts. Would you have ranked issues differently? Did we miss a big issue?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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29 Comments
I would say the Spirit, Raytheon and Strike issues were pretty big. Whenever the 800 pound gorillas of business in Wichita announce bonuses, contracts are settled and a major buyout is announced, then that has a huge influence on Wichita.
There were also many contracts won and lost by local companies throughout the year.
The biggest news often reported but in my opinion should be at the top of list are the sacrifice of all our fine military people in area. Let’s give them a warm handshake, pat on the back, a nod and a salute for the work they do.
I think you did a fabulous job. Considering the Terry Fox thread had the most responses on this board in history (I came in right in the middle of it, so that’s only what I heard) I believe it should have been on there. Good job.
I see the chronic homelessness issue was totally ignored. Look outside today…. do you think the holiday meals they were given are keeping them warm and well fed TODAY?
Homelessness will never be resolved because there is no money in it. In today’s world, if one can make a profit in something, then that issue gets addressed. Unfortunately, the city, county or state don’t really care as long as they can say ‘let the churches do it’.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. You can throw all the money at a problem you want, but unless that person is invested in changing, nothing is going to change.We have a tremendous amount of money going into social programs, from both the government and charitable organizations, but we just have more and more poverty. Why do you think that is?
I remember in the late 1970’s the mental hospitals were closed down and the patients were dumped into nursing homes or just plain dumped. Perhaps the government caused some of this homelessness and are not helping as much as they say they are.
Has anyone ever done a survey as to the reasons for homelessness? Is it because of lack of education, lack of being responsible adults, drug and/or alcohol addiction? I’m just asking because I seem to get the jist in many postings that people feel that homelessness is somehow the homeless person’s fault and it’s their choice. Maybe in some instances that is true – but I really have to wonder if all homelessness is due to personal choice.
A large portion of the homeless are people with mental illness. A few years ago the government decided to do away with institutions for community based programs. However state govenments did not allocate money for these programs and so many of these folks are homeless. Lately one solution has been to house them in nursing homes but they are not set up to meet the needs or deal with the behaviors. It will only get worse. I have to be honest and say that I refuse to admit mentally ill people to my facility if they are under 65 but it is hard because the law says that if a person receiving Medicaid assistance wants to come to my facility I have to prove I can’t meet their needs. But once you have a mentally ill person if they act out you have a hard time getting rid of them. So the easiest thing to do is never admit them in the first place. I think we have to rethink the way we deal with mental illness. I think we need to go back to the group home concept. It gives autonomy but supervision as well.
Immigration will continue to be the big issue in 2007 and the accelerating breakdown of the multiracial society.
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
As always, the corporate media has a tin-ear for what’s really important to the average American–
Number one is the continued wage de-flation against higher and higher costs. Americans are taking on more debt, financed more “creatively,” to try to maintain their standards of living, but they can’t do it, as robber barons siphon off all the productivity gains for themselves.
Number two is the wholly ignored story of Bush Co awarding multi-billion contracts to itself in Iraq, cutting out the necessary reconstruction for Iraqis by Iraqis that perhaps could help stabilize the country. Also, the rip off to us taxpayers will prove to be of historical proportions.
This should come out as the adults take over the Congress and start to investigate what should have been investigated three years ago.
Number three is the evidence that has come crashing down upon us like a iceberg shearing off from a decimated glacier–global warming is no longer a possibility. It is happening and if it keeps going like it has been, we’ll be redrawing the maps in a decade . . .
Hey, CapnGalahad, are you going to continue to engage in your guilt-ridden, self hating, bolshevik hysterics in 2007?????
viva la Raza Blanco!!
When the biggest idiots attack what you post, that’s how you know you’re right . . .
Ian, I do earnestly desire that we become better strangers.
lucee..
you are pretty correct in what you say.. homelessness cannot be solved because the money people know it’s not them..it’s not a group that can contribute… and it’s not a group that has a powerful political voice.
people are homeless for many reasons including those you mentioned. Others are disabled, have bad money management, have made poor choices, or maybe are veterans that we have turned our backs on, and familiy people like you and me. Most of these CAN be helped.. and the incentive is YES, they do want off the streets!
Brenda Shull – you are a very cold person to turn away those that are mentally ill. It appears that you have no respect for the law either. Your facility should be and probably will be once your blog is turned over to the state turned in for not admitting these people as you stated in your blog.
You should be ashamed of yourself. These people need and deserve help and you close your doors to them. Most of them are harmless once they are on a regular regimen of medication. But with people like you out there a lot of them will not get help.
The need and deserve help and by law you are to provide them help. How many more people are like Brenda Shull and turn their backs on people needing help?
Obviously you don’t know what I have to go through. And you are wrong when you say that most of them are harmless. I recently had to deal with a man who has assaulted three people and the last one almost died. I have to decide if I’m willing to take a chance with the mentally ill person while putting all my elderly residents at risk. I am not Solomon and there is very little help out there when a mentally ill person cannot be maintained in the nursing home setting. I was able to find another place for this resident and I enlisted the ombudsman in my situation and I did not violate the law. You can thank your government for the fact that I have to make such a choice because they do not provide services for the mentally ill in the community and when they do you have to fight tooth and nail to keep the services going. Nursing homes are not set up to meet the needs of the mentally ill and shouldn’t be forced to try. You can call me whatever you would like, but I’m not going to risk my elderly residents nor the financial viability of my facility to do what society should deal with. I also don’t breack the law and I challenge you to put your money where your mouth is. What have you done lately for the mentally? Besides are you going to put your mother in a nursing home where most of the residents are mental patients?
Brenda – your the one that said you were refusing to admit them not me. Perhaps you should read what you wrote.
I will be getting hold of a State Representative and have them look into your refusing medicaid patients. The federal government will probably be pretty interested as well.
Sotheysaid,Relax. “Brenda” is not who she says she is. Her stories are fabrications.
Let it go.
goofnut
To you and your family I wish a very miserable new year. A pox on you.
The mental health advocacy community in the 1960’s and 70’s sited community data which suggested that those with mental illnesses were no more violent than non-mentally ill community members. The only problem with this research – I hear the inquiring minds asking???
That’s correct during the above time period, most mentally ill folks were institutionalized and not in the communtiy.
The link to this abstract indicates that the above is true for most mentall ill people, but there is a subset who are dangerous: those who don’t take their meds, those with a history of violence, and those with substance abuse histories:
http://www.ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/45/7/653
I can vouch for Brenda, she is very much who she says she is and more. Many of you who are not in the health care profession have no experience to draw from. As a nurse and a mental health professional, I can assure you that not only are nursing homes inappropriate for many who are mentally ill, I know of no person with severe and persistant mental illness who wants to live out their life in a nursing facility. Brenda’s opinion that a group home setting for those unable to live without 24 hr supervision is right on. The need is for more licensed facilities and more community services to help them live independantly if they are capable.My elderly uncle who could not walk or talk was assaulted by another patient who happened to be a younger person with severe mental illness. Placing him in a facility with elderly, vulnerable people was totally inappropriate.Nursing homes aren’t dumping grounds for those that society wants to ignore and forget about, group homes and facilitating independant living (which is what the agency I work for does) is the proper answer to the problem, only now the state, in all it’s wisdom,is looking for ways cut that support, further adding to the problem of homelessness and improper placement of those who have chronic mental illness.
Sotheysaid hates “big government” and everything about it . . . UNTIL he can use it to blackmail somebody he disagrees with.
Real nice.
Reminds me of when Tiahrt threatened to sic IRS audits on people who were criticising him.
Mr. I-Hate-Taxes and Big Gov’t was perfectly willing to use taxes and Big Gov’t when it serves his malicious purposes.
Typical.
I absolutely concur with mary and brenda.
We do need better placement options, and nursing homes would not be a good idea. The staffing simply is not there to look after a mentally ill patient. Although I have had them in my facilities in the past, they were not violent. The activities for these people are not even the same that would be appropriate for younger patients.
I think Brenda finds herself in the classic case of “between a rock and a hard place”. No matter what she does it is “wrong”. I do not envy her one bit.
Whenever Brenda is faced with a tough situation, she always chooses to do what’s best for her residents. They are her #1 priority. To bad there aren’t more directors like her.
I agree Mary. I hope my comment was not taken as a slap at Brenda; it was quite the opposite.
We have several populations in this country that everyone ignores. Mentally ill people, the elderly, the disabled, and children. There is no easy answer and they often can be ignored because they don’t vote, they have few lobbyists, and not a lot of money. My hope is that someone will stand for those with no voice. My point is that changes in the system are made promising that a new change will be better. But community based services cost money and there doesn’t seem to be a will to provide the funding. I really believe that in the long run community based services are cheaper and those needing the services are a lot happier. I see lots of children who pay out of their own pockets to keep their elderly parents in a home setting. However, not everyone has that ability or finances to do that. So nursing homes have become the stop gap for those with the fewest resources. But nursing homes can’t handle this and so there is a breakdown. I hope this changes because I’m not sure how much longer the current practice can be sustained.
You are so right, Brenda. My mom is a good example. We had her in a nursing home where she was losing weight, and becoming more withdrawn and demented. I’m convinced if we left her there, she’d be dead by now. We took her out and placed her in a home plus facility, where she is thriving and so much happier. We’re paying out of pocket, and it cost the same as a nursing home, but when the money runs out, Medicaid will only reimburse what it would cost for HCBS services to take care of her, so I’m not sure what we’ll do. We can’t stand the thought of putting her back in a nursing facility, because she gets such good care and lots more personal attention where she now. Medicaid needs to take a good look at alternatives to nursing homes, especially for those like my mom who don’t require nursing supervision 24/7.Just like those with severe and persistant mental illness, nursing home placement isn’t appropriate, but group homes and independant living with community services are.
Mary, My mom too. I pay live-in help to be with her 24/7. It’s what she wants, she can live in her neighborhood where she has been for so long, but I don’t know what I will do if her health or dementia decline. She tells me all the time she doesn’t want to go to a nursing home. Besides I could never take care of her in my home. Never mind that she would drive me crazy, God love her!
It’d be really nice if we could have assisted living centers for the mentally ill like we have for the elderly. All of the MR facilities are for the just too severe at least around here. And I don’t think MR would be appropriate, but maybe more qualified than a nursing home. I know there was very little dignity at the one I worked at, sure they said that the residents were supposed to be able to have input into their care, but I saw little of that. The staff practically dictated the lives of the residents. And they just hired such bad people to care for the residents. I wish more places weren’t so hard up for help that they hired anyone off the streets they could find.I wish they paid more to find better employees.