Author: Maria Yang, MD

Categories
Medicine Policy Public health psychiatry Systems

Reflections on Some Health Care Systems.

Items related to systems of health care that I learned and thought about this week:

National Medical Association. I am embarrassed to confess that, nearly 20 years after graduating from medical school, I learned only this week about the National Medical Association. This came about while I was learning some of the history of the American Medical Association (AMA). In short, the National Medical Association was created because the AMA would not admit Black physicians into the organization. (I have never been a member of the AMA. My reasons have been squishy; I never truly believed that the AMA represented me or my interests. That hasn’t stopped the AMA from sending me invitations in the mail to join! It seems that over 80% of physicians are not AMA members, so I’m certainly not alone.)

Alexander Graham Bell and Eugenics. This Journal of the American Medical Association (emphasis mine) editorial from 1908 reports:

The subject of the production of better men and women was brought before the American Breeders’ Association by Professor Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who for many years has been interested in certain social questions, especially those relating to the condition of the deaf and the result on the next generation of the consanguinity of parents as regards the production of deaf and blind children.

No one ever brought this up when we learned that he invented the telephone.

It appears that Bell’s interest in “breeding” was his observation, though the collection of some statistics, that parents who are related to each other seem more likely to bear children who are deaf. Bell made “an appeal for the collection of statistics by trained men who are interested and who have the opportunity to secure the definite detailed information” related to “the production of better children”. The unnamed author(s) of the editorial go on:

We are securing survivals to a much greater degree than before, and now it becomes a duty to secure, so far as it is possible, the origin of members of the race who will be worthy of survival. After all, the most important problem in evolution is not so much the survival of the fittest as the origin of the fittest.

Over 100 years have passed and this ugly question of “breeding” persists.

The Chinese Exclusion Act. I’ve commented on this Act before (here and here), but here’s an opportunity to pile on the AMA even more. In 1901, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a “minor comment” about “The Exclusion of the Chinese“, which you can view in its entirety in the link above.

Reading this made me think of vile rhetoric that has revived during this Covid-19 pandemic. Recall recent references to “disregard of sanitation” due to “[maintainence] to the fullest extent their oriental habits and traditions”. The Chinese, they just won’t do as we do.

“That this is a Christian country and we regard them as heathen, should not make us altruistic to our harm.”

Do we hear echoes from 1901 in the US’s current Covid test requirement for travelers from China?

Prescriptive Authority for Psychologists. There is a House bill in the Washington State Legislature that will give prescriptive authority to psychologists. Five US states currently allow psychologists to prescribe medications.

While it is easy to stumble into a debate about whether this should happen or not, I think this is a distraction. This debate is a manifestation of failure in public health policy.

Instead of trying to increase the number of people who can perform a highly specialized task, why not increase the availability of community supports and services so people don’t need highly specialized treatment?

Consider the decrease in anxiety and depression that would result if people were confident they could pay their rent? feed their families? take time off to care for their newborn? secure an education or training–whether college or vocational school–that supports stable employment?

Think of the decrease in stress and trauma if people had better options than to sell drugs or sex? if neighborhoods had more green spaces and less air and noise pollution? if they had adequate and essential protections as “essential” workers?

Medical Mistrust and Meeting People Where They Are At. This paper about medical mistrust, racism, and health prevention describes an elegant way to recruit study participants: “collection of data [occurred] primarily in barbershops, venues with documented recent success in reducing blood pressure in African-American men”. It is elegant because it is simple, effective, and successful.

When I read this, I recalled a suggestion my father had around the time the Covid-19 vaccines were released. He lives near several Asian grocers, many of which are more like bodegas than grocery stores.

“Why don’t they set up vaccination stations outside these grocery stores? Everyone needs to eat. Elderly people go to these stores all the time. Laborers get snacks and cigarettes. Make it easy for people.”

Sometimes (often?) the best and most effective health care happens outside of medical spaces.

Categories
Blogosphere Reading

Media.

A belated winter gift for readers: Here are some articles and other media I have found useful and interesting in the past few months, which you may enjoy, too.

Oliver Burkeman: The Imperfectionist. A “twice-monthly email on productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment”. I also recommend his book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, with enthusiasm.

Still Processing. This is a podcast from the New York Times. “Wesley Morris and J Wortham are working it out in this show about culture. That means television, film, books, music — but also the culture of work, dating, the internet and how those fit together.” Wesley Morris is a superb writer, too, and has the Pulitzer Prizes—plural! 2012 and 2021!—to prove it.

Lucas Sin. He is a chef who is from Hong Kong and now works in New York. He seems thoughtful, communicates well, and has an understated enthusiasm for his craft.

Mystery Menu. Sohla and Ham are both chefs. Not only do they have expertise in creating dishes from strange ingredients, but they also seem like delightful people.

Building Resilient Organizations. Maurice Mitchell’s analysis of dynamics in progressive organizations is intelligent, incisive, and inspiring. (There are similarities with ideas in John McWhorter‘s writings. I learned about Mr. Mitchell through Chris Hayes.)

Southwest Airlines’ Christmas Meltdown Shows How Corporations Deliberately Pit Consumers Against Low-Wage Workers. “Our system is set up to create mutual antagonism between members of the working class. Meanwhile, faceless corporate executives remain shielded like mob bosses.” The author’s rage becomes more palpable as the piece progresses… you might feel the same way, too, by the end.

Escaping American tribalism: Only personal bravery can end polarisation. William Deresiewicz, like other writers I admire, shares sharp, provocative opinions and insights (“You change your mind when you consent to stop ignoring things you know full well but do not want to think about”). I look forward to reading his most recent book, The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society.

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. As someone who has read nearly all of Agatha Christie’s novels, it is delightful to see Hercule Poirot reincarnated as Benoit Blanc. It’s a fun movie. (And Edward Norton and Janelle Monáe make such gorgeous eye candy!)

Categories
Random

Three Questions for ChatGPT.

A few questions I have asked ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot:

“Is the journalist Chris Hayes actually a donut?”

ChatGPT responds that Chris Hayes is a human being, not a pastry.

For reasons that make sense to no one except for me, Chris Hayes‘s face reminds me of a donut: round, smooth, and fluffy. (Maybe this is just an inappropriate way to comment that he has nice skin?) I appreciate that ChatGPT not only wonders why I think he is a pastry, but also makes it clear that Chris Hayes is not a donut.

“Which is better: left turns or pizza?”

ChatGPT says that left turns and pizza are incomparable because, you know, they're not.

ChatGPT has no patience for my foolishness, though graciously explains that left turns and pizza are categorically different things. I appreciate ChatGPT deferring to my personal preferences and experiences. (If I had to choose for only one to exist, I think I would choose pizza. Three right turns make a left turn, but other flatbreads are not pizza.)

“How long does it take to write a 750-word essay?”

ChatGPT responds that, on average, it takes two to three hours of focus to write a 750-word essay.

I found this response validating. I have wondered if I’m just slow, as it often takes me a few hours to write a post for publication here. Those few hours of writing transform into a mere three minutes of reading!

And that, dear reader, is how I have “cheated” in generating this week’s blog post.

Categories
COVID-19 Homelessness Nonfiction Observations Policy Public health psychiatry Seattle

Gifts of Our Lives.

Photo by Leeloo Thefirst

(I know it’s the holiday season and I promise I’m not actually a grinch, but here’s your warning: This is going to be kind of a bummer of a post.)

Some recent scenes for your consideration:

  • The sliding wooden gate did nothing to dampen the sounds of traffic on the boulevard. Inside the wooden gate was a parking lot that was now occupied by around 40 small sheds, each painted a different color. At one end was an open-air shared kitchen and a set of small bathrooms. It was snowing, the kind of wet, clumpy snow that doesn’t stick, but instead seeps immediately into clothes, hats, and sleeping bags. Though people in this “village” are still technically homeless, they were at least protected from this unusual Seattle weather. Within a few minutes of my arrival, a skinny kid, maybe eight or nine years old, wearing a sweater, shorts, and sandals, ambled outside alone to look up at the sky. Later, another skinny kid, maybe thirteen or fourteen, came out, his hands shoved into the pockets of his sweatpants and his eyes fixed on the ground. I wondered what their ACEs scores were and hoped that, as adults, they would escape and remain out of homelessness.
  • As I threaded my way through the city and the morning chill, I kept a mental tally: One man wearing a tank top and making grand gestures at the sky; another shirtless man pacing in tight circles; one woman wearing a soiled hoodie, with either black ink or a black substance smeared across the bottom half of her face, picking up trash from water pooled in the gutter; a man hobbling with a cane and screaming a melody; a man emerging from a collapsed tent to fold up a crinkled black tarp; a woman with bare legs and swaths of bright green caked on her eyelids who, in slurred speech, offered me a wristwatch dangling from her fingers.
  • “We have burned down the house of mental health in this city, and the people you see on the street are the survivors who staggered from the ashes,” writes Anthony Almojera, an N.Y.C. Paramedic [who has] Never Witnessed a Mental Health Crisis Like This One, who also comments that “there’s a serious post-pandemic mental health crisis.”

Maybe my expectations about the pandemic response were too high. A pandemic is an act of God; what could mankind possibly do that can deter the power of God?

And yet.

There were things we could have done to protect mental health during a pandemic. I am not the only one who was (and remains) worried about the psychological consequences of this pandemic in the years to come. There remains insufficient mental health policy or policy implementation, insufficient resources, and insufficient political will, among other implementation failures of public mental health.

I do believe that hope is a discipline. It’s hard to practice every day. But this is why I still question whether my expectations were too high. God spared us—you, dear reader, and me—during this pandemic. For what reason? What can and should we do with the gifts of our lives?

Categories
Consult-Liaison Homelessness Public health psychiatry Systems

On “Involuntarily Removing Mentally Ill People from Streets”.

Photo by Mart Production

There’s been buzz about the report of New York City to Involuntarily Remove Mentally Ill People From Streets. The comments section of the article as well as letters to the editor articulate the complexities around this issue. I also appreciate that the New York Times solicited perspectives from people experiencing homelessness themselves.

In trying to think through this myself, I turn to two mental models: First, what problem are “we” trying to solve? Second, can health care ethics provide guidance here?

What problem are “we” trying to solve? This requires reading the mind of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which I cannot do. He has argued that The Royal We have a “moral obligation” to solve the problem of “assist[ing] those who are suffering from mental illness”. If we take him at his word, then we can fold his argument within the framework of medical ethics.

If, however, Mayor Adams is trying to solve a different problem (e.g., make homelessness invisible; reduce the number of complaints from the public about people exhibiting unusual or dangerous behaviors; demonstrate that he is “doing something” about homelessness, etc.), then the framework of medical ethics may not apply. If he is trying to solve a different problem, then instead of assisting those who suffer from mental illness, he is using those who suffer from mental illness to assist him and his actual agenda.

Of course, he may be trying to solve multiple problems through the guise of only one.

Can health care (or medical) ethics provide guidance here? One model used in medical ethics is called the four box model. Of note, the four boxes focuses on individual patients, not on populations of people.


Medical Indications
(Beneficence and Nonmaleficence)
Patient Preferences
(Respect for Autonomy)

Quality of Life
(Beneficence, Nonmaleficence,
and Respect for Autonomy)

Contextual Features
(Justice and Fairness)

Medical indications asks what benefits and harms the patient might experience from interventions. Would involuntary psychiatric hospitalization help people with mental illness who are homeless? Some of them, yes. Would it help all of them? Maybe, maybe not. Could involuntary psychiatric hospitalization cause harm? That is not the intention, but sometimes it does. For reasons valid and invalid, it might discourage people from engaging in psychiatric services ever again. Anything involuntary always involves some degree of coercion, which people generally dislike.

Just because people are behaving in unusual ways and are living outside does not mean that psychiatric hospitalization is guaranteed to “fix” them. I do not mean to diminish the care people receive in psychiatric hospitals. People often need more than involuntary psychiatric hospitalization to get and stay well. Sometimes there is no medical indication for psychiatric hospitalization (involuntary or otherwise) for people with mental illness who are experiencing homelessness. Sometimes they just need a stable place to live.

Patient preferences refers to the dignity and choices people should have in living their lives. Some people would rather take pills by mouth every day than receive a monthly injection of medicine. Some people would prefer not to take any medicine at all. Patient preferences matter.

Some people who are living outside and behaving in unusual ways may not want to be in a hospital. Or maybe they are willing to be in a hospital, but not at that moment—maybe they have other things to take care of that day. Or maybe they are only willing to go to certain hospitals on their own, not at the behest of law enforcement. By definition, involuntary removal of people from the streets disregards patient preferences. Options other than psychiatric hospitalization, such as crisis centers, partial hospital programs, or day programs, can help preserve patient preferences and hence their dignity.

Quality of life describes the patient’s quality of life. Interventions should provide benefit, minimize harm, and maximize the dignity and choices of patients. This does not refer to the quality of life of the general public. If involuntary removal and psychiatric hospitalization are the means to the end of improved quality of life, how can these improvements be sustained following hospitalization?

It is absolutely true that psychiatric hospitalization can be life-saving and life-improving. However, people need and benefit from ongoing care and services following hospitalization. Mayor Adams’s target population also need places to live to maintain their gains. If you’ve ever been hospitalized for any reason, can you imagine the course of your recovery if you had no place to go upon leaving the hospital? How are you supposed to rest when you don’t know where you will sleep that night? Quality of life requires planning and sustained care; acute interventions alone rarely produce improvements in quality of life.

Contextual features are the intersections of a patient’s care with the rest of the world. There are a multitude of contextual features in Mayor Adams’s plan (and it makes me wonder if the mayor consulted with any partners prior to making his announcement). Here are a smattering of contextual features that come to my mind:

  • How will first responders decide if someone has a mental illness? What if they think someone has an “attitude problem” and instead refers them to jail? How severe do psychiatric symptoms have to be? Will only those who attract the attention of law enforcement be involuntarily removed? (What about the elderly woman who keeps to herself and has been homeless for decades and won’t move indoors because the voices tell her that she will die if she does?)
  • How will hospital psychiatrists react to people who, in their professional opinion, do not need hospital-level care, though the law argues otherwise? Will psychiatrists become agents of social control on behalf of the jurisdiction? There are some parallels here to the overturning of Roe v. Wade: Some gynecologists are not performing abortions, even though there are medical indications to do so, because of the law. Here, psychiatrists may proceed with involuntary treatment even though there are no medical indications to do so… because of the law.
  • Let’s say someone experiencing homelessness is involuntarily removed from the street and is psychiatrically hospitalized. Where will they go upon discharge? What if they prefer returning to the street instead of a shelter? What if they have no sources of income and there is insufficient affordable housing? (This is not actually a “what if” question.)
  • What about all the people who are homeless, but do not demonstrate symptoms of mental illness? Are there any opportunities to prevent or reduce the chances of mental illness in this population? (Yes, by increasing access to stable housing.)
  • What about all the people with severe mental illness who are not homeless? Are there any opportunities to prevent or reduce the chances of homelessness in this population? (Yes, by increasing access to and flexibility of psychiatric services.)

The four box model here highlights some ethical problems with Mayor Adams’s plan, though there are solutions to increase beneficence, autonomy, and justice while reducing non-maleficence. My hope is that Mayor Adams and leaders of other jurisdictions with similar ideas will take heed.