Bedlam ★★★★☆

Bedlam: An Intimate Journey Into America's Mental Health Crisis (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★☆

Bedlam: An Intimate Journey Into America's Mental Health Crisis by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg is a non-fiction book about the current state of mental health in America.

I listened to this as an audiobook checked out from the library. The book is read by the author. I largely chose to read this book because I am a mental health professional working on a mobile crisis team and so interact with individuals with severe mental illness daily.

Rosenberg covers a lot in this book, I was most interested in what he had to say about the criminalization of mental health. The largest psychiatric units in the country are run by jails in NY, IL, & CA. Twenty-one percent of the people shot by police had mental illness. So what are we doing about it? Well, there’s Mental Health Courts, which attempt to provide treatment over punishment; CIT training being provided to police officers, and community programs, whose mission is to provide treatment to people with mental health problems in the community. These are great starts, but it is not enough, we need more programs like CCBHC (Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics), ACT (Assertive Community Treatment), and MH First Aid trainings to get people the treatment they need, reduce stigma, and keep those with mental illness out of jails.

In addition to the history and the facts, Rosenberg also interlaces his own personal story of his sister’s struggle with mental illness, personal stories of individuals’ experience with mental illness, as well as his relationships with major contributors in the field including E. Fuller Torrey and Patrice Khan-Cullors, founder of the #blacklivesmatter Movement and who’s brother has severe mental illness.

At the end of the book, Rosenberg creates a list of helpful recommendations for individuals and families living with mental illness. The most helpful recommendations in my opinion are: connect with NAMI and make a crisis plan.

If you liked Bedlam, I also recommend Nowhere to Go by E. Fuller Torrey, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise by Sandy Allen, The Collected Schizophrenias by Esmé Weijun Wang, and Shrinks by Jeffery Lieberman.

Happy reading,

Ms.Bjork