Blog Archives

There is no sustainable criminal justice reform without safety

11/29/2025

EDITORIAL: Incompetency — a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card?

Nov. 16, 2025

Gov. Jared Polis

Gov. Jared Polis seeks $12M to house suspects declared incompetent

Nov. 11, 2025

This is a REAL ISSUE and efforts to increase investment for housing suspects declared incompetent are welcomed by many perspectives on the issue.

How Did Colorado's Competency Program & Continuum of Care become such a broken mess

What does the distinction between "Intelligence" and "Executive Functioning" mean in relation to unconscious bias & Hiearchy?

11/19/2025

Val's Take: Rene Brooks FLAGS this HUGE ISSUE: the distinction between INTELLIGENCE and EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING.

NOW --- one of the reasons why this has gone under the radar is that for a long time RESEARCHERS basically said people with EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING ISSUES weren't intelligent.

It is relatively recently that educators and others have started to say, "Hey, these gifted kids often have executive functioning issues."

That got literally WHITE-WASHED in many cases because INTELLIGENCE was deemed to be such an unqualified good. It is much more complicated than that.

Neuro-Diverse Folks tend to congregate at the upper and lower levels of the society, with others not liking what they see and trying to protect themselves as much as possible.

HIERARCHY is mediating a lot of this in often PERVERSE WAYS.

Embracing Intensity

Thrice-Exceptional: Gifted, ADHD and Black (2022)

Interview with Rene Brooks
Black Girl, Lost Keys

The Drama of it All

Unconscious Bias & Hierarchy: How's that Meritocracy workin' out for ya?

towards a more balanced view of "Giftedness" and "Talent"

"Brave" and "Anosognosia" in the Homeless discussion

11/11/2025

Val's Take:

Anosognosia can in some cases accurately describe INDIVIDUALS --- it can also sometimes accurately describe RESEARCHERS, CLINICIANS and POLICYMAKERS.

A BIG PART of what I want to say is that we seem to be getting out of some of this.

There is a general public awareness that some people who are homeless do probably have some classic definition of ANOSOGNOSIA ---- the problem is that researchers, clinicians and policymakers can also have anosognosia.

What needs to be provided is dependent on what treatments are available and how effective those treatments are for individuals.

BEFORE WE GET TO GOOD TREATMENTS, WE NEED GOOD CONCEPTUALIZATIONS.

Thirty years ago, we had primitive conceptualizations and primitive treatments--- people know that some people were REFUSING treatment --- but Health Care did not have the appreciation of the need for PRECISION MEDICINE that it has today.

On the other hand, where are we if we don't have adequate understandings and treatments and there are Security Concerns ----- HIGH LEVEL CUSTODIAL CARE.

In the last 10 to 15 years, the RESEARCH has taken off, but neither the RESEARCHERS nor the CLINCIANS have the bandwidth to bridge that gap.

When we're moving from Brain Disorders to NEURO-IMMUNE DISORDERS that affect multiple systems of the body --- there's a lot that is needed in TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH & MEDICINE.

ANOSOGNOSIA

"Anosognosia is a condition characterized by a lack of awareness or denial of a disability or health condition. It can manifest as an inability to recognize one's own health issues, often described as "denial of deficit" or "lack of insight"

"This condition can occur in various contexts, including mental illness, where individuals may be unaware of their mental health conditions.

"In essence, anosognosia reflects a cognitive disconnect between a person's symptoms and their acknowledgment of those symptoms."

Housing First Is Not the Key to End Homelessness | Manhattan Institute (2020)

Housing First

"Housing First is a transformative approach to addressing homelessness that prioritizes providing permanent housing without preconditions, emerging in the 1990s as a response to chronic homelessness and the inadequacies of traditional models."

It does seem that Permanent Supportive Housing arose in part as an improvement on the Housing First Model.

Anosognosia & the State of Colorado

BUT . . .

With the Circle Program, the Hickenlooper Administration is Turning A Critical Corner in Honestly Addressing the Staffing Problems @ CMHIP -- That NO State Administration Has Ever Done Before

Researchers and Clinicians ---the issue isn't intelligence --- BUT Patients are getting the short end of the stick

11/3/2025

Val's Take/Conjecture

Researchers around the world are roughly on the same page, and maybe clinicians are too.
BUT Researchers and Clinicians are not on the same page.
And patients living now are paying a big price for that.

One of the biggest problems we have in Mental Health is that Mental Health Clinicians are not:

Immunologists
Gastroenterologists, or
Endocrinologists

But to effectively treat Neuro-Developmental and Psychiatric Disorders we need the expertise of those disciplines.

On the other hand, the effective treatment of a wide range of diseases and disorders with PSYCHIATRIC COMPONENTS need the expertise of Mental Health professionals.

Oklahoma
The Cowman and the Farmer Should Be Friends

Are immunologists, gastroenterologists and endocrinologists anymore on top of the research than mental health professionals --- maybe not.

But we recognize a Public Health Crisis to a degree in Mental Health.

Further, the "DISABILITY" associated with Neuro-Developmental and/or Psychiatric Disorders is often long-term and isn't about INTELLIGENCE --- it's about ENERGY.

Failure to provide sufficient TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE is about ENERGY too.

Transitional/ Translational Justice Monday

There is no sustainable criminal justice reform without safety

What does the distinction between "Intelligence" and "Executive Functioning" mean in relation to unconscious bias & Hiearchy?

"Brave" and "Anosognosia" in the Homeless discussion

Researchers and Clinicians ---the issue isn't intelligence --- BUT Patients are getting the short end of the stick

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Transitional/ Translational Justice Monday

There is no sustainable criminal justice reform without safety

What does the distinction between "Intelligence" and "Executive Functioning" mean in relation to unconscious bias & Hiearchy?

"Brave" and "Anosognosia" in the Homeless discussion

Researchers and Clinicians ---​the issue isn't intelligence --- BUT Patients are getting the short end of the stick

Archives

Categories

Researchers and Clinicians ---the issue isn't intelligence --- BUT Patients are getting the short end of the stick