Blog Posts

"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.

Burning down the House: It's time to get that adequate continuum of care and the right people in mental health --- that includes immunology

10/27/2025

Val's Take: It's been a slow burn beginning with the US National Institute of Mental Health's denunciation of the DSM 5 in 2013 and researchers around the world investigating Psycho-Neuro-Immunology, Immuno-Psychiatry, and Neuro-Immunology.

My biggest concern is the use of the "Anti-Social Personality Disorder" Label within Criminal Justice by Forensic Evaluators.

There now is much more of an understanding of "Anti-Social Personality Disorder" as a Neuro-Developmental Disorder -- a Developmental Neuro-Immune Disorder.

State Failure to provide an adequate continuum of care is a real public policy issue.

On the other hand, the States should be looking at their provision of Psychiatric Services and seeing if they have the right people. At least some researchers are recommending including IMMUNOLOGY.

Talking Heads
Burning Down the House

How did Colorado's Competency program & Continuum of Care --- become such a broken mess

10/2/2025

Val's Take/Conjecture

It's ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE that officials would release Defendants determined to be incompetent because there is nowhere for the person to go.
Many citizens are recognizing that this is UNTENABLE.
This is a logical place to BUILD OUT that HIGH END of the CONTINUUM of CARE

Community Oriented Correctional Health Services
Medicaid and the Criminal Legal System: Specialty Courts (2023)

9News
Man at center of controversy over competency laws to remain in jail after another arrest (Sept. 25, 2025)

The hard algebra of the biological basis of behavior and --- Anti-Social Personality Disorder

9/23/2025

Plato had some empirical basis for his forms, even if it was scant by our standards or Aristotle's.
With regard to the CATEGORIES in the DSM-5-TR, there's much more of an empirical basis for them than for Plato's forms or even Aristotle's empirical categorical systems.

These nice, neat, distinct DSM CATEGORIES that have become Platonic Forms in the name of STANDARDIZATION ---
- are not supported by the research.

"Plato's Theory of Forms, which posits that true reality lies in eternal, unchanging Forms, has faced significant criticism, particularly from his student Aristotle.

"Key criticisms include the separation of Forms from the physical world, the \"Third Man\" argument leading to infinite regress, and the difficulty of applying the theory to the everyday world." ---Google AI

The Philosophy Guy

"Aristotle will also go on to spend even more space criticizing that very account primarily the notion of the forms as contributing to wisdom." --- The Philosophy Guy

OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR is RELEVANT.

ENVIRONMENT is RELEVANT.

The UNDERLYING BIOLOGY is a NON-NEGOTIABLE VARIABLE in Medicine.

Dr. Thomas Insel, then Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said mental health professionals try to help people change through compassion --- but much of what they do is more RELIGION than SCIENCE.

When one doesn't have the science, it doesn't seem like a significant problem.

Well, we're getting the SCIENCE, but the mental health profession does not appear to appreciate the gravity of the situation, especially in Criminal Justice and especially with respect to Anti-Social Personality Disorder.

TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AS A JUSTICE ISSUE

8/23/2025

Val's Take/Conjecture

A number of people and entities are talking about Translational Medicine in terms of Health Equity and Justice.

We've had some significant Federal investment in Mental Health Research, and that seems to be paying off.

I've been known to say that if we just got out of the Punishment Business and went to Civil Certification --- things would be better.
- And I think they would be --- probably.
- I say "probably" because a small percentage of justice-involved people with psychiatric disorders would prefer a more definite prison term than an unpredictable civil commitment term.

BUT that doesn't solve our DESPERATE NEED for better understandings and treatments.

BHA Launches Colorado LIFTS, Increases Access to Behavioral Health Support (2025)

The Colorado Behavioral Health Administration (BHA), today celebrated the launch of Colorado LIFTS (Linking Individuals and Families To Services).

Colorado LIFTS is Colorado’s streamlined network of safety net behavioral health services, including crisis, substance use and mental health support.

From today forward, anyone in Colorado, no matter their insurance status or where they live in the state, can connect directly with care navigation support to help them begin or continue their journey to whole-person health.

Colorado is probably not the only State that tries to address frightening shortages with administrative fixes.
BUT Colorado does it a lot.

On the other hand, will State Governments ever have enough funds for OUT-OF-DATE understandings and treatments in Mental Health.

MENTAL HEALTH has already EXHAUSTED the Public Health Care System.

Those new understandings and, to a certain extent, treatments are here ---
- But they are in a wide range of ACADEMIC JOURNALS and ACADEMIC TEXTS and maybe the occasional YouTube video.
- Dr. Chris Palmer did write a book designed for the Public --- BRAIN ENERGY -- and it is helping to popularize some of these new paradigms along with METABOLIC MIND.

Robert Plant and Kashmir

8/13/2025

Val's Take: Lyrics to Kashmir

Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, with stars to fill my dream.
I am a traveler of both time and space to be where I have been.
To sit with elders of a gentle race this world has seldom seen.
Who talk of days for which they sit and wait
When all will be revealed.

There are many associations with Kashmir and with the Robert Plant interview and mental health.

I'm going to focus on KNOWLEDGE and IGNORANCE. Enormous progress has been made in understanding Neuro-Developmental, Psychiatric and Addiction Disorders. Has all been revealed --- NO.

But if we adopt a comprehensive Public Health Approach to Criminal Justice ---- we can still maintain our integrity without complete certainty.

Dan Rather interviews Robert Plant
Kashmir over Stairway to Heaven and Loss & Grief

Led Zeppelin
Kashmir

Confused understandings, Paradigm Shifts and Justice

8/6/2025

Val's Take: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is interesting because patients have worked so hard to have the disorder not considered a Psychiatric Disorder --- THIS IS A REAL ILLNESS.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is like Multiple Sclerosis in that those patients often have co-morbid Psychiatric Disorders.

It wasn't that long ago that Psychiatric Disorders were considered "Psycho-Somatic." That is not as true today, BUT our understanding has been CONFUSED.

When we make that paradigm shift to Neuro-Developmental & Psychiatric Disorders as NEURO-IMMUNE DISORDERS and appreciate the ramifications of Maternal Immune Activation and Atypical Virus Response --- we're in quite a different place than we've been for the last several decades.

This has all kinds of ripple effects in Criminal Justice, and is piling on to the need for a PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO CRIMINAL JUSTICE.

NYU School of Medicine
Schizophrenia and Covid 19: Lessons From Systemic Immune Challenge (2022)

Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine -- NSU Florida
Virus Reactivation: Testing and Treatment (2024)

Anti-social Personality Disorder, the Vietnam War & Support

7/27/2025

Val's Take: Is the inadequacy and harm of Forensic Evaluators and "ANTI-SOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER" in the Criminal Justice System ever going to end?

Yes, it will.

Two Orchid Themes & Symbols: THE VIETNAM WAR & SUPPORT

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Greek Column -- Support

Monty Python & The Holy Grail
The Witch Scene

Neuroscientist & Author Antonio Damasio
Why the Mind Encompasses More Than Just the Brain (2016)

Australia's Professor Elizabeth Scott rings the alarm bell on out-dated mental health care

7/26/2025

Professor Elizabeth Scott is candid about the inadequate care given to Youth presenting with JUST "psychiatric symptoms" and how they are often written off as having a "personality disorder."

It is quite frightening that poor mental health care is largely the status quo, not just in the US but in other countries as well, as Professor Scott references in Australia.

As that might suggest, the need for additional basic research and improved treatments has significantly contributed to this low bar status quo.

BMC Youth Mental & Technology Research (Australia)

Immune system related psychotic and mood disorders

Not everyone has "autoimmune encephalitis" as Juliete above, but more and more we are recognizing Neuro-Developmental, Psychiatric, and Addiction Disorders as Neuro-Immune Disorders requiring PRECISION MEDICINE.

We're gaining a more comprehensive understanding, but that is not being effectively communicated to the public or the majority of patients.

This is not a minor problem. Failure to address it is GROSS INCOMPETENCE

Australia's Brain Mind Centre at the University of Sydney
Youth Mental Health & Technology

"Leading generational change for disorders of the brain and mind."

One of the big generational changes is ----
IT'S NOT JUST THE BRAIN

<<Previous

Forward>>

Transitional/ Translational Justice Monday

"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

Burning down the House: It's time to get that adequate continuum of care and the right people in mental health --- that includes immunology

How did Colorado's Competency program & Continuum of Care --- become such a broken mess

The hard algebra of the biological basis of behavior and --- Anti-Social Personality Disorder

TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE AS A JUSTICE ISSUE

Robert Plant and Kashmir

Confused understandings, Paradigm Shifts and Justice

Anti-social Personality Disorder, the Vietnam War & Support

Australia's Professor Elizabeth Scott rings the alarm bell on out-dated mental health care

Archives

Categories