Open Sourcing Mental Illness | Hacker News Reader

Open Sourcing Mental Illness

osmihelp.org

77 pointsjonbaer18 comments

They link to Zero Suicide, which is good, but they should also link to Suicide Safer Communities which is possibly more effective to reduce rates of suicide because it recognises that suicide prevention is everyone's business, and that suicide isn't limited to people with diagnosed mental illness.

https://www.livingworks.net/community/suicide-safer-communit...

At this point I have to say that if anyone in NSW, Australia is thinking of suicidal thoughts - do NOT call the police, or anyone in the Public Health Service. This absolutely includes the Ambulance Service.

Why? Because of the following:

  20 Detention on information of ambulance officer [1]
  
  (1) An ambulance officer who provides ambulance 
  services in relation to a person may take the person 
  to a declared mental health facility if the officer 
  believes on reasonable grounds that the person appears 
  to be mentally ill or mentally disturbed and that it 
  would be beneficial to the person’s welfare to be dealt 
  with in accordance with this Act.
  
  (2) An ambulance officer may request police 
  assistance if of the opinion that there are serious 
  concerns relating to the safety of the person or other 
  persons if the person is taken to a mental health 
  facility without the assistance of a police officer

Then section 21 defines "police assistance":

Police assistance [2]

  (1) A police officer to whose notice a police assistance 
  endorsement on a mental health certificate, or a request
  for assistance by an ambulance officer under this Division,
  is brought must, if practicable:
  
  (a) apprehend and take or assist in taking the person the 
  subject of the certificate or request to a declared 
  mental health facility, or
  
  (b) cause or make arrangements for some other police 
  officer to do so.
  
  (2) A police officer may enter premises to apprehend 
  a person under this section, and may apprehend any such 
  person, without a warrant and may exercise any powers 
  conferred by section 81 on a person who is authorised 
  under that section to take a person to a mental health
  facility or another health facility.

I'm sure people in the U.S. Can see how problematic this is. And - it's not just an abstract concept to me, it happened to me several months ago.

1. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/mha2007128...

2. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/mha2007128...

When the police get involved with mental illness in the US, you're at risk of ending up dead: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article90905442.....

Lately the news I've been reading coming out of the U.S. seems to show there are a lot of reasons you can end up dead because of the police.

I once overheard: "Not sure if you want to take your own life? Call the police and they'll help that right along."

I know many people who, in the UK, have been detained under section 136 of the mental health act. This is a power given to police to detain people who are in public and mentally ill.

We're trying hard to reduce the numbers of these detentions; to make sure that any that happen are always appropriate; and to change the location of the detention from police cells to health-based places of safety.

While detention under s136 has problems, and should be avoided, and needs vigorous checks and balances, it undoubtedly saves lives.

Sure, if they are in public. What if they are in their own home, sleeping?

I liked their previous name "devpressed" better. But good initiative.

My personal piece of advice for any developer suffering from anxiety, depression or other mental problems, is to focus on posture. Bad posture can have a really big impact on mental health. You can have RSI in your upper back without knowing it (arms & hands still working okay), and this can cause all kinds of other problems.

I mean, really? Reminds me of something Dr. Steve once said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8zOlpPUDCg

There's also a UK startup doing similar things, commercially:

https://sanctus.io/

Both seem well-intentioned but make me deeply uncomfortable. I suppose the fundamental reason being that if you want to destigmatize mental health issues, maybe you should destigmatize seeking treatment from mental health professionals first.

Especially since there's already an active, well regarded, tackling stigma charity in England already: http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/

If the mental health professional then decides you should be involuntarily committed or detained in a mental health facility, you're screwed.

I applaud the motives behind #itsoktotalk but if you do talk and they strip you of any decision making, then this campaign will fail. The result of talking about thoughts of suicide very often leaves the sufferer in a mental health facility - or waiting for hours in a stressful ER room (or worse) and you won't be seen to at all.

The hashtag should be #itsnotoktotalk

I don't understand what makes this open source. It seems to be a nonprofit for the destigmatization of mental illness by a forum to discuss online and I guess resource collection. By that logic, several craft hobby communities are open source.

I'm having trouble finding the source code, am I the only one?

I wonder what a mental illness compiler would look like. Would every user have to interact with a ML system to derive their own opcodes? Could it be used both for curing and causing mental illnesses?

"The next 3 months I'm taking a sabatical. I will go to a resort where I will be given clinical depression.

A childhood friend died of it when there was no cure, and I've always wondered what her experience was like.

I hope understanding what she went through will give me some closure."

> I'm having trouble finding the source code, am I the only one?

https://github.com/osmihelp

Well, that's an unfortunate name.

My first thought was that now I can get a mental illness for free. Um, no, thanks.

My first thought was, this is great.

I thought they meant that working with open source causes mental illness.

Which is something somebody should really look into.

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