In hard-hit California, the hidden fallout of foreclosures

“We’re seeing more people coming for crisis services, people who have never been in the system before,” said Theresa Schoettler, who manages Merced County’s in-patient psychiatric unit and walk-in clinic. “A lot of people are self-medicating. There’s a lot more alcohol abuse. A lot more despair. Some people say they can’t live anymore.”

Foreclosures take heavy toll on hearts and minds: Some residents fear they soon will have no home at all.

“I don’t want to end up at that tent camp on Santa Fe,” said one middle-aged woman, who lost her job last year. She asked that her name not be used because she’s looking for employment. “It’s terrifying for a single person to live in a car,” she said.

Another woman, also facing foreclosure, swallows Lexapro and a stew of other anti-depression and anti-anxiety drugs just to make it through the day.

No statistics are available for exactly how many county residents seeking mental health help are dealing with home foreclosures. Nor has much medical research been conducted on how the wave of foreclosures can affect public health nationwide.

However, an article published in October in the American Journal of Public Health reported on a study of Philadelphia area residents undergoing foreclosure in the summer of 2008.

The findings are grim. More than one-third of those residents met the screening standards for major depression, such as feelings of sadness and changes in appetite or sleep patterns, said the article's lead author, Dr. Craig E. Pollack, a Rand Corp. researcher and assistant professor of medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. That compares to about 13 percent for people living in poverty.

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/580/story/1290699.html

Another form of eugenics?