02x29 - Mental health in the United States

[bunniefuu]

[theme music playing]

[cheering]

Welcome, welcome, welcome
to "Last Week Tonight"!

Thank you so much
for joining us.

I'm John Oliver.

Just time
for a quick recap
of the week,

and we start with Russia,

Earth's Death Star.
[laughter]

Their leader,
Vladimir Putin,

has a lot on his plate
at the moment,

but this week, he decided
to add one more thing.

Let's get
to the breaking news.

Russia launches its first
airstrikes in Syria,

saying it targeted
!sis positions

near the city of Homs.

One official says the Pentagon
was taken aback

by the Russian action.

Oh, great.
That is just what

the geopolitical shit salad
that is Syria needed--

a little Russian
dressing on top.

And if you are wondering
why Putin has suddenly decided
to intervene in Syria,

there's actually
an interesting theory.

And you can argue in some ways

that what Putin is doing now
in Syria

is potentially a way
to distract

the Russian population
from a combination

of its worsening economy

and from the fact
that its forces

are bogged down
in Eastern Ukraine.

What? You can't
just b*mb Syria

any time you need
to distract people

from mistakes
that you've made.

When Tom Brady was accused
of using deflated footballs,

he did not order
airstrikes on Aleppo.

He screamed
into an UGG boot

while masturbating
into a different UGG boot!

Just a normal,
healthy response

that he does.

Yet there seems
to be some concern

about whether Russia
is actually getting involved

to shore up Syrian dictator
Bashar al-Assad.

And one journalist
tried to bring this up

during a photo op
with John Kerry

and the Russian
foreign minister this week,

but the question was rebuffed
in memorable fashion.

[woman speaks]
[cameras clicking]

We'll do-- We'll do some...

Okay. Okay.
Two things.

First, it is
a sign of how few fucks
Vladimir Putin gives

that that awful man
is one of his diplomats.

And second,
that is the exact moment

when John Kerry realized

he has a terrible job.

Not only does
he have to stop a civil w*r
from spinning out of control,

but now he has to calm a room
that has just witnessed

a foreign minister attempt
to neg a female journalist
into a blow job.

That's a terrible job he has.

So, let's move on to the UN,

the sister organization
of the International
House of Pancakes.

The UN hosted
its general debate this week.

We don't have time
to talk about all of it,

but there were
a few spectacular moments
you may have missed.

First, Robert Mugabe chose
to defend Zimbabwe's laws

on h*m*
with a jarring statement.

We equally reject attempts
to prescribe new rights

that are contrary
to our values,

norms, traditions,
and beliefs.

We are not gays.

Wow. "We are not gays."

And in case you're wondering,
he did not follow that up

by saying, "We are not gays,
because no one is gay

"and no one is straight.

"Sexuality is
a vast beautiful spectrum

"and any attempt
to impose a dichotomy

"upon our shared
human experience

"is both narrow-minded
and oppressive."

He did not say that.

That's not how
he finished that thought.

Also-- Also, Israel's
Benjamin Netanyahu

chose to criticize
the assembly for what he saw
as its indifference to Israel

by essentially engaging
in a staring contest
with the entire room.

The response from nearly

every one of the governments

represented here

has been...

absolutely nothing.

Utter silence.

Deafening silence.

[studio audience laughing]

[studio audience laughing]

That went on for 45 seconds.

I swear that is true.
And staring at a room

for 45 seconds is
never a good idea,

because I guarantee you
half the room thinks
you're a d*ck,

half worries
you might be buffering,

and one guy is desperately
trying to hold in a fart.

That's what happens
in 45 seconds.

But perhaps the strangest
moment of the week

involved Belarusian dictator
Alexander Lukashenko,

who got people talking
simply by how he used
his plus-one.

Woman: This happens to be
the contingent from Belarus.

Who is this young chap?
Man: Yes.
This young gentleman--

it looks like the youngest son
of the president,

Lukashenko,
Alexander Lukashenko.

Yes, Lukashenko brought
his 11-year-old son

to the UN, and why not?

Kids love
the general assembly.

It's like if everyone
from the "It's a Small World"
ride at Disney World

came to life
and hated each other.

And interestingly,
this is not unusual behavior.

In the past, Lukashenko has
brought his son to meet
the Chinese president,

to meet the pope,
and even to military parades

where his son wore
a matching uniform,

like a militaristic Mini-Me.

And if you are thinking,
this could not look any more

like the origin story
of a Bond villain,

you're wrong,
because here is
a final photo of him

showing the former
Russian president
his actual golden g*n.

Listen, world,
if we learned one thing
from the UN this week,

it's that we are going
to need to find

a way of paying
the trillion-dollar ransom

that this kid is
soon going to demand,

or else he kills us all
with his space laser.

And finally--
finally this week,

we move on
to the Secret Service,

the only people
on Earth who can pull off
aviator sunglasses...

Gwyneth.

It has been--
It's been a rough few years
for the Secret Service,

and unfortunately,
this week, there was
yet another scandal.

Some new trouble
for the Secret Service

after a review by the Homeland
Security's Inspector General

found dozens of agents
improperly accessed

Congressman Jason Chaffetz's

unsuccessful job application
for the agency.

That's right.
The Secret Service
attempted to embarrass

one of their biggest critics,
Congressman Jason Chaffetz,

by leaking his rejected
application to join them,

essentially behaving
like a high school table
of mean girls.

[snobbishly]
You only hate us,

because we won't let you
sit with us, Jason.

Don't look at our food.
You're making it uncool.

[scoffs]

[normal voice]
And I don't know
what's worse here--

the fact that
the Secret Service
is so petty

that they broke the law
to embarrass Jason Chaffetz

or the fact
that they're so stupid,

they didn't realize
if you want to embarrass
Jason Chaffetz,

just wait
and he will do it for you.

Just this week, he tried
to ambush the president
of Planned Parenthood

with a seemingly
damaged slide--

damaging slide,
and watch how that went.

Chaffetz: It's the reduction

over the course
of years in pink--

that's the reduction
in the breast exams--

and the red is
the increase in the abortions.

That's what's going on
in your organization.

Richards: This is a slide
that has never been shown
to me before.

Chaffetz: I pulled
those numbers directly out

of your corporate reports.
Oh. Excuse me.

My lawyer's informing me
that the source of this

is actually Americans
United for Life,

which is
an anti-abortion group,

so I would check your source.

Chaffetz:
Then we will get to the bottom
of the truth of that.

You want embarrassing?
That's embarrassing!

And that's a guy
who just announced today
he wants to be House Speaker,

and yet his chart
was so misleading,

a journalist
later pronounced it

"terrible and dishonest,"
saying...

[laughter]

And it's true,
'cause his chart doesn't
even have a "Y" axis...

which means you could
literally write anything
down the side of that,

including "Total number
of angry owls in millions"

or "words ascending
vertically on a line,"

and it would make
just as much sense as his.

And you don't even need charts
to embarrass Jason Chaffetz.

You just need to google him.

We did,
and we immediately found

this photo of him
and Anthony Weiner

looking like
they're being blown
by a pair of goats.

Or-- Or--
That's just the beginning.

Or there's this video
of him taste-testing burgers

on Capitol Hill
and saying this.

Just a very plain
cheeseburger.

Not much excitement
going on in that meat.

Oh. That's-- That's funny.

That's exactly what
that goat was thinking
when it was blowing you.

Or-- Or how about--
how about that time--
[cheers, applause]

how about--
how about that time in 2009,

he got weirdly
choked up about the death
of Abraham Lincoln.

Sadly, only six weeks
into his second term,

the president was shot
and k*lled at Ford's Theatre.



[emotionally]
this humble man
of great courage

and conviction...

[sighs deeply]

continues to be...

one of our country's...

most beloved statesmen.

What? What are
you crying about?

It was 144 years ago!

It's time to move on.

He was going to be dead
by now, anyway!

My point is, Secret Service,
shame on you.

If you had known
anything about Jason Chaffetz,

you should have already known
you cannot embarrass him more

than he can embarrass himself.

And now, this.

[fanfare]
[announcer speaking]

Piperlime is not well-known
to a lot of men.

Jamie Berlin, my producer,
had no idea what it was.

My producer says
it's not a record,

but I'm disagreeing
with him on this.

Man: I really
don't like this stuff,

but our producer,
Anthony Catchatoorian,

felt it was necessary to put
in here, but really terrible.

Man 2:
My producer can't fit
into this dress.

Man 3: As you know,
I wanted to show

the cartoons from the week
of the m*ssacre,

our lily-livered
executive producer,

Tom Johnson, wouldn't let us
do that.

Man 4: And forgive me,
because I did not write this,

or choose this.
This is all our producer.

Do you know what
my supremely intellectual

executive producer
just whispered in my ear?

My producer's telling me
I have to go,

and I'm actually going to take
issue with him later.

My producer has said "Wrap,"
in my ear twice.

My producer said we have
to talk about this

for the next
couple of minutes.

I do not know
who my producer is.

Well, that would be Dave.
I don't even know
who the director is.

[applause]
Moving on.

Our main story tonight
concerns mental illness,

the thing
actors pretend to have
in order to win Oscars.

Now, in real life,

mental health
can be something
of a touchy topic.

We don't like
to talk about it much,

and as one
psychiatrist explains,

when we do,
we don't talk about it well.

Stigma still is
a very big issue.

It manifests itself
in the ways that we think

and talk about
the mentally ill,

in the terms, the words,

that we use
to describe them.
For instance?

Wacko, psycho, cray cray.

Okay. Okay, first,

hearing a bearded
middle-aged man use
the term "cray cray"

may have already k*lled
that word forever.

It's like when your mom says
something is "on fleek."

It's done.
It's just over
at that point.

But second, he is right.

"Cray cray" is
a terrible name

to call someone
with mental illness,

although it is
an excellent name
for a cartoon crayfish

who just won
a scuttling contest.

You did it, Cray Cray!
You won the race!

The point is,
we don't talk about
mental illness well.

Sometimes,
even TV personalities

with "doctor" in their names
can get it disastrously wrong.

Announcer:
On the next "Dr. Oz,"
everybody wants to know...

Should you be worried?
This behavior is...

It's not normal.

Have you gone
completely insane?

I mean, serious-- Have you
gone completely insane?

Completely insane people
go outside,

suck on a rock,
and bark at the moon.

What the f*ck
is wrong with you?

Sucking on a rock
and barking at the moon

is not a sign that someone
is mentally ill.

It's a sign
that they are a wolf
with an iron deficiency.

You're thinking
of anemic wolves, Dr. Phil.

You're getting confused.

But perhaps the clearest sign
of just how little we want
to talk about mental health

is that one of the only times
it's actively brought up is,

as we've seen
yet again this week,

in the aftermath
of a mass sh**ting

as a means
of steering the conversation
away from g*n control.

This isn't g*ns. This is
about, really, mental illness.

In many of these sh**t,
we have people who have

mental disturbances.

Do we need to do
a better job in mental health?

You bet we do.

Yeah, it seems there is
nothing like a mass sh**ting

to suddenly
spark political interest
in mental health.

Although, it's worth noting
that Governor Huckabee's state

got a grade of "D-"

on mental health care
while he was in office.

And you can't lecture people

on something
you got a "D-" in.

It's like passionately
delivering a speech

on proper English grammar
by saying,

"We need to thunk better
about how we does word stuff.

"We need to get it did."

And the aftermath
of a mass sh**ting

might actually
be the worst time
to talk about mental health,

because for the record,
the vast majority

of mentally-ill people
are nonviolent,

and the vast majority
of g*n v*olence

is committed
by non-mentally-ill people.

In fact, mentally ill people
are far likelier to be

the victims of v*olence
rather than the perpetrators.

So, the fact we tend
to only discuss mental health

in a mass-sh**ting context
is deeply misleading.

It would be like
if the only time we talked
about Coca-Cola,

it were
in the context of this.

I'm standing here
with this ice-cold,
thirst-quenching,

deliciously-satisfying
Coca-Cola,

and it actually
tastes better.

Now, more than ever,
Coke is it!

Sure. Sure, that happened
and Coke was undeniably
involved in it,

but most cans of Coke
are not that one,

and it would be unfair
if every time you thought
of Coke, you thought of that.

But if now is
our only opportunity

to have a public discussion
about mental health,

then perhaps we should do it,
because in 2013,

and estimated
dealt with a mental illness,

and an estimated 10 million
of us suffer from a serious
mental illness each year.


That's almost as many people
as live in Greece,

and most of us know
a lot more about Greece

than we know about
our mental health system.

Think about it.
You know at least
three things about Greece.

It's economy is collapsing,
Yanni is from there,

and Greek yogurt tastes
like the ice cream

they'd make in a town
where dancing is illegal.

[laughter]
You know at least three.

And when you look at how
our current system deals
with severe mental illness,

you'll quickly
realize it's a mess
and it always has been.

We used to lock
people up in asylums,

which were often so bad
they were known as snake pits.

And that doesn't sound like
an attractive place to live,
even if you're a snake.

You'd want
some kind of snake loft
or snake bungalow.

I don't know.
I'm no real e-snake agent.

And then-- And then--
[laughter, applause]

And then, in the 1960s,

President Kennedy
signed a bill

to try and close as many
of those asylums as possible.

Kennedy:
Under this legislation,
custodial mental institutions

will be replaced
by therapeutic centers.

It should be possible
within a decade or two

to reduce
the number of patients
in mental institutions

by 50% or more.

And that was
a really good idea,

because when
you see horrible places doing
unspeakable things to people,

you are supposed to try
and shut them down.

That's why there are
so few Quiznos left.

But-- But before
you get too proud,

of the fact that we shut
those snake pits down,

it turns out
we never followed through
and properly funded

the community mental health
centers JFK had wanted
to replace them.

All of those patients
had to go somewhere,

and some of the places
they wound up are shocking.

For instance,
a few years ago,
the AP found that

nearly 125,000 young
and middle-aged mental
health patients

were being placed
in nursing homes.

And it's not a great idea
to just stick a young person

in with some old people
and then hope for the best.

It's like casting
Taylor Lautner

in the new "Best Exotic
Marigold Hotel" movie.

It's unsuitable
for everybody involved in it.

And some states have
been involved in something
called Greyhound therapy,

and unfortunately, that does
not mean getting to hug

a trembling dog who's


It's an even worse
kind of Greyhound--

the kind with four wheels
and a broken toilet.

Man:
This is Rawson-Neal,

the only state-run
psychiatric hospital
in southern Nevada.

Rawson-Neal has been accused
of "Greyhound therapy"--

a practice
critics call unthinkable--

discharging seriously ill
patients too soon,

then supplying them
with a one-way bus ticket
out of town.

I'm sorry, but you cannot

just put people
you'd rather not see
on a bus to another city.

If you could, that's how
every breakup would end.

Look, Greta,
it's not you, it's me,
but on the other hand,

I think you're gonna
really enjoy your new life
in Syracuse.

And we have not
even got into the most
depressingly common place

that people
with mental illnesses
can end up.

Man: Two million people
with mental illness

go to state and local jails
every year.

That's meant
there's now 10 times

more people behind bars

than in state-funded
psychiatric treatment.

That is terrible.

Finding out jails
are our largest provider
of mental health treatment

is like finding out
Lil Wayne lyrics are

our greatest source
of sexual education.

No, Darren,
you can't smack it up,
flip it like a spatula.

Where did
you even learn that?

What does it mean,
"flip it like a spatula"?

Would you like it if I did
that to your mother?
No, you wouldn't.

You wouldn't Darren,
so don't say it.

Look, look, using
the criminal justice system

to treat the mentally ill
isn't just ineffective,

it's expensive
and it's dangerous,

because often
when someone is having
a mental health emergency,

the police will be called,
and that can end tragically.

By some estimates,
an incredible half
of all incidents

involving the police use
of deadly force

involve a mentally-ill person.

And to their credit,
some police departments

are changing
the way they do things,

even creating special units
like this one.

Man: These officers
are experts

in what's called
crisis intervention training.

Man 2: Would you say that
you really don't want to die,

but you want the pain to stop?

Would that be-- Okay.
[woman speaks]

Are you willing to get
some help today?

Man: This woman agrees
to get help.

We'll go in there together.

You'll ride with us.
We're in an unmarked car.

Man: It's all part
of a pioneering program

where the mentally ill
are diverted out of jails
and into treatment.

Okay, well,
that seems really good,

but calling it
a "pioneering program"
is a little heartbreaking.

Pioneering ideas should not
be completely obvious things

we should've
been doing all along.

They should be
outlandish things that push
the limits of the possible,

like a fitted sheet
that's easy to fold,

or marshmallow airbags,

or a sex doll
without such judgy eyes.

Don't look at me
like that, Linda!

I'm lonely,
and we both know it!

Unfortunately, only 15%
of law enforcement agencies

even have crisis intervention
training programs,

let alone special units.

And taking that training
is typically voluntary,

and how can something
so essential to your job
be voluntary?

Take the mascot
for the Tampa Bay Rays.

We don't let him
decide whether or not
to wear that costume,

because without it,
things can get ugly fast.

It's important
for doing his job right.

And look,
that's just a tiny fix.

Our whole system
needs a massive overhaul,
which won't be easy.

The public safety net
for the mentally ill
spans Medicaid--

which is different
across the country--

eight federal agencies

who administer


that in some way
touch on mental health,

and the social
service agencies
in each of the 50 states.

It is a clusterfuck,
except that's an insult
to clusterfucks,

'cause at least in them,
there's the potential
of a satisfying ending.

This is more of a frustrating
cluster-dry-hump of some kind.

And that's not to say there
aren't programs that work.

Let's look at just one--
assertive community treatment.

It's designed to let those
with serious mental illnesses

live in the community
by providing regular
in-home visits

and help coordinating
assistance in things like
housing and employment.

Listen to just
one social worker
explain how it can work.

What makes mental health
might not just be

a visit to your psychiatrist.

It might also mean having
your entitlements in place.

Or it might mean having
your rent paid on time.

So, instead of meeting
with a person

and talking about
how they're doing,
how they feel,

once a month
or twice a month,

what we do is
everything that it takes

to keep people
in the community,
living independently.

That's fantastic.
"Everything it takes"

sounds like
a much better option

than what we've apparently
been trying, which is nothing,

not anything, very few things,

not much, and prison.

And yet, in many states,
assertive community
treatment programs

are in jeopardy,
thanks to everything
from budget cuts

to Medicaid
reimbursement problems,

despite the fact a study found
that these programs pretty
much pay for themselves,

which is fantastic.

Government programs are
like graduate students
on a first date.

If they are able
to pay for themselves,
it's a f*cking miracle!

And look, again,
that's just one program.

There are many more
designed for many different
levels of need,

and we, as a society--
we have to figure out
how to fund them.

Not just because
it makes fiscal sense,

but because
it would save lives.

And if I remember rightly,
there are some politicians

who claim
to be pretty motivated
to address this problem.

This isn't g*ns. This is
about, really, mental illness.

In many of these sh**t,
we have people who have

mental disturbances.

Do we need to do
a better job in mental health?
You bet we do.

Okay, fine. Do it then,

because if we're
going to constantly use
mentally ill people

to dodge conversations
about g*n control,

then the very least
we owe them is a f*cking plan.

And now, this.

[fanfare]
[announcer speaking]

Woman: "Kelly File" exclusive.

Kim Davis will talk to us.

Woman 2:
An ABC News exclusive,

one-on-one with Kim Davis.

Man: Joining us live

for an exclusive
morning interview.

Welcome Senator Rand Paul.

How are you?

Woman 3: An exclusive
interview with Donald Trump

on "Morning Joe."

The polls have been amazing.
Just amazing.

Trump: You're a wonderful show
that I love so much.

We appreciate your time.
Thank you very much.

Moving on. Finally, tonight,

social media-- that thing Cher
almost understands how to use.

Almost.

This week,
a new social media app
got a lot of attention.

It's apparently
like Yelp for people.

A new app called "Peeple"--
with a double "E"--

allows you to rate and review
every person you know

using a one-to-five-star
rating scale--

friends, co-workers,
romantic partners,
even your exes.

Woman: Ooh!

[mockingly] Ooh!

That sounds
absolutely awful.

Yes, there is apparently
a new app coming out

that's being labeled
as "Yelp for People,"

and it's the kind
of bullshit mash-up
that Silicon Valley loves,

like Snapchat for music,
Skype for sandwiches,

Tinder for geese,
Shazam for Kazaam,

and Uber drivers
for SCUBA divers.

As you might expect,

an app that allows people
to rate you as a human being

without your consent has
been met with some concern,

but its creators, frankly,
do not understand why.

Nicole McCullough: We want
to clarify that this isn't--

this isn't a judging website.

We don't want to judge
in the sense of being mean.

We want to actually bring
the better out in people.

Julia Cordray: We want
to be given the opportunity
to prove to you

that the world is
predominantly good,

filled with people
that absolutely love you

and want to lift you up.

I'm sorry.

Have you ever been
on the Internet?

It's basically--
The Internet, let me try
and explain to you what it is.

The Internet is
basically a faucet
[cheers, applause]

that dispenses hate, racism,
and the occasional
sad orgasm.

And yet,
the creators of this app

remain completely oblivious
to its lack of appeal.

Watch this video
that they themselves posted

of them pitching
their app to a cab driver.

We're building
the Yelp for people,

where you can actually
go in our app

and rate and comment
on anybody you know

professionally, personally,
or romantically.

What do you think?
[flatly] Wow.

Wow, right?

That's a good reaction.
"Wow." That's a start.

I'd say
that's a reaction.
Yeah.

Uh...

[exhales sharply]

Oh, that is not
a good reaction.

Generally, when you tell
someone your idea,

you don't want them
to respond with the sound

of their soul
leaving their body.

But wait.
But wait, it gets better.

As backlash to this app
started to spread this week,

in what I'm sure is
a complete coincidence,

one of the app's founders
took to Facebook to ask...

That's right.
The creator of an app

that would allow
people to give each other
unsolicited criticism,

wants to block
unsolicited criticism.

She is opposed
to the very core
of her own idea.

It's like if the CEO
of Airbnb hated sleeping
on strangers' semen.

It would make no sense.
That's what his business is.

And that actually illustrates
the main problem here.

The Internet
essentially exists

so that people
can say vicious things
about each other,

and we don't
need another app
to facilitate that.

What we need is
something which helps
stop people from getting hurt.

That is why we have launched

an new actual website
called...

It gives you all the catharsis

of typing hateful things
about people

into the Internet with none
of the human consequences.

I'll show you how it works.

The way it works is
you simply type whatever
awful thing you're thinking,

hit the button
at the bottom of the page

and the message
will be deleted forever!

It's brilliant!
It's brilliant!

It feels good to get out,
and no one has to hear it.

I encourage you to use it.

And if you still somehow
feel an inexplicable desire

for an app
that will judge you,
we'd like to introduce you

to an even
less harmful alternative.

Announcer: Nowadays,
there's an app for everything.

There are apps to let people
rate restaurants, hotels.

And now, because the world
is a ceaseless nightmare,

there are apps that let people
rate each other.

And, look, no one wants
to be rated by random people.

You want to be rated
by someone you can trust.

That's why
we're launching Peeble,

the only app
where you can be rated

by actor,
director, and producer
Mario Van Peebles.

Hmm.
This sister's mysterious.

I like it. Four stars.

Can you get hepatitis
from a picture?

Umm, one star.

And that's
a five-star cat

with a three-star guy.

Announcer: Getting started
with Peeble is simple.

Download the app,
upload a photo of yourself,

and wait for Mario Van Peebles
to assign you a rating

from one to five stars
based on his initial
impression of you.

I can tell
that girl gets it.
Four stars.

Zero stars.
Is that Steve Buscemi?

I think
that's Steve Buscemi.

[announcer speaks]

Oh! That's a pug
dressed as a pumpkin.

[laughs]
Four stars!

Say what you will--
Say what you will,

that is no dumber an idea
than that stupid Peeple app.

Thank you so much
for watching the show.

Our thanks
to Mario Van Peebles.

We'll see you all next week.
Good night!

[theme music playing]
[cheers, applause]

Ah! Trying too hard.
Two stars.

Mmm. No, not trying
hard enough. Two stars.

Ah. She got a bad attitude.

Four stars.

Now this is a rat-faced
bastard right here.

Two stars.