Carla Mckean, MA LMFT, LADC, ADR

For over 20 years, I've been working in the behavioral health field, holding active licenses as a MN/WI marriage and family therapist and a MN addiction counselor. Oh, and let's not forget my work as a family law mediator and holding a Wisconsin substitute K-12 teaching license. I mean, who knows when that might come in handy, right? I also make a living owning an outpatient mental health group practice and practicing as a mental health/addiction therapist, which gives me vast insights into many systemic problems in our country. In my free-time, I work as an adjunct instructor at a local community college, teaching courses in Substance Use disorder Counseling. As a wife and mother of 4, I enjoy downhill snow skiing, river rapid kayaking, kickboxing and spending time with my family and friends. I am also a recovering individual for over 20 years and have experienced near death addiction, which has led me to dedicate my life to helping others. Listen to me ramble about health care on Unraveling Success.

In my past life, I worked in bankruptcy law, html/sql coding and graphic/web design. Throughout my education and experience working with family and community systems, I have discovered overlapping systemic problems. When I am doing addiction and mental health therapy, my brain creates connections  between human behavior and systemic variables, allowing me to apply my experience in family law, bankruptcy law, coding and logic. I have developed the ability to cross-cut community systems, family systems, behavioral health, and law systems with coding and logic. 

Below are topics that I have discovered are interconnected, systemically, to chronic disease, mental illness, suicide, gun violence, abortion, infertility, government censorship, addiction and the overall decline of the US.  My experiences are gained from my diverse work experience as a business owner, healthcare provider, educator and systemic thinker:

• The insanity of the IRS and tax laws and the interconnectedness it has to mental health, obesity, chronic stress and death: The IRS themselves do not understand their own tax laws. I can sit on hold for 2 hours waiting for someone to answer the phone and then the person says, "sorry, you seem to be correct, we will make changes on our end and note the system". And then 2 months later they will send the exact same notice that requires a 2 hour phone wait. The representative on the phone says "the law changed, but our system is not updated". Can you imagine if you were a 20 year-old trying to figure out how to file your own taxes? It would be depressing and make someone want to hide under their covers and avoid life. A study was done by Morgan, et al, (2021), analyzing the correlation between a more generous state tax credit and suicide. A 10% more generous tax credit resulted in a 4% reduction in lethality of suicide attempts. This is just state generosity. Can you imagine if this was a federal generosity as well? The study only looked at actual suicide attempts being less lethal. It didn't even consider all the people that would have attempted suicide, but chose not to, as a result of the generous tax credit.  Tax law dysfunction also impacts chronic disease, mental health symptoms, obesity, shootings, etc.
• Big Tech and Political Censorship: While trying to advertise on google, for my business, I discovered Google’s censorship and prevention of advertising for addiction treatment , amongst  100”s of other restrictions. Ironically, pornographic content prevails on youtube (google owns youtube). So, let me get this straight, a kid can develop an internet  or porn addiction on google, but parents can’t find treatment on google unless it is randomly (according to google’s secret search algorhythms), populated on page one of the search results? The irony in my case is that I wasn’t even trying to advertise addiction treatment. It was for a mental health therapist who shares a last name with a popular congressman! The censorship approach to governing and doing business is killing our people. It is discouraging, shame-producing and leaves our people isolated, resentful and depressed. Lee Jussim does a great job laying out the impacts of censorship on mental health. 
• Family Law System Inequities: In my practice as a therapist and family law mediator, I have been baffled by the unjust family law system responsible for taking children away from fathers and families in the child protection system. Did you know it is virtually illegal in all 50 states, for an unmarried father to have parenting rights and custody when his child is born? This law causes all sorts of problems! An example, kids do not have their fathers in their lives, which causes trauma to the children. Additionally, the father is not allowed in his own kid's life unless he has thousands of dollars to spend on court and attorney's fees. And, being raised with no father doesn't help, it results in the term, "dead beat dad," which makes fathers who want to be involve, feel horrible. There are many systemic problems that come from this one outdated and archaic law. This is by no means an attack on men, it brings to light the great injustice we have done to society, in which, we have attempted to lift up minorities by putting men down. No amount of discouragement to anyone ever resulted in people becoming good. This system leaves our people feeling discouraged, suicidal, depressed, addicted, violent, resentful and isolated. It causes chronic stress and disease. According to Langsford, having the father in the life of the child has a huge impact on the wellbeing of the child throughout their life.
• The decline of our k-12 and higher education system while lacking an innovative response to the change in technology advancements and basic human needs. In my spare time, I'm an adjunct instructor at a local community college, where I've had the pleasure of witnessing the steady decline in education amidst AI’s advancements. I also watch my children go to school, all day, to learn things they can learn on the internet, while the school could be focusing on necessary job skills, how to do self-care, self sooth, communicate effectively, solve complex problems, work in teams, obtain and hold a job, teaching them advanced computer skills and helping the improve their self-worth, etc. Some would say that this is my responsibility as a parent. I do my best, probably better than many other parents.  But, I spend my free-time as a business-owner, on the phone with the IRS, arguing with third party payers, arguing with google, finding errors made by my certified, but inept, accountant and legal representation or going to the doctor for a prescription that I could get over-the-counter in other countries. I understand many others that are not business owners may not spend time dealing with these types of business issues, but they also have to work 2 jobs to pay the bills and simply do not have time to give their kids the nurturing and support that they need. The government and big companies seem to be squeezing every last ounce of energy out of the people to fill their own pocket books or to win the next election.

Sources:   Sources: Morgan ER, DeCou CR, Hill HD, Mooney SJ, Rivara FP, Rowhani-Rahbar A. State earned income tax credits and suicidal behavior: A 

              repeated cross-sectional study. Prev Med. 2021 Apr;145:106403. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106403. Epub 2021 Jan 1. PMID: 33388334. 

• CounselingKidsAndAdults.com
• MckeanMediation.com
• USPoliticalTrauma.com
• Master's Literature Review, (2011)  Adolescents and Stimulant Drinks: The Implications of Popular Stimulant Drinks and Nutritional Supplements on Adolescent Development