Bestselling Author and Mental Health Advocate

Matt Milam, another casualty

FROM MY FILES FRIDAY – This blog post, which I published last year, led to Pat Milam being invited to testify before a congressional subcommittee about the difficulties that families face when trying to help a loved one who has a mental disorder. I’m happy to report that Pat has continued with his advocacy since that hearing in a tireless effort to turn a spotlight on the Health Insurance and Portability Accountability Act  (HIPAA) and how some doctors use it avoid talking to family members. Partly because of Pat, Rep. Tim Murphy held a community meeting in Pittsburg to further examine HIPAA.  At that hearing, Charles and Debi Mahoney described the suicide death of their college age son, Chuck. They said HIPAA kept school officials from telling them information that might have helped save Chuck’s life.

What’s your take on HIPAA? Does it do more harm than good? Should there be an exemption when the patient has a mental disorder? Is it important to protecting the privacy of someone with a mental disorder? Good or bad — please share your story with us.

And thanks Republican Rep. Murphy for continuing to hold hearings about our troubled mental health care system. 

A FATHER GRIEVES, NO ONE LISTENED TO THE PARENTS 

Pat Milam knows what it is like to bury a child. But it was not a gunman who murdered his son in  October 2011. It was America’s failed mental health system, the still-grieving father says.

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Want to make a $100 bucks as a writer?

I’m still looking for two additional people to write a blog for me about “a day in the life” of the upcoming NAMI convention. It should be easy. I’m looking for 500 to 800 word blogs about your impressions of the convention based on what you did during a single day. Sorta like one of those “how I spent my summer” essays from junior high school!

Only it needs to be interesting and informative.

I’m only hiring three folks so if you are interested get back to me pronto.

The convention is June 27th to the 30th in San Antonio. I especially want to hear from parents and consumers who are representative of NAMI’s membership, versus journalists, mental health providers, or professional advocacy group members. 

Spread the word that I am looking for help. 

And thanks!

“What caused my son to get sick?” I asked.

The doctor said he didn’t know.

“Will it happen again?

The doctor said he didn’t know. It could happen or it might not.

“Do you know what is wrong with him?”

The doctor said he wasn’t certain.

Welcome to the imprecise world of psychiatry.

On May 22, the American Psychiatric Association will release its new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the so-called Psychiatrists’ Bible, that is used in making a mental health diagnosis. From the moment the APA announced it was revising its DSM, the new edition has come under attack. Most of these early criticisms have been predictable and not especially startling — until April 29th.

That is when Dr. Thomas Insel, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health and a doctor whom I personally admire, published a “director’s blog” that dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bomb into the DSM debate.

Dr. Insel wrote:

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(Read my note at the end of my blog to learn who took this great photo of Trudy.)

I need your help.

I’ve written before about Trudy Harsh, an inspirational local advocate who began buying houses in Fairfax County, Virginia  for persons with brain disorders after her daughter died.  Trudy’s non-profit group, The Brain Foundation, buys the houses and the county’s mental health agency provides tenant services. It’s a win-win combination in a county where a person with a mental illness can wait 18 years before an apartment becomes available.  

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is demanding that Trudy pay $14,413 in property taxes on four of her houses.  The Brain Foundation’s other three houses are located in Fairfax City – but officials there have agreed to “forgive” $10,883 in annual property taxes because they recognize the homes are being used for a charitable cause that is worthy of public support. 

The Fairfax Supervisors are worried that if they grant a wavier to the Brain Foundation, they could be ”opening the floodgates” to other charitable housing groups.

Floodgates? Really? With an 18 year wait — is this a valid concern? If we can help provide more low income and transitional housing by following Trudy’s lead, then I say, bust that damn wide open.

I am certain the county has some sharp witted attorney on its staff who can write a tax exemption that will apply only to the Brain Foundation if the Supervisors are truly worried.

The Brain Foundation houses currently houses 28 people, including three tenants who were homeless, including one who came from a country run shelter. Housing those three tenants has saved the county more than the $14,000 in taxes that it is trying to squeeze out of Trudy’s shoe string group.

This should be a no-brainer for the supervisors.

So how can you help?

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If you are attending the National Alliance on Mental Illness convention June 27th to the 30th in San Antonio and would like to write a blog about your experience please contact me. I am interested in publishing at least three blogs, each between 500 to 800 words, about events at the convention that would be of interest to my readers. You will be paid, but not much. Contact me through my webpage. I am especially interested in hearing from someone who will be attending Robert Whitaker’s talk.

Thank you!

I received word that the U.S. Department of Justice has reached an agreement with Miami Dade County that will end many of the abuses in Miami’s downtown pre-trial detention center chronicled in my book, CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness.

As part of the agreement, the county must build a mental health treatment facility for inmates, estimated to cost between $12 million to $16 million, and make other changes in how it treats prisoners who have mental illnesses.

Miami Judge Steven Liefman got me into the jail more than six years ago where I observed prisoners with mental illnesses being held in overcrowded, unsanitary, abusive and dangerous conditions. After my book was published, he got Michele Gillen, an investigative reporter with the local CBS television affiliate, into the jail where she filmed what I had observed. Our joint efforts helped spark the Justice Department probe.

While I am happy that conditions in the jail are going to be improved,  I am reticent about the Justice Department’s actions.

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