Stranger Rescues Son In Hawaii, Escorts Him Home To Montana

by Pete Earley

(8-9-17) It’s important to report stories that document how difficult it is to get meaningful mental health care in our nation. Here’s a recent email exchange sent to me Dr. Gary Mihelish, president of National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter in Helena, Montana and a long time mental health advocate.

Dear Dr. Mihelish,

My son who has schizophrenia or more likely schizoeffective disorder was released from St. Peter’s hospital and became manic. He bought a one way ticket to Kona, Hawaii. He’s been off his medications since he went the first week of March.

He’s at the point now where he will likely die in Hawaii if I can’t get him back and get him a place to stay. Helena would be better than Bozeman because we currently have no services.

He’s been on the waiting list in Bozeman for housing. I’m not sure where he is at.

Do you guys have any contacts or people I can contact?   John has been in the ER in Hawaii but doesn’t meet criteria to stay. He’s not able to respond or function. He keeps getting all his stuff stolen and currently only has the clothes and flip flops he’s wearing.

He’s not able to stay with me – so I need to step back and let others care for him -all I can do is be a cheerleader for him.

Thank you for any suggestions you may have.

Susan,

Dear Susan,

My first quick thought. Go to the NAMI website and get the number for NAMI Hawaii. Then call them and ask them if they have any thoughts. I will follow up with you later. Gary

Thanks Gary. Called NAMI Hawaii and found they aren’t functioning well.

But a kind lady found my son standing across from the ER in Hawaii since he was discharged because that’s how much he’s not functioning. He’s really gone downhill. 3.5 months off his medications would cause that.

I need to get him back from Hawaii but he’ll need treatment and meds first. And a place to stay after that.

Just giving an update.

Susan

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Great Summer Reads About Mental Illness and More – Well Worth Your Time

by Pete Earley

(8-4-17) Books, books and more books. Summer is the time for reading, especially if you are at the beach. Here are several books for you to consider. Feel free to add your own on my Facebook page.

Mental Illness

Everyone is taking about No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America by Ron Powers. He drew a big and well-deserved crowd at NAMI’s national convention when he spoke about his book, which combines the history of mental illness with his own family’s story. Kirkus Reviews gave it a starred review, signifying its quality.

”Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Powers (Mark Twain: A Life, 2005, etc.) presents two searing sagas: an indictment of mental health care in the United States and the story of his two sons with schizophrenia …. This hybrid narrative, enhanced by the author’s considerable skills as a literary stylist, succeeds on every level.”

The New York Times Book Review raved:

“Extraordinary and courageous . . . No doubt if everyone were to read this book, the world would change.”

STORIES FROM THE SHADOWS: Reflections of A Street Doctor by Dr. James J. O’Connell remains the best book that I’ve ever read about a kind-hearted street doctor helping the homeless.

“This volume instantly and irrevocably transports you into a fascinating universe of individuals usually invisible to us… often faceless and nameless, lost in plain sight, and forced to live on the fringes of society. But this volume makes unforgettable those who are usually forgotten. The riveting stories presented here capture each life in such moving and vivid detail that you will be forever changed.”

COMMITTED: The Battle Over Involuntary Psychiatric Care by Drs. Dinah Miller and Annette Hanson educates readers about the never-ending argument sparked by Assisted Outpatient Treatment and involuntary care. An important book that puts human faces on the civil rights vs forced care debate.

“In Committed, psychiatrists Dinah Miller and Annette Hanson offer a thought-provoking and engaging account of the controversy surrounding involuntary psychiatric care in the United States. They bring the issue to life with first-hand accounts from patients, clinicians, advocates, and opponents. Looking at practices such as seclusion and restraint, involuntary medication, and involuntary electroconvulsive therapy―all within the context of civil rights―Miller and Hanson illuminate the personal consequences of these controversial practices through voices of people who have been helped by the treatment they had as well as those who have been traumatized by it.”

INSANE CONSEQUENCES: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill by D.J. Jaffe is a thoroughly researched attack on the status quo and those who profit from it while demanding that more attention be paid to serious disorders.

“DJ Jaffe blames the mental health industry and the government for shunning the 10 million adults who are the most seriously mentally ill–mainly those who suffer from schizophrenia and severe bipolar disorder–and, instead, working to improve “mental wellness” in 43 million others, many of whom are barely symptomatic.”

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Dr. McCance-Katz Confirmed By Senate In Voice Vote To Be Trump Administration’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Czar

by Pete Earley

UPDATE: On Friday afternoon (8-4), a spokesperson for Rep. Tim Murphy (R.-Pa.) issued the following statement about Dr. McCance-Katz’s confirmation.

Congressman Murphy looks forward to working with the new Assistant Secretary to fulfill the promises made in the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. Likewise, now more than ever, it’s crucial to work together to turn the tide on our nation’s opioid and addiction crisis, the worst drug crisis in United States history.

(8-3-17) Dr. Elinore F. McCance-Katz was confirmed by a voice vote this afternoon in the U.S. Senate as the Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), who drafted the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act that created the new position, had objected to Dr. McCance-Katz’s nomination when the White House and HHS Sec. Tom Price announced it.

His amended legislation was merged into the 21st Century Cures Act, which was signed into law during the final days of the Obama Administration.

By creating an Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Rep. Murphy said he hoped to give mental health and addiction services a higher prominence in the federal bureaucracy. Murphy, the only practicing psychologist in Congress, began pushing for major federal mental health reforms after the Newtown shootings. He’d backed a different candidate for the post but could not vote since the new job required Senate approval and not confirmation by House members.

As the first ever assistant secretary, Dr. McCance-Katz will be the Trump administration’s defacto mental health and substance abuse czar, whose duties will include overseeing the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Before being confirmed today, Dr. McCance-Katz was the chief medical officer for the state Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals in Rhode Island.

In 2013, she worked as SAMHSA’s first chief medical officer but left the federal government for the Rhode Island position after only two years. In a critical essay published in the Psychiatric Times, Dr. McCance-Katz wrote that SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services, which administers federal mental health programs, ignored serious mental illnesses and evidenced based practices in favor of feel-good recovery programs that were politically popular but did little to help persons diagnosed with debilitating disorders.

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My Letter Chastising Washington Post Columnist For Derogatory Terms

by Pete Earley

(8-3-17) Trying to put an end to comments that stigmatize and marginalize individuals with mental illnesses is much like attempting to empty an Olympic size swimming pool with a spoon. But sometimes, I get so frustrated that I feel compelled to speak out.

Such was the case Sunday when I read a column in my former employer, The Washington Post, questioning the president’s mental stability. The newspaper published my Letter to the Editor response this morning.

Regardless of your political beliefs, no one should use the hurtful phrases that political columnist Dana Milbank used in his column to describe anyone nor should they argue that we need to automatically lower expectations whenever someone has a mental illness.

Letters to the Editor

Opinion

This insulted people with mental illnesses and their loved ones

Dana Milbank’s July 30 Sunday Opinion column, “What do we do if Trump really is crazy?,” insulted Americans living with mental illnesses and those who love them. Putting politics aside, terms such as “madman,” “barking mad,” “mad as a March hare,” “off his rocker,” “ ’round the bend” and “a few fries short of a Happy Meal” demean, marginalize and ridicule individuals who often have serious brain disorders.

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Dr. McCance-Katz Breezes Through Confirmation Hearing On Her Way To Become New Mental Health/Substance Abuse Czar

by Pete Earley

(8-1-17) Dr. Elinore F. McCance-Katz, the Trump Administration’s nominee to become the Department of Health and Human Service‘s first Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse breezed through her confirmation hearing this afternoon.

She appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), one of the final hurdles before she can assume oversight of the 8 federal agencies and 112 federal programs that deal with mental health and substance abuse.

Dr. McCance-Katz said her top priorities would be dealing with the opioid crisis and focusing on serious mental illnesses.

As expected, most of the questions from the HELP committee centered on the opioid crisis, but Sens. Bill Cassidy (R.-La.) and Chris Murphy (D.-Conn.) zeroed in on mental illness. This was not surprising because they were responsible for introducing the Senate version of Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Tim Murphy’s Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, which created the Assistant Secretary position. A much altered version of the original House bill became law in December during the waning days of the Obama administration.

Both senators told Dr. McCance-Katz that they expected her to use the “tools” and “powers” that the new law gives her to break down silos and force federal agencies to begin cooperating and coordinating their efforts.

Sen. Cassidy, who also is a medical doctor, specifically criticized SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) calling it “dysfunctional.”

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Unable To Find Help For His Son, New Yorker Creates Alternative To Prison For The Seriously Ill And Drug Offenders

by Pete Earley

First of its kind program in nation scheduled to open next year.

(7-31-17) Morgan first began acting out when he was two years old. His behavior only got worse as he aged. His parents were given a number of conflicting diagnoses. None good.

At one point, his parents hired a live-in young counselor, who Morgan liked, to help them deal with their son’s outbursts. Next came a Connecticut boarding school for students with a wide range of disruptive issues from anxiety to Asperger’s to bipolar disorder. Despite that school’s stellar reputation, Morgan stole a car at age fourteen and went on a joy ride. By the time he was sixteen, he had been kicked out of four schools. Desperate, his parents sent him to a residential treatment center in Utah for “troubled teens.”

That helped, but not for long.

Pressured by a friend at age sixteen, he attempted to rob a taxi driver in Manhattan. A year later, paranoid and delusional, he called the police and reported that he was being followed. When they ignored him, he gathered all of the trash where he was living, put it on his stove and started a fire, believing firefighters would come and rescue him.

He was arrested for arson. A judge sentenced Morgan to five years in a New York prison.

Morgan’s father, Francis J. Greenburger, pleaded with a prosecutor. With Morgan’s ten inch thick medical file in hand, Greenburger persuaded the prosecutor to give Morgan a break. He would be sent to a mental health treatment facility instead of Riker’s Island if his father could find a locked, treatment facility where he could serve his sentence.

Morgan’s father wasn’t some ordinary Joe. A high school drop out at age fifteen, Francis Greenburger was a self-made, multi-millionaire who oversaw more than 25-million-square-feet of prime real estate in Manhattan, nationally and internationally. He also owned one of New York’s most respected literary agencies. (An agent associated with his firm represented my first three books.) With his wealth, his social influence, his grit and his loving determination to help his son, Greenburger began his search.

Greenburger later told me, the prosecutor had “sent me on a fool’s errand. None existed.”

Despite Morgan’s well documented history of mental illness, Greenburger watched his son taken away in handcuffs and leg shackles bound for Riker’s Island, a notorious facility where few with mental illnesses emerge in better condition from when they entered.

For a loving dad such as Greenburger that was unacceptable. If he couldn’t help his son, he would help others. If there was no alternative to prison, he would build one.

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Stranger Rescues Son In Hawaii, Escorts Him Home To Montana

Great Summer Reads About Mental Illness and More – Well Worth Your Time

Mental Illness

Dr. McCance-Katz Confirmed By Senate In Voice Vote To Be Trump Administration’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Czar

My Letter Chastising Washington Post Columnist For Derogatory Terms

This insulted people with mental illnesses and their loved ones

Dr. McCance-Katz Breezes Through Confirmation Hearing On Her Way To Become New Mental Health/Substance Abuse Czar

Unable To Find Help For His Son, New Yorker Creates Alternative To Prison For The Seriously Ill And Drug Offenders

First of its kind program in nation scheduled to open next year.

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Stranger Rescues Son In Hawaii, Escorts Him Home To Montana

Great Summer Reads About Mental Illness and More – Well Worth Your Time

Mental Illness

Dr. McCance-Katz Confirmed By Senate In Voice Vote To Be Trump Administration’s Mental Health and Substance Abuse Czar

My Letter Chastising Washington Post Columnist For Derogatory Terms

This insulted people with mental illnesses and their loved ones

Dr. McCance-Katz Breezes Through Confirmation Hearing On Her Way To Become New Mental Health/Substance Abuse Czar

Unable To Find Help For His Son, New Yorker Creates Alternative To Prison For The Seriously Ill And Drug Offenders

First of its kind program in nation scheduled to open next year.

Categories

Search the Site

Popular Posts

Testimonials

Press

About Pete Earley

Latest Posts from the Blog

Get Free Email Updates