Jamycheal Mitchell died in a Portsmouth jail in August after waiting several months to be sent to a state mental hospital for evaluation.

States continue to close their mental hospitals in favor of community treatment. The argument is always that hospitals are too costly and services can be better rendered in a less restrictive community setting. But history shows us that the savings from shutting hospitals rarely are passed through to community treatment and there are some who question if everyone with a severe mental illness can live independently in a community setting.

Because of neglect and age, Virginia wants to close two hospitals rather than repair them. Here are my thoughts, which I expressed in an Op Ed published 12-27-15 in The Washington Post.

Virginia’s Mental Health Merry-Go-Round

By Pete Earley   The Washington Post 12-27-15

Four months after a mentally ill man died in jail while waiting for a state hospital bed to become available, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) wants to close one state hospital and is laying the groundwork to mothball a second one.

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“This holiday season; please invite someone with mental illness from the streets into your home. Bring them from the last pew in your congregation into the conversation. Reach out to your neighbor who has a mentally ill child and show them your empathy. Yes, I am serious.” Virgil Stucker

Christmas is Patti’s favorite holiday and she spends hours decorating our house, both inside and out. This year, I was delighted when our homeowner association chose her decorations as the best in the neighborhood. (My photo is embarrassingly bad.) I am grateful for her boundless holiday spirit and that we are fortunate enough to have such a lovely home. Both of us want to extend our best wishes to you during this holiday season. We hope you will enjoy great mental health this coming year and remember others who have a mental illness, especially those who are in our jails, prisons, in hospitals and homeless on our streets.

Virgil Stucker, who contributes to my blog occasionally, recently wrote a Christmas   letter to his friend, Dr. Allen J. Frances, at the Huffington Post about the season and “society’s castaways.” I want to share it with you. Virgil writes:

“I have lived most of the last 40 years in nonprofit healing communities with people who are diagnosed with mental illness. My family and I often walk with, dine with, socialize with, work with, and play with people who too often are treated as society’s castaways. 

Over these years, my wife Lis and I have had several thousand such people join us at our daily table. We, along with my parents, our four children, their spouses and partners, and our seven grandchildren are fortunate to have formed lifelong friendships and had life-altering experiences living in healing communities.   

We know first-hand that people with mental illness are much more human than otherwise; trusting and loving human beings, if only given the chance and offered the social context. 

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(12-21-2015) My wife, Patti, suggested we watch a newly released  documentary on Netflix last weekend called Making A Murderer and we were so disturbed by its shocking portrayal of justice in America’s heartland that we saw all ten episodes back-to-back.

I had a special interest because in the early 90s, a young Alabama attorney named Bryan Stevenson told me that he was representing an African American man on death row who was innocent.

As Patti and I watched the documentary, I kept having flashbacks about that murder case. What I heard being mouthed by Wisconsin prosecutors and detectives was shockingly similar to the sort of rationalization I heard in Alabama.

At first glance, it seemed unlikely that Bryan’s client, Johnny D. McMillian, was innocent.

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Less than twelve hours after I posted a blog about a family’s campaign to get their fifteen year-old daughter treatment for Anorexia Nervosa, Aetna Insurance announced it would permit “Jenny” to see doctors at a facility that was not “in network.”

Aetna had paid for Jenny to be hospitalized five times at “in network” treatment centers but her condition had not improved. Anorexia Nervosa, a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder is characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss. When Aetna insisted that Jenny return to the same providers for a sixth time, her parents consulted outside experts who recommended Oliver Pyatt, a facility in South Miami that specializes in treating difficult anorexia nervosa cases. Unfortunately, it was not on Aetna’s approved list.

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A family frustrated by Aetna Insurance is going public with its story in what is becoming a growing trend — turning for support, outrage and help through social media.

In November 2013, “Jenny” was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa, a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss. The family’s insurance company, Aetna, agreed to pay for treatment but only at facilities that were “in-network.”  Two years later, the now fifteen year-old’s condition has worsen much to the alarm of her parents.

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Bryan Stevenson’s number one bestselling book, JUST MERCY, describes his heroic efforts to free Johnny D. McMillian from Alabama’s death row. That case is the subject of my book, CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE, which first spotlighted Bryan’s successful campaign in 1996. My book won both a Robert F. Kennedy award and Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious Edgar.

Buy both as holiday gifts to get all of the details about how Bryan saved an innocent man’s life.

Here’s a recap of what books are available as gifts.

An audio sample of Duplicity, my newest novel.

Sent to inspect a Pakistan prison for human rights violations, NGO Attorney Christopher King encounters a bribe-seeking warden and becomes entrapped in a Taliban attack in this short audio snippet from DUPLICITY, my new action/suspense novel co-authored with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Duplicity

My newest, DUPLICITY is the first in a two-book series that Speaker Gingrich and I are writing that features two heroic Marines  — Capt. Brooke Grant, a African American military attache, and Sgt. Walks Many Miles, a Crow Indian embassy guard, in a battle against The Falcon, a charismatic terrorist forging an alliance between radical jihadist factions in Africa. It’s been described as a House of Cards and Jason Bourne thriller.

Resilience

If you prefer non-fiction, consider RESILIENCE: TWO SISTERS AND A STORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS, the autobiography that I helped Jessie Close write about her recovery from mental illness and addictions. Jessie speaks frankly about her bipolar disorder, suicide attempts, failed marriages and the resilience that eventually led to her healing and recovery in this lively, witty and poignant book that includes vignettes by her famous actress sister, Glenn Close.

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