Courtesy of Pixabay

(2-9-22) Why do individuals become mental health advocates?  For Geoffrey Melada, it was his father’s suicide. Why are you involved? Please share your stories on my Pete Earley Facebook.

The Biggest Case of My Life

By Geoffrey Melada

I remember the first time I argued before a judge. I was representing the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania 17 years ago in a preliminary hearing for aggravated assault on a child.

In the long and contentious hearing, I was up against a very experienced criminal defense attorney, and I was a mere law school trainee. But after making my very first objection (“calls for speculation”) and delivering an impassioned summation, I won the hearing and the felony charge was held for trial.

Over the next seven years of my career as a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, I tried more than 200 cases, including 33 jury trials to verdict. But there was one case I never got to argue, the one with the highest personal stakes for me.

I never got to argue for my father’s life. He died by suicide just three days before my 17th birthday.

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Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

(2-2-22) Psychiatric medications were essential to my adult son’s recovery. If someone can control the symptoms without drugs, I am happy for them because medications are powerful and some have awful side effects.  But during my nearly two decades of traveling the country and visiting other nations, I have not encountered a better alternative than medications for those with serious mental illnesses, especially schizophrenia. Recently, Stephen Shenfield, sent me an email explaining why he has fought to keep his daughter, Meili, off psychiatric medications. She does not have a mental illness. She is autistic, but Mr. Shenfield explained that programs for her often demanded that she be given psychiatric medications. I’d not considered how being a parent of an adult with autism might deal with medications so I am sharing a blog that he sent me.  

Keeping Meili Off Psychiatric Drugs

By Stephen Shenfield

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Courtesy of pixabay

(1-27-22) While I dislike reposting news articles, this frightening Washington Post story by reporter Kyle Swenson should be widely distributed. Many homeless individuals have serious mental illnesses. With the appearances of tent cities in major cities, attitudes have hardened. Many communities have passed laws making homeless encampments illegal. Others have bulldozed them, arresting their occupants for trespassing. There is a reason why homeless Americans tend to congregate together for their own safety. We have to stop marginalizing those living on the streets. 

(Warning: this is disturbing to read.)

Serial Murders, Beatings and Beheadings: violence against the homeless is increasing, advocates say.

By Kyle Swenson, published in The Washington Post.

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Danny and Teresa

(1-24-22) For more than 20 years, Teresa Pasquini has been fighting to get her son, Danny, the housing and treatment that he deserves. She has written extensively about the challenges that they have faced and openly about what worked and hasn’t worked in California. Recently, she and fellow advocate, Lauren Rettagliata, traveled together to inspect 22 different California housing facilities, and issued a white paper called Housing That Heals. 

Crawling Through Glass in Search of Housing That Heals

By Teresa Pasquini

I am the proud mom of an adult son who lives heroically with a serious mental illness. He was diagnosed in his teens and has spent the majority of his adult life in locked psychiatric facilities. Until recently, there had been nothing civil or right about my son’s care.

The past 20 years have been a blur of suicide attempts, over 40 involuntary holds, revolving hospitalizations, homelessness and incarceration. Even though we had resources, insurance and my full-time ability to navigate a maze of services in one of the most integrated healthcare systems in our country.

It was still a nightmare.

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(1-19-22) A new Covid related issue involving patients at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in the District of Columbia has surfaced. The hospital was successfully sued in 2020 after 14 deaths and 100 infections caused by Covid. Federal Judge Randolph Moss noted that “roughly one out of every twenty patients has died and more than one out of every three patients have been infected” and found that there is “an imminent risk to [patients’] health and well-being, and the consequences of contracting the virus are irreparable.”

Now, questions are being raised about whether hospital administrators have gone from not doing enough to doing too much by keeping patients locked on wards for long quarantine periods.

With rising Covid infections, the hospital adopted a color coded system to control Covid spread.

All patients and staff are now tested weekly, although patients can refuse. If a patient tests positive, the unit where that patient is housed is labeled red. If a staff member tests positive, the unit is labelled yellow. In both situations, the unit is put on a full 14-day quarantine.

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Michael Pollack, DBSA photo

(1-17-22) In the last of this series, Michael Pollock, the CEO of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, today answers the four questions that I have been posing this month to leaders of mental health organizations – asking each about 2021 accomplishments, 2022 priorities and why each of them were drawn to mental health work. I was especially pleased to have received Mr. Pollock’s replies because my son, Kevin, attended DBSA meetings and the group was helpful to his recovery. 

What was DBSA’s biggest accomplishment during 2021?

According to data provided by the CDC Mental Health Household Pulse Survey, 42.% of Americans reported experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety in December 2020. This is a 133% increase from pre-pandemic rates. Further, non-Hispanic Blacks have reported a disproportionate increase in symptoms since the pandemic began, not unlike the disproportionate rate of COVID-19 positive tests results among the Black community. This crisis is further compounded by barriers to care often faced by people with mood disorders and other mental health conditions, particularly with individuals from traditionally marginalized communities.

The Depression and Bipolar Alliance (DBSA) has earned a favorable reputation to successfully train people with lived experience to become state-certified peer support specialists, who’s professional role is to foster hope and serve as a valuable role model for those who are walking the road to wellness. Training, however, is only the first step toward achieving certification. Depending on the state, individuals are required to earn supervised hours in a behavioral health or other employment setting to gather hands-on experience. Insurance will not reimburse for this work and health care employers are under resourced and, therefore, can’t or won’t offer this group paid employment. Most who are interested in pursuing profession are stymied by the practical realities that they must earn a living.

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