Watching the inaugural celebration yesterday brought back memories of another presidential swearing in. I was a young reporter at The Washington Post when President Ronald Reagan took his first oath of office in January 1981. Along with another reporter, I was assigned to write a front page story about the throngs of spectators who had come to celebrate. The big political coverage was left to the paper’s heavy-weights,  David Broder, Hayes Johnson, Helen Dewar, and Lou Cannon. I was excited to be part of the team that was covering a historical event and producing a commemorative issue.

I had not way of knowing then — as I walked through the crowds — of  how Reagan would impact our mental health system.

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When I posted this blog in May 2010 there were an estimated 350,000 persons with mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, in American jails and prisons. Incredibly, that number has nearly doubled now, with an estimated half million behind bars. The creation of Mental Health Courts, Intercept Programs, Jail Diversion and Re-Entry Programs has helped slow the tide, but our jails and prisons are still filling up with persons whose only real crime is that they became ill. 

The first time I went into a prison as a reporter was in the mid- 1970s when I worked at the now closed Tulsa Tribune.  The city editor, Windsor Ridenour, assigned me to cover a meeting at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary where the pardon and parole board was convening to decide who would remain behind bars and who would be freed.

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My friend, Dr. Tracey Skale, the chief medical director at the Greater Cincinnati Behavioral Health Services, was  interviewed by a local television channel in Cincinnati about violence and mental health services. I’ve been traveling for several days and only now was able to watch the half-hour interview on NEWSMAKERS .  Dr. Skale made several key points:

1. While the majority of persons with mental illnesses are not dangerous, those with severe mental disorders who are untreated, are more likely to commit violent acts than the general population.

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The preliminary hearing this week for James Eagan Holmes, the alleged shooter who murdered 12 and injured 58 during a July 20, 2012, rampage in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater, is once again raising questions about the insanity defense.
I suspect that the public often doesn’t understand a key point in insanity cases. The determining factor is not whether a person has a mental disorder or even the severity of his illness. It is whether his mental illness prevented him from being able to tell the difference between right and wrong.

Here’s my view on why that’s a poor standard.

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My good friend, Sam Ormes, turned 80 this week! He is an amazing guy. Happy Birthday Sam!

One of the benefits of being a journalist is that you get to meet fascinating people and Sam Ormes is one of the most colorful and delightful that I’ve met. 

While doing research inside the Miami Dade County jail for my book about mental illness, I happened on a tiny cubicle that was crammed with electronic gizmos. I thought that Sam might have been a hoarder because nearly every inch of the space was taken-up by television equipment, cameras, video tapes and stage props, including a rubber chicken hanging on a rope from the ceiling.

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Dr. Leonard Aschenbrand

The right medication proved to be the foundation that my son needed to begin his road to recovery. But as I have written before, it took much more than a pill to help him get his life back on track. A good friend of mine, Sam Ormes, (click his name to read a blog about Sam) recently introduced me to someone who illustrates that point of view.

Dr. Leonard Aschenbrand’s  first serious bout with depression came while he was completing his fourth year of medical school. He became so sick that he was hospitalized for a week. After he was discharged, he returned to his studies,  passed all of his classes and began an internship at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. Again, there were difficult days when he felt deeply depressed, but he managed to plow through them.

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