Advocate Gabe Howard speaking at prestigious Oxford University in England. (Photo courtesy of Gabe Howard.)

(12-6-22) All too often, the only stories about individuals with serious mental illnesses that make the news are sad and depressing. So I was thrilled when I learned that Gabe Howard, who has written in the past for this blog, recently was invited to the Oxford Union to speak about whether the Internet is helpful or harmful for individuals with mental illnesses.

That’s the Oxford Union at the University of Oxford in England where there is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second-oldest university in continuous operation.

Previous speakers have included former President Bill Clinton, Albert Einstein, Morgan Freeman, and Mother Teresa.

“To go from thinking demons were chasing me and being committed to a psychiatric hospital and now I was invited to — and did — speak at Oxford University?” Gabe wrote in an email to me. “Even I can’t string together the words to explain how that happened. It’s beyond amazing. It’s a real testament to the power of the patient voice and to advocacy in general that I was even considered, let alone selected.”

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(12-1-22) I am tired of hearing politicians claim that our broken mental health care system is the cause for mass shootings in America. And yes, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin that includes you.

While individuals with serious mental illnesses have committed atrocities, such as the murders at Virginia Tech, Newtown, and Denver, those mass homicides are not representative of the more than 600 mass shootings so far this year. ( A mass shooting is an event where a minimum of four victims are shot, either injured or killed, not including the shooter.)

NBC’s Meet The Press broadcast a clip of Youngkin on Sunday blaming recent mass murders in Virginia, Colorado and Idaho on our “mental health crisis.” He was one of numerous Republicans who are quick to cite mental illness as the root of mass homicides.

I’m not interested in debating gun control, but I am growing angry about this nonsense. It just isn’t accurate.

Let’s look at the recent shootings that Gov. Youngkin mentioned.

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Treatment Advocacy Center’s Lisa Dailey accepts award. (Peg’s foundation photo.)

(11-15-22) The Ohio based Peg’s Foundation recently announced recipients of its 2022 Morgan Impact Awards for mental health and chose the Treatment Advocacy Center for its Excellence in Advocacy award. TAC’s Executive Director Lisa Dailey accepted the award on behalf of the non-profit organization.

The Morgan Impact Awards, established in 2010, recognize individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievements in mental health, education and the arts.

Peg’s Foundation is one of the larger mental health foundations. It was endowed by Margaret ‘Peg” Clark Morgan and her husband Burton whose son, Dave, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Despite the family’s wealth, they struggled to find suitable treatment for Dave. “(Peg) was a mom who loved her son and wanted the best for him, and this illness wouldn’t always allow that for him,” recalled Rick Kellar, Peg’s Foundation President. “They couldn’t find the help and support to fulfill his needs to recover.” Peg Morgan died in 2013 at age 95.

The Foundation’s goal is to “promote and help implement promising and evidence-based practices that can create the immediate and urgently-needed opportunities to improve the lives of people with serious mental illness and their families.” It listed assets worth $106 million and annual revenues of $40 million in its most recent public filing. (Click here to read about Peg and Burton “Burt” D. Morgan’s personal life and business acumen.)

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Overcrowded hospitals. Patients on gurneys in hallways

(10-24-22) How long must you wait to get a loved one into a psych bed in your community?

The last time that I checked, the average wait time nationally in a hospital emergency room for a NON-LIFE threatening emergency was four hours. The average wait time for a psychiatric problem was FOUR DAYS.

We all know why. It started with the closing of state mental hospitals and got worse with little funding for community services. Hospitals traditionally lose money on psych beds. They make much more of surgical and other beds. So hospitals began shutting down they psychiatric wards. Many ERs are reluctant to accept patients in the midst of a psychiatric crisis. The requirement of immediate danger gives some hospitals an excuse for turning folks away. Those with the most serious illnesses – schizophrenia – are the quickest to be shown the doors.

My former employer, The Washington Post, published an example of what is happening today because of our dwindling supply of psychiatric beds.  Thank you Reporter William Wan for educating the public about this travesty.

By William Wan

Reprinted from The Washington Post.

By his fourth week waiting for help in the emergency room, Zachary Chafos’s skin had turned pale white from lack of sun.

His mother, Cheryl Chafos, bathed her autistic teenage son daily in the ER’s shower, trying to scrub the sickly pallor off him. His father, Tim Chafos, held the 18-year-old’s hand, trying to soothe his son’s pain and confusion over what was happening.

They’d brought Zach to Howard County General Hospital on Nov. 12, 2020, amid a severe mental crisis. All his life, he’d been the joyful center of their family. But after months of pandemic isolation, Zach had become uncontrollably angry and begun physically assaulting his parents and his younger brothers.

Now he and his parents found themselves in medical purgatory, waiting for psychiatric treatment that never seemed to arrive. Every day, Zach’s case manager in the ER would call to see if a psychiatric bed had opened up. Every day, the answer was no.

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Vince with his mother, Dr. Claudia Granata, before her murder.

(10-18-22) Individuals with mental illnesses are more likely to be victims of crimes, rather than perpetrators. But a small percentage commit violent crimes and, what too often goes unnoticed, is that much of this violence is aimed at their own family members and caregivers.

A study published in the Clinical Social Work Journal noted that family violence has increased during the Covid crisis.

“Although most persons living with serious mental illness (SMI) do not act violently, this population is at a modestly increased risk of engaging in violence, with family members being the most common victims. Consequently, evidence suggests that a sizable minority of family members—many of whom are caregivers—have experienced violence by their relative with SMI. The risk of conflict and violence in families of persons with SMI is likely currently heightened due to a range of challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., interruption in treatment services and the occurrence of arguments while sheltering in place together).”

Two men whose lives were dramatically changed by family violence recently contacted me. Though their friendship may seem unlikely (because they come from different vantage points), they are now speaking out to help others and to push for treatment before tragedy.

Mother Is Murdered

“My family’s story is a tragic one,” Vince Granata told me in an email. “My little brother, Tim, began struggling with schizophrenia. At nineteen, away from home at college, his world transformed. He became convinced that his landlord was poisoning his food, that one of his classmates wore a necklace that was a demonic amulet, that shadows chased him across campus. Over the next three years, Tim struggled to find support and received only intermittent help from his college’s counseling services. Eventually, he returned home to our mother’s care.”

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