A funny thing happened recently when a man approached me after I gave a speech and said: “Hi, I’m Pete Earley.” 
Tag Archive for 'Minds on the Edge'
I had planned to write today about my trip out of the snow-bound Washington D.C. area to Los Angeles where I toured Skid Row and the Twin Towers, which is the nickname for the city jail. As many of you know, the jail is the largest public mental institution in the U.S.
However, I decided to wait until Monday to post that account because of the police shooting here in Fairfax, Va. that put Ian Smith, a person with mental illness, into the hospital in critical condition.
Continue reading ‘What should we do when there is a shooting?’
Mike’s first breakdown happened in 2001 and since then he has been seen by nine different psychiatrists – some private, some in emergency rooms, some in community treatment programs. As best as I can tell, only two of them – that’s right two of them – have bothered to learn anything more about him than his name and symptoms.
I remember confronting one of Mike’s first doctors when I realized that he had only spent ten minutes talking to my son and had no family or medical history to review. The psychiatrist explained that he didn’t need to know any of Mike’s past information, only the names of medications that Mike had and was taking. He explained that his job was to render a correct diagnosis and then prescribe the appropriate medication. After that, it was up to a social worker to deal with Mike.
I was frustrated and angry.
