(7-6-16)  Mental health activist Leah Harris has written and is performing a one woman show about family trauma based, in part, on her childhood experiences with her mother who had schizophrenia. Performances begin July 9th and run until July 23rd in the Washington D.C. area. Congratulations Leah!

The playwright with her mother and grandmother, 1977.

Why I’m Doing a One Woman Show about Inherited Family Trauma

By Leah Harris

I was raised by Jewish grandparents who grew up during the Great Depression. (I guess this makes me an honorary Baby Boomer, even though I’m technically Generation X.) My grandmother loved to tell me stories told to her by her father, my great-grandfather Max Schumacher, who emigrated from Poland to the US in   1914, and died before I was born.

“Your great-grandfather was sitting on the stoop with this little girl, and a Cossack rides by on his horse and pop! shoots the little girl in the head, killing her. He never forgot that day. Soon afterwards, he came to America. If he hadn’t, he most likely would have been killed in the Holocaust.”

“Grandma, what if the Cossack had shot great-grandpa Max instead of the little girl?”

“Well,” she’d say, “none of us would be here.” It made my head hurt to think about it too much.

As a child, I would sometimes get annoyed at my grandmother, because she told the same exact stories over and over again. I could recite them by heart. But today, I am grateful for my her storytelling. Our family stories are firmly implanted in my consciousness. They have formed the seeds for my creative work delving into the nature of trauma and memory.

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(7-5-16  A second prisoner with mental illness dies after being held on a minor charge in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, which already is being sued for negligence in another troubling death. When two investigative reporters learn about this second incident, state officials stonewall, hiding behind HIPAA which they claim prevents them from releasing any information. Meanwhile, the Office of the State Inspector General and the disAbility Law Center of Virginia, which have the authority to investigate inmates deaths, stay mute.

Thankfully, Richmond Times Dispatch Reporters K. Burnell Evans and Sarah Kleiner, who have been doggedly investigating Virginia’s mental health care system, set out to learn the identity and background of this anonymous prisoner. 

Had it not been for them, it is doubtful that anyone would have bothered to learn any information about the deceased.  Their story reveals how easily it is for individuals with mental illnesses to be marginalized in Virginia. It also raises additional questions about the leadership in state agencies that are responsible for caring for Virginians with mental illnesses. 

State fails to notify family after woman dies at Central State Hospital

BY K. BURNELL EVANS AND SARAH KLEINER

Richmond Times-Dispatch July 2, 1916

DINWIDDIE, Valerie Anderson was buried as she died — quietly and alone, in the care of Central State Hospital workers.

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(7-4-16) This is the second analysis of Rep. Tim Murphy’s mental health reform legislation that could be voted on as soon as tomorrow in the House.) 

AN OPEN LETTER TO ADVOCATES ABOUT THE MURPHY/JOHNSON  BILL

BY DEBBIE PLOTNICK, MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA

Dear Fellow Advocates:

It’s time to step back and take some credit. Acknowledge that your efforts have made a significant difference, even though no one has gotten everything they’ve wanted. But your efforts have had very positive results. Then gather your strength to not only beat back more of what you don’t want, and what you find hurtful, but also to fight for more of what you know is true and right, and for what you do want.

Look closely at where things are presently, not only where you wish they were, and just how far they have yet to go. Stop and really assess, don’t get stuck on where things were. Look at pending legislation in terms of existing law and regulation, and then think about what has the potential for good, as well as for bad. But most importantly, and hardest of all, is look beyond personalities and propaganda. Follow your own good counsel to present. Be in the here and now as you fight for what you passionately believe should come to pass (no pun intended).

What follows is detailed and nuanced. I respectfully ask you to please read it and then critically weigh what you think, and consider how you’d like to proceed. Maybe something will change, maybe everything will change, and maybe nothing will change. But it is my sincere hope that by reading this you’ll have a better understanding of where things are now, how they got there, and the important role advocacy has played, and can still accomplish.

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(7-1-16) The House is expected to vote on Rep. Tim Murphy’s Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act early next week. I’m publishing two blogs about the bill, which is being called the first major reform in decades of our mental health system. D. J. Jaffe initially strongly supported the bill but had doubts after it was revised — although he still backs it. On Monday, we will hear from an advocate who initially opposed the bill but later endorsed it after it was redrafted.) 

Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act

An Analysis by D. J. Jaffe, director of Mental Illness Policy Org.

I have been asked whether people should support the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2015 (H.R. 2646)  which will shortly come to a vote in the House. At this point, the decision is not, “how does this bill compare to previous versions of the bill?” It is clearly very much weaker. The question is: what is the net impact on “adults” with “serious” mental illness, the population we advocate for? Positive or negative?

I do come down on the side of supporting.

Others may disagree with our conclusion because they are focused on different populations. Mental Illness Policy Org is focused on the 4% who have the most serious mental illnesses, primarily schizophrenia and treatment-resistant bipolar. Most community programs refuse to serve these ‘high-needs’ patients. The seriously ill are the ones most likely to become victimized, incarcerated and homeless. Put another way: throwing money at mental health does little for the seriously ill. Schizophrenia and bipolar cannot be predicted or prevented. The treatments adults with them need, for example hospital care, is much different from children with mild ADHD or adults with “lived-experience” need. So that is the lens we look through to analyze the bill.

Rep. Murphy, who originally authored the bill, is a hero who never gave up advocating for the most seriously ill. But late in the process, Energy and Commerce Committee chair Fred Upton, allowed Ranking Member Frank Pallone to insert numerous provisions–some merely wasteful, others problematic– at the behest of the mental health industry and to remove numerous provisions that would require them to serve adults with serious mental illness. But there are still provisions that are very helpful to the seriously ill.

Rep. Murphy’s bill will be voted on by the entire house after July 4^th recess. No news on when or if the Senate will consider The Mental Health Reform Act (S. 2680), a semi-companion bill.

Following are provisions still in the bill that could affect adults with serious mental illness grouped into four subjective categories which you may agree or disagree with.

1. Definitely good provisions
2. Potentially beneficial provisions that really can’t be judged
3. Useless provisions
4. Potentially harmful provisions

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(6-30-2016) A mutual friend, Alisa Bernard, recently introduced me Kevin Hines, a suicide survivor with a dramatic story of recovery.  I asked him to share it with you.)

Brick, by Brick, by Brick    By Kevin Hines 

A single, circular, black and white-colored analog clock adorned the off-white wall. Groggy, my eyes strained then refocused. It was 4 a.m. I had been in limbo overnight waiting for an in-demand, overbooked, cheap wood-framed, rather uncomfortable single bed. It was an early, solemn San Francisco morning: May 1st, 2004. I was 23 years young. My father and I had been in the filthy sock-smelling emergency room overnight.

It wasn’t our first time in this predicament. He waited anxiously near the door of my linoleum-floored, white-walled room. It was the third floor of the locked down unit within the St. Francis Hospital Psychiatric Ward. We had been here before, three times in fact. So often that when a moment of levity passed, I referred to it as my exotic hotel stay. Time and again, I had to live in place like these — to equalize, to heal, and to regain a semblance of sanity. You did not misread the title. I was in my third psychiatric hospital stay. I would see the inside of a place like this four more times over the course of the next 7 years.

Why?

Well the answer is not as simple as “I lost my mind.” or “I just went nuts.” No, those self-berating descriptions are vague and quite frankly offensive to someone who has suffered mentally like I have, and like I do. The answer is much more complex and quite detailed.

“Number 26, I was number 26 of the 34 people who attempted to take their lives by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge and survived. “

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(6-29-16) An Open Letter to Fairfax Board of Supervisor Pat Herrity

The Washington Post recently quoted you voicing your objection to quickly releasing the names of police officers involved in shootings because: “There are a lot of crazy people out there.”

I realize you were expressing your concern about protecting officers from retribution and will assume that your choice of words was not ill intended.

Sadly, they were.

My adult son is one of those “crazy people out there.” When he was in college, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental illness. He did not do anything to bring this illness upon himself anymore than someone who has a heart attack or cancer. Yet for the next seven years, he was repeatedly hospitalized, arrested after breaking into an unoccupied house to take a bubble bath while delusional, and shot twice with a taser by the Fairfax County police. Part of the reason why he couldn’t get help is because of significant budget cuts in Fairfax for crucial community mental health services.

Today, my son has been stable seven years. He works as a peer to peer specialist on a diversion team that helps Fairfax residents with mental illnesses avoid jail and get help for their illnesses. He pays taxes, is enrolled in graduate school, and is doing great.

Your reference about “crazy people out there” promotes stigma. It unfairly links persons with mental illness with violence. It warns the public that “crazy” people are dangerous and you need to be careful to avoid them. This language reminds those with mental disorders that they are different and not valued by society. Stigma has been shown as a reason why many of the 57.7 million Americans with a diagnosable mental illness do not seek help.

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