(3-21-16)

Dear Pete,

I really don’t hardly know what to say. For almost 20 years I have fought, sacrificed, even literally bled trying to save my son. At times, we have had almost miraculous “victories” and, at times an equally balancing amount of “losses.” I thought it was bad when he was autistic and had seizures. I had no idea how “easy” we had it then even though it was such a hard time. After the diabetes and the mental illness hit — I do believe I have seen a glimpse of what Hell must be like. Psychosis. Schizoaffective disorder depressive type.

There are times I see my son and there are times I see a distortion of something that can not be recognized. During the distortions I am so afraid. Afraid he will hurt himself. Afraid he will hurt others. Afraid I won’t be able to see it or stop it in time though God knows I am trying.

Ironically, the times I DO see my son are some of the most painful. That is when I see him in an agony that I can’t make better. I promise him. Oh honey, when the meds are right you will feel better. Oh honey, when we get “fill in the blank service” you will want to live. Oh honey, just keep fighting. He looks at me with such appeal. Such hope that mommy can make the boo boo’s go away. But there is never a time when it really IS better. I fight against a hill of sand, clutching and desperate to stay in place. A hill where “victory” is simply found in not slipping farther down. Progress is an elusive dream that motivates — yet never is realized.

We are one of the “blessed.” Top 1%. We have been able to provide an assisted living home with support for him. But the cost has been massive and while I am grateful — I don’t know how much longer we can provide what is the barest minimum that he needs. Enough to keep a semblance of stability. Not enough for growth. That cost is beyond our reach. How long till he decides he wants to walk out anyway with a delusional idea that he will be fine on the streets? What happens when the money runs out and I have nowhere else to find him help? Even as a 1% family we can’t afford the services he needs much longer. My God how my heart breaks for those not as fortunate — I am so grateful for whatever time we have. He can’t come home. I can’t risk the danger to his younger brother and sister. What happens next? No one disagrees that he will hurt himself or others and yet there IS NO HELP. I can get on a wait list . . . .

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(3-18-16) 

By Doris Fuller  

It was a year ago today (Mar. 14, 2016) my daughter Natalie ended her six-year battle with severe mental illness by stepping in front of a train in Baltimore.

I could tell you all the pain and guilt and sheer hunger for her presence have been at least as bad as you might imagine. I could say I’ve decided “closure” is the dumbest word in the English language. I could describe how scary and humbling it is to feel like your brain has gone into a fog bank that will never clear.

People often ask me how I have kept going. I say it just happens. You put one foot in front of the other. A day passes, a week, a month. And now a year. It’s not easy.

Sometimes people ask how I’m able to talk to audiences about mental illness when she died of it. Answering that is easy. I say I’m one of the lucky ones because I’m an advocate. I can channel my sorrow into change for all the other Natalies.

After I wrote about her death in the Washington Post, I heard from so many people who aren’t lucky like me. Young adults with mental illness fighting for their lives. Families shunned by neighbors and friends because they had a son or daughter or spouse who was sick. Suicide survivors who had lost not one child but two, or whose loved one took someone else’s life, too. A world of hurt.

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Congresswoman Judy Chu listens to Homeless advocate Dorothy Edwards
(3-14-16)

“Meet Dorothy Edwards. Just a few years ago, she lived with her dog, Gunner, under a freeway overpass in Greater Los Angeles. She was heavily addicted to drugs and couldn’t find a way to get off the streets. “I craved a place of my own,” she said. “I watched people who, day after day, helped me out and handed me money. I thought, I know they’re leaving and they’re going home. I was hurting and needed a home too.”

This is how the story that I’ve posted below begins: Dorothy Edwards — homeless and addicted.

But that is not how I know Dorothy. I know her as a delightful and caring fellow member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Supportive Housing, a national non-profit organization that in the past three years has overseen the disbursement of $183 million in loans to build supporting housing.

That’s right. A former homeless woman with addiction issues is now helping oversee the successful building of 18,379 supportive housing units across our country and the delivery of services to more than 58,000 individuals.

Dorothy is not only an inspiring colleague, she illustrates the potential of individuals if they are given the help that they need to move forward with their lives. She is one of my heroes and one of the reasons why I’m proud to serve on the CSH board.

Over the years, I have become convinced that housing, especially Housing First, is crucial for helping persons with serious and persistent mental illnesses and substance abuse problems recover. How can anyone get better if they have a serious mental illness and co-occurring addictions and are homeless?

This is why I am grateful that USA Today recently spotlighted Dorothy’s journey in its ongoing series about the need for mental health reform in America and Bill Pitkin wrote about her in the Washington Monthly. (below.) Each time she tells her story, she is putting a human face on the need for community services, compassion, recovery and hope. And she always does it with a smile.

The next time you see someone who is homeless crouched under an underpass with a mental illness and/or substance problem remember my friend Dorothy and think about how that individual might be able to enrich all of our lives if they had a safe place to live. 
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Why haven’t two state agencies investigating the death of Jamycheal Mitchell, a 24 year-old Virginia man diagnosed with bipolar disorder who was found dead in his jail cell August 19, 2015, released the results of their investigations?

Mitchell was arrested on April 22, 2015 for trespassing and stealing a Mountain Dew soft drink, a Snickers Bar, and a Zebra Cake from a 7-Eleven on George Washington Highway in Portsmouth. A judge ruled that he was incompetent to stand trial and ordered him to be transferred to Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg to be made competent for trial. Instead, he died in the Hampton Roads Regional Jail 90 days after that order was sent. Inmates who saw him there told reporters that he spent his last days alone in the cell with feces smeared on the walls and urine on the floor.

Nine days after his body was discovered, jail officials issued a statement saying that they had found no evidence of wrongdoing by their correction officials. In December, the state medical examiner’s office released an autopsy report that concluded Mitchell died of “probable cardiac arrhythmia accompanying wasting syndrome of unknown etiology. ” Wasting syndrome is defined as a profound loss of weight, greater than 10 percent of a person’s original body weight.

Let’s review those statements. A healthy but psychotic young man is arrested for stealing $5 worth of food and jailed. During the four months that he is in custody he loses so much weight that his heart gives out. But no on in the jail who was responsible for watching him did anything wrong. Once again in Virginia, the public is told that if anyone is at fault, it is the mentally ill prisoner himself.

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(3-10-16) If you want to participate in a serious discussion about what you can do to help reform our broken mental health care system then pick up your phone tonight at 7 p.m. and join mental health advocate D.J. Jaffe of mentalillnesspolicy.org. and me for my first teleconference.

All you need to do is dial (712) 775-7031 and use Access Code 715149 @ 7PM EST.

There is no need to RSVP. And no topic is off limits.

D.J. hosts teleconferences to encourage advocacy and I am delighted that he has he invited me to be one of his guests. Take a break from watching March Madness, the Republican debates and American Idol and join us for what surely will be a lively discussion about my family’s story, what’s happening in Congress, what I’ve learned traveling to every state except Mississippi and Hawaii talking about mental illness, jails and prisons, housing, and how my views have changed since I wrote CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness more than nine years ago!

Talk to you tonight!

(3-9-16) If you think the federal government should do something to fix our mental health care system but you really can’t agree or don’t know what needs to be done then you should be pleased with the much anticipated draft version of The Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 that a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators released yesterday. (Click HERE for text of the staff discussion draft.)

It pretty much ignores the changes that Rep. Tim Murphy (R.-Pa.) is proposing in his Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act and also snubs much of what the House Democrats offered in the Comprehensive Behavioral Health Reform and Recovery Act of 2016  .

“The bipartisan draft legislation works to bring our mental health care system into the 21^st Century by embracing mental health research and innovation, giving states the flexibility they need to meet the needs of those suffering, and improving access to care,” Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the leader of the Senate Health Committee (HELP), along with Democrat Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Bill Cassidy (R. La.)  declared in a joint press release.

Really? That’s tall praise for a bill that contains mostly sizzle and no steak.

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