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She Woke Up Americans To Women Vietnam Vets and Helped Me Become An Author

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Vietnam Veteran Nurse Lynda Van Devanter 

(11-13-17) Thank you my good friend, Susan Van Devanter Infeld, for reminding me this Veterans Day weekend about women who serve in our armed forces and the mysterious threads that often bind us together.

While working at The Washington Post in 1981, I read a tiny news item about Susan’s sister, Lynda Van Devanter, talking about her experiences as a nurse in Vietnam during the war. Eager to learn more, I interviewed Lynda and the resulting front page story turned out to be one of the first major news pieces about the role that nurses played in Vietnam.

Lynda spoke eloquently about post traumatic stress disorder, as well as, the harmful side effects of the herbicide Agent Orange. Equally important, her candor woke up our nation to the capabilities of American servicewoman, including skills that were being largely ignored at a time because of limited opportunities for women in the military.

Not only did Lynda’s interview have national impact, it also helped change the direction of my career and life.

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Predictors Of Mass Murders Often Include Past Violence, Abuse, Alcohol, And Drugs

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Investigators work at the scene of a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday Nov. 5, 2017. A man opened fire inside of the church in the small South Texas community on Sunday, killing more than 20 people.(Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

(11-10-17) Ron Honberg, the senior policy advisor at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, was asked by The Hill newspaper to comment about mental illness and violence after the recent horrific shooting inside a Texas church. Here is his analysis.

A prejudicial narrative about mass shootings: that mental illness was involved

By Ron Honberg

Sadly, what has become an all-too-familiar heartbreaking tragedy has occurred yet again: another mass shooting. As the details unfold hour-by-hour in the small Texas town of Sutherland Springs and throughout the country, a prejudicial narrative has once again made its way into the conversation before all the facts are revealed: that mental illness was involved. You can go to an inpatient drug rehab to get the necessary help for your addiction problems.

Immediately after the shooting, we heard President Trump, and others, offer the statement that the Texas shooting was, “a mental health problem.” When shocking mass tragedies occur, public officials and others frequently rush to speculation about the mental health of the shooter and how mental illness must be to blame. After all, how could someone who is emotionally stable do something so terrible?

A review of recent mass tragedies reveals that while mental illness was a factor in some, these types of random acts of violence occur relatively infrequently and a number of them in recent years have not involved mental illness. When we take a step back even further and look at gun homicides as a whole, most do not involve mental illness. In fact, studies show that mental illness contributes to only about 4 percent of all violence, and the contribution to gun violence is even lower.

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Distraught Mother Seeks Governor’s Help For Mentally Ill Son After 20 Years In Prison

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(11-6-17) Sana Campbell has started a petition drive ( that you can sign) to move her son from prison into a state hospital and is hoping to plead her case in person to outgoing Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Sana is praying Gov. McAuliffe will grant Christopher Sharikas a conditional pardon that would send him from a prison cell to a state mental hospital bed for treatment. He would remain incarcerated but would get help.

USA TODAY published my OP Ed last week explaining why a then “child” with a severe mental illness was given a double life prison sentence that is much, much harsher than others charged with similar crimes.

Please join me in urging outgoing Governor McAuliffe to meet with Sana Campbell and support her by signing her petition and sharing this post on Facebook. You can email the governor about this mother’s effort to get her ill son sent to a state hospital after 20 years in prison.

Va. case shows desperate need to put the mentally ill in treatment, not prison

Pete Earley, Opinion contributor
Published USA TODAY

Schizophrenic teen who carjacked, stabbed woman was locked away for life despite recommended sentence.

Christopher Sharikas is serving two life sentences in a Virginia prison, plus 30 years, for a crime that carried a seven- to 11-year recommended term.

He was 16 years old when he was arrested for stealing a car and assaulting its owner. He has spent 20 years behind bars.

Arguably, his 1997 crime is not why he remains imprisoned.

Sharikas suffers from severe mental illness. Our society has relinquished control of him to our criminal justice system. And our mental health system is so broken that it failed to help him when it should have.

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Remembering My Father On His Birthday: Death By Dementia – Saying The Long Goodbye

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(11-3-17) Today my father would have been 97 years old. He died in February 2015 from “dementia.” That was officially listed as his cause of death. There is not a day that passes when I don’t think of him.

I published a story about my father in The Washington Post after our last Father’s Day together. I am reposting it today in his memory and also to call attention to this illness.

Taking care of someone with dementia is an experience difficult  to describe but immediately understood by those of us who have done it. If you are one of those caregivers, I salute you.

 

father and son

A FATHER’S DAY GOODBYE

First published in THE WASHINGTON POST 

 By Pete Earley    

Father’s Day found me with a man who often doesn’t remember who I am, although we have spent much of his 93 years together. My father has dementia.

Five years ago, I persuaded my parents to move from Spearfish, S.D., into a second house that my wife and I own that doubles as my office. Leaving a community where they were well-established was difficult. But they enjoyed seeing grandchildren, spent Saturdays at garage sales and played Upwords with me at lunch time. It was good.

I first noticed little things. Forgetfulness, confusing names. It’s part of aging, I thought.

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Peers, Funding, Debate At The Manhattan Institute With Dr. McCance-Katz, D.J. Jaffe and Me

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(1-1-17) Answering questions on television and panels is always frustrating to me because I end up watching it later and thinking: “Why didn’t I say this or why did I say that?”

I recently was on a panel at the Manhattan Institute with D.J. Jaffe, founder of MentalIllness.Org and author of Insane Consequences: How the Mental Health Industry Fails the Mentally Ill  ,whose views about serious mental illnesses being ignored and how New York peers advocate against treatment were clearly expressed. Our conversation was followed by Dr. Eleanor McCance-Katz, the new Assistant Secretary at Health and Human Services for Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Every County Needs A John Cook To Fight For Housing And Mental Illness Reforms

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(10-31-17) It was a crisp fall morning on a recent Saturday when Pathway Homes held its annual Help The Homeless 5 K Walk here in Fairfax County. Patti and I decided to join our daughter, Traci and her husband Dan, at the walk.

Traci is a clinical social worker for Pathway, which provides non-time-limited housing and supportive services to nearly 600 adults with serious mental illness and other co-occurring disabilities in Northern Virginia.

One of the first persons who I spotted at the walk was Board of Supervisor John C. Cook, who chairs our county’s Public Safety Committee. He gave a short pep talk about the importance of supportive housing in a county that has the highest cost of renting and homeownership in the entire state. You need an annual income of $58,320 to afford a two-bedroom fair-market rental here. Little wonder that despite Pathway’s  best efforts there were 1,059 homeless residents counted in our county last year. 

Cook spoke eloquently about the importance of supportive housing and also discussed relatively recent jail diversion efforts underway for seriously mentally ill residents who commit minor crimes, such as trespassing. He recited the statistics with ease without staff prepared notes because housing and mental illness are subjects, about which, he cares passionately.

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