Deeds’ News Stories Shift Tone: From Bed Shortage to Violence

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I’m still getting calls from the media about the stabbing last week of Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds by his son, Gus, who later committed suicide. The emphasis has changed from outrage about a shortage of treatment beds to questions about family violence. Talking about violence always gets tricky. No one wants to increase stigma so I’m careful to point out that individuals with mental disorders are more likely to be victims than perpetrators.

Still, violence inside families is a reality.  A poll of National Alliance on Mental Illness family members found that 39% had been threatened by an ill family member or had their property destroyed. A similar poll of NAMI members in Massachusetts found that 50% of families had to cope with violent behavior. In 80 percent of cases where someone became violent, it was the parent who was the victim.

I was happy to hear over the weekend an interview on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition with Gary Mihelish about his adult son who lives with a schizophrenia. I first met Gary when he invited me to speak in Helena at a NAMI convention. It was one of my first speeches and Gary was kind enough to treat me during my visit to a historical tour followed by a buffalo steak! Gary did a fantastic job in the NPR interview, not sensationalizing violence but discussing it candidly and also talking about his son’s recovery. It is easy to understand why Gary was awarded NAMI’s highest honor for his years of service locally in Montana and also nationally by serving on the NAMI board.

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Deeds’ Stabbing and Suicide Expose Bed Shortage But Will Anyone Care Tomorrow?

The stabbing of Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds by his son, Austin, who later killed himself, ignited national headlines this week.  Early reports said “Gus” Deeds was released from a mental health center untreated because there were no crisis care beds available. Officials later blamed a Virginia rule that says the state must either hospitalize or discharge individuals within six hours after picking them up for observation. After he was freed, Gus attacked his father and then  turned a rifle on himself.

I was overwhelmed with calls from reporters because I had written an editorial in 2010 for The Washington Post about how Virginia was backsliding on its promises to improve mental health services after the Virginia Tech massacre. The Post tweeted links to it shortly after the Deeds’ tragedy. It also reminded readers about another Op Ed that I’d penned that described how Virginia hospitals were “streeting” patients — turning them away from emergency rooms — because there were no beds available. That revelation had come from a damning report by VA Inspector General G. Douglas Bevelacqua who has been a lone and relentless voice in Virginia when it comes to spotlighting holes in our state’s system.

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“BRAVE” Mom Chronicles Her Illness; Uses Kickstarter to Produce Stigma Fighting Play

 

 Jennifer Killi  Marshall used a pen name when she began writing about her experiences as a thirty-four year mother who’d been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, type 1. She was scared of the repercussions that she feared would happen if she outed herself, her husband and their two small children.
 
Jennifer, who has been hospitalized four times in the past five years, eventually reached a point where she “discovered her brave.” She began writing under her own name and was shocked when she was greeted — not by sneers and being shunned — but with support and encouragement.
 
It takes guts, humor and insight to write about life with a mental disorder and Jennifer shows all three in her blog:  Bipolar Mom Life: Writing My Way Through Living With Mental Illness 
 
After finding her BRAVE, Jennifer decided to do more as an advocate. She wanted to help others who had found their BRAVE and give courage to those who were not yet at that moment.  She decided to produce a show entitled This Is My Brave that would be performed by individuals with mental illnesses and those who love them. This would not be a show put on by actors. It would be a show put on by those who have and are living with mental illnesses.Click to continue…

FROM MY FILES FRIDAY: Learning How To Change Minds

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‘FROM MY FILES FRIDAY: Here’s an edited version of a blog that I published after the mass shootings in Newtown. I believe it makes several points that are worth repeating. I hope you will agree.

LEARNING FROM LGBT’s HOW TO CHANGE MINDS

The shootings at Newtown, Aurora, Tucson and Virginia Tech, have finally turned a spotlight on our broken mental health system.

Two years ago, I spoke at a convention of journalists  from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.  I said that mental health advocates need to learn from the LGBT community.  Yesterday’s Washington Post published an editorial by immigration activist Frank Sharry that ecohed the same thought. Sharry wrote that gay activists have given underdogs a blueprint for how to successfully change public opinion.

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A Minister Addresses Suicide In Congregation

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Where are Faith Communities on Mental Health?

A guest blog by the Rev. Alan Johnson

It was a both a very sad and a very uplifting Memorial Service last month in the church where I am a member.  Also as a clergy (member of the church not on the staff) I was given the burden and the blessing of officiating at that Memorial Service for a 36 year old who had ended his life.  How did the service come to be at this church?  There are several factors, not least being because of Pete Earley speaking in our church, another one being because the church has been involved in mental illness issues for several years.  I was asked to officiate also because my brother had ended his life 8 years ago.

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Veterans Day Hero: George Taylor Sr. Beat PTSD, Now Helping Other Homeless Vets

Pete Earley with George Taylor Sr.

Pete Earley with George Taylor Sr.

Nineteen year-old George Taylor Sr. returned home in April 1970 from fighting in Vietnam a changed man.  For more than a year, he had cleared jungle and walked point as part of a unit nicknamed “the herd” that engaged in heavy, repeated combat.  He and his comrades were part of the U.S. Army’s 1 battalion 503rd, a company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Taylor had joined the Army two years earlier directly from high school. Serving in the military was a family tradition. When Geoge returned home to Florida, his family didn’t recognize him.

George looked like a much older man who had witnessed too much carnage and lived for too long under the threat of death. He was argumentative and began getting into bar fights, drinking heavily, and had trouble finding and keeping jobs. “It got to the point where I couldn’t deal with people, so I went into the woods,” George recalled later.

For six months, George simply disappeared into the rural Florida landscape, living far away from civilization, much as he had when on patrol in the jungles. When he finally emerged from the woods, he hit the road, roaming the country, often drunk, battling the mental nightmares of his past.

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