Watch Powerful Documentary & Hear Reformer Judge Steven Leifman July 8th On Webcast! Don’t Miss It!

by

Judge Steven Leifman

(7-6-21) The Biden Administration missed a real opportunity to improve the lives of those struggling with mental illnesses and addictions when it didn’t nominate Miami-Dade Judge Steven Leifman to be the next Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse.  Judge Leifman is the reformer who allowed me access into the Miami Detention Center for ten months to follow prisoners with mental illnesses through our criminal justice system, which resulted in my book, CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness. (CRAZY refers to our system, not individuals such as my son.) He is an inspirational crusader for mental health reform who has worked tirelessly to stop the inappropriate incarceration of individuals whose only real crime is that they got sick.

On July 8th, you can hear him speak and see a fabulous documentary sponsored by Dr. Norman Ornstein by registering here. There is no charge for this opportunity, which is being organized by Janet Hays with Healing Minds Nola.

Please tune in and learn what this amazing advocate has accomplished in Miami-Dade County and could do for the rest of our nation if given the opportunity by our federal government.

Event Logo
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Healing Minds NOLA is honored to host a screening of the much talked about Film Documentary: “Definition of Insanity”.
After the screening, Judge Steven Leifman will join a panel discussion to be moderated by Dr. Norman Ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and vice president of The Matthew Harris Ornstein Memorial Foundation, with the following very special guests:
Cindy A. Schwartz, Project Director of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida Criminal Mental Health Project- Jail Diversion Programs.
Judge Alan Zaunbrecher, 22nd Judicial District Court, State of Louisiana.
Nick Richard, Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) St. Tammany, La.

Learn more about our speakers here!

Untreated mental illness is a crisis not only in Louisiana but across America. On Thursday, July 8th from 5:30pm-8pm CST, find out how one Miami-Dade County Judge, Steven Leifman, is bucking the criminal justice system to lead the nation in DEcriminalizing mental illness.
“Definition of Insanity” demonstrates a novel approach to solving the mental health crisis that could be the model to tackle the much larger epidemic throughout America
We hope you will join us!
Janet Hays
Director – Healing Minds NOLA
(504) 274 6091

My Sister-in-Law Taught Me That Being Different Shouldn’t Limit Your Dreams: A July 4th Message

by

This is Not About Mental Health. It is about disabilities, resilience, and patriotism. Happy Fourth of July. 

( From My Files Friday) My sister-in-law, Dana Davis, was deaf but she never let her lack of hearing slow her down. When she was a teenager, the local swimming pool said she couldn’t be a lifeguard. My wife, Patti, who was two years older than her sister, and Dana demanded an audience with the pool’s board of directors and convinced its members to give Dana a shot.

She got the job and did great at it.

Dana and her husband, Donnie, had one child, Matthew. He was born with Absent Radius Syndrome and foreshortened arms. When the radius bone is missing the thumb does not form and the wrist is not supported, therefore Matt’s hands are curved.  My son, Tony, who was little when Matt was born, said that God must have known what He was doing when He picked a family for Matt because Dana would know what it was like to be different.

She didn’t lower her expectations when it came to Matt.

Click to continue…

A Psychiatrist’s Year In Appalachia: “You Cannot Catch An Addiction.” More Complex Reasons Than Swallowing A Pill

by

 

Psychiatrist Dr. Satel spent a year in Ironton helping patients

(6-28-21) Dr. Sally Satel, a practicing psychiatrist who works at a methadone clinic in Washington, D.C., told me over lunch one day about her plan to spend a year in an economically depressed Appalachia town treating patients for addiction.

When she moved to  Ironton, Ohio, population 11,200, for twelve months, I wondered what she would discover.

She has now returned to Washington and has written two articles and been interviewed by journalist Nick Gillespie in Reason magazine.

Gillespie writes: Dr. Satel, “challenges conventional theories of addiction that characterize it as a disease like diabetes or Alzheimer’s. Substance abuse, she says, derives from both inborn predilections and a person’s environment, or what she calls ‘dark genies’ and  ‘dark horizons.’ Satel stresses that the best way forward is to give individuals tools to make better use decisions while improving their chances to live lives with open-ended futures.”

“You cannot ‘catch’ addiction,” Dr. Satel writes. Her year in Ironton convinced her that drug/alcohol addictions are not so simply explained by saying an individual got hooked because they drank their first beer or swallowed their first opioid. Rather those treating an addiction must spend time trying to uncover the underlying causes – environmental events or what is missing in someone’s life – to truly understand. (Dr. Satel can be reached at slsatel@gmail)

Bravo!

Click to continue…

Norman Mailer Didn’t Reply, But Literary Killer Wrote Me Back: A Sad Prison Tale

by

Norris Church and Norman Mailer 1981 Photo By Adam Scull/Alamy

This is NOT about mental health. 

(6-25-21) From My Files Friday. I spent a year as a reporter in the 1980s roaming around a maximum security prison doing research for my New York Times Bestseller, The Hot House: Life Inside Leavenworth Prison. Now forty years later, I am working on another prison related book.  As part of my research those many years ago, I read Jack Abbott’s book,  In the Belly of the Beast, which describes his experiences in prison. Sadly, not much has changed. In April 2010, I posted a blog about Abbott and his relationship with Norman Mailer.

Norman Mailer, Jack Abbott and Me. 

The son of an Irish-American solider and Chinese prostitute, Jack Abbott had spent nearly all of his life in jails and prisons. In 1977, he learned that Normal Mailer was writing a book about Gary Gilmore, the first prisoner to be executed in 1977 after our nation re-started the death penalty ending its short constitutional hiatus. Mailer’s book about Gilmore, The Executioner’s Song, won the Pulitzer Prize and helped revive his career.

Click to continue…

Being Stashed In Dirty Hospital Room, Waiting For Psychiatrist Sends Message: You Are Not As Important As Other Patients.

by

(6-21-21) What is treatment? “Too often, patients spend most the day wallowing in their misery and uncertainty waiting for the next meal or group meeting.”

A recent email from a frequent patient at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Virginia, caught my attention. It echos complaints which I have heard about the quality of care available to individuals with mental illnesses. The writer specifically mentioned a disconnect between a patient and psychiatrist.

In my speeches, I often talk about how my son has had seven psychiatrist since his first break, but only two have taken the time to learn anything personal about him. They simply listen to his symptoms, prescribing medication and send him out the door – usually in under 15 minutes, which is all the time an insurance company wants to reimburse.

But I believe treating the brain also requires treating the whole person.

Click to continue…

Advocates Want Older Hospital For More Psychiatric Beds, Owners Want To Build Expensive Homes For Sale

by

Older Hospital To Be Developed Into High End Housing or a State Mental Facility?

(6-18-21) How long does it take for someone with a mental illness to become stable enough to be discharged from a hospital?

Roughly 30 percent of Virginia residents are discharged within seven days, according to a report. The others are discharged within 30 days.

Henry Johnson, the chair of Alexandria’s Community Services Board (which oversees mental health services in the county) said it took him 11 months.

He is urging Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to use state money to purchase one of the oldest hospitals in Virginia and convert it into a new state mental health hospital. INOVA has announced that in 2028 it will close its 318-bed Alexandria Hospital, which has operated for 149 years, and build a new complex in a former, large shopping mall that closed in 2017. It wants to raze the older hospital and sell the land  to housing developers.

It remains difficult in Virginia on some days to find available beds.

In addition, Johnson is calling on legislators to create a new classification that would make it tougher for hospitals to discharge psychiatric patients. Before a patient could be discharged, Johnson would require them to be able to advocate for themselves, have insight into their illness, and be willing to cooperate with a treatment plan for at least ten days.

In a recent letter, Johnson wrote: 

“This would be a huge step towards the long term health of the chronically mentally ill, and I believe would reduce crime, reduce recidivism, reduce overall cost of mental health treatment by making recovery achievable for all, and likely have profound effects on chronic homelessness in the Commonwealth.”

The anti-state hospital movement of the past is being challenged more and more, with several states expanding and building more hospitals. What do you think about Johnson’s call for more longer term beds and tougher discharge criteria? What do you think about using the INOVA hospital for mental health rather than high end housing? Tell me on my facebook page.

Here is a copy of Johnson’s recent letter to Delegate Charniele Herring, the majority leader in the Virginia House of Delegates.

Click to continue…