Pete Earley

(4-10-17) You are riding in a car on a major highway with a gentle rain splashing on the windshield while you speak into a car microphone to a case worker at Oregon State Hospital, where the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was filmed.

You say, “My brother is there and I am wanting to get in touch with his case worker.”

Your call is transferred and a case worker who doesn’t identify himself comes on the line.

You say, “My brother is in the hospital there and I was wondering if I can find out some information about him.”

He says, “Sorry, due to confidentiality laws I can’t tell you whether he is there or not.”

“I definitely know he is there because the police just told me that they took him to the hospital. I can at least provide information -“

The case worker cuts you off. “Yeah, I couldn’t do that without telling you whether he is here or not. But you could do that in a letter form. Of course, you can write a letter to anyone. You can write it to the doctor who is in charge of whoever the person is who might be here.”

Thus begins Sandra Luckow’s powerful documentary “That Way Madness Lies...”

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(4-3-17) The biggest danger to improving mental health care in America today is not:

*Efforts to repeal and reform the Affordable Care Act or reduce Medicaid.

*Too many persons with mental illnesses being inappropriately incarcerated in jails and prisons.

*A lack of affordable housing, jobs, transportation, or access to crisis care beds and medications.

*A lack of peer support, clubhouses, Crisis Intervention Team trained officers, mental health courts or re-entry programs.

The biggest danger facing mental health care today is the opioid crisis.

Here’s a shocking figure for you to consider:

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(3-31-17) My good friend and long time mental health advocate, Betsy Greer, is outraged that an Arlington, Virginia hospital is reportedly turning away 57% of individuals who need psychiatric services but wants Arlington county officials to offer it land to expand so it can build 100 profit-generating surgical beds without improving psychiatric patients’ needs. While this story focuses on a wealthy Washington D.C. suburb, it is not unique as more and more hospitals strive to grow fat while bypassing mental health. Betsy tells me that on Monday, April 3, advocates will be pleading their case at a 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Health Systems Agency of Northern Virginia, 3040 Williams Drive, Room 200, Fairfax, Va.  

ARLINGTON VIRGINIA ADVOCATES FIGHT FOR LOCAL HOSPITAL MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE

By Betsy Greer

A newly created group is asking Arlington county officials to make the sale or swap of 5.5 acres of prime Arlington county property to the Virginia Hospital Center (VHC) conditional on that hospital improving its emergency room and psychiatric ward services for individuals with mental illnesses.

“Too many Arlington residents have been turned away from VHC due to a shortage of beds or because they don’t treat minors,” said Naomi Verdugo, one of the organizers of the Arlington Mental Health Alliance. “This requires them to travel all over the state for psychiatric hospitalization, far from their families who should be part of their treatment. Arlington residents deserve better from their community hospital.”

For the advocates, it is a fight between them and Goliath, an independent, not-for-profit hospital operated like a well-heeled corporation, which in 2014 had more than $600 million invested in securities, excess revenue of more than $60 million over expenses. It is coming at the time VHC is requesting state approval for licensure for 100 new medical and surgical beds, but NONE for patients with mental illness.

VHC’s own 2014 Community Health Needs Assessment, gained from a survey of community stakeholders, listed mental health conditions and depression as the two most important health concerns, ahead of adult obesity, diabetes and substance and alcohol use!  

‘There are a number of reasons why it is important for the Virginia Hospital Center to respond positively to the requests made by us and the Arlington Community Services Board (CSB), which provides mental health services in our county,” said Anne M. Hermann, chair of the Arlington CSB. “This is a community hospital and the beds they have are not nearly enough to cover the need. This shortage is demonstrated by the frequency with which Arlingtonians experiencing a mental health emergency are turned away from VHC and sent elsewhere in the Commonwealth, sometimes quite some distance.”

A primary CSB request is that VHC commit to a minimum of 15 additional single-occupancy adult psychiatric rooms and commit to opening additional psychiatric beds to meet demand when a compelling need is demonstrated. VHC uses only 35 of its currently 40 licensed behavioral health beds, 17 for substance abuse treatment. The remaining 18 beds reserved for those needing stabilization for a mental illness crisis are in double rooms which restricts use unless a new patient is of the same sex and deemed stable enough to share a space. (Ironically, VHC markets itself as the only area hospital offering private rooms.)

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Happy dealer holding car keys

(3-27-17)

Dear Pete,

I am the Mother of a son with schizophrenia. I am shell shocked – “war weary” – am suffering from caregiver burnout and am often sad beyond hope because of what individuals and families go through, including what I’ve been through trying to get my son help.

Is it possible for you to ask for stories about positive outcomes of persons living with mental illnesses?

Here is a true story I like to tell about my own son that makes people smile. Sometimes it helps all of us to laugh.

My son, Art, has always loved cars. He went looking at cars at a local dealer’s lot when he was manic. Of course the car salesman came hustling out and said to my son “Hey you like this car? You want to take it for a spin?”

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CBS won’t let me post its video, so I posted the transcript of its news story below. Meanwhile, take four minutes to watch this interview with my amazing friend. You won’t be disappointed!

(3-25-17-) I’m proud to serve on the Corporation for Supporting Housing board of directors with Dr. Jim O’Connell, a truly wonderful and kind physician who was featured Saturday night on CBS news.  A year ago, I wrote a blog about Jim and his book: STORIES FROM THE SHADOWS. If you really want to understand homelessness and meet those who walk among us unseen, you MUST read his book. (I’ve posted my blog about Jim at the end of the CBS transcript.)

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