Pete Earley

 I turned sixty-two last Thursday and my wife, Patti, hosted a family party on Sunday.  When you have a blended family of seven, there’s always someone having a birthday but this one was different for me. I can’t say that I am going through a mid-life crisis because I already have done that, several times.  I am now old enough to collect Social Security so I have to acknowledge that I have walked over the  middle age line .

The first week of September is always a time of taking stock for me. Patti’s first husband, Steve, died on September 2^nd  when he and Patti were in their thirties. Her sister, Joanne, died recently from cancer and would have celebrated her 50^th birthday on Sept. 4^th. Whenever I complain about getting older, Patti reminds me that Steve and Joanne didn’t celebrate as many birthdays as I have.  Patti has no patience for self-pity.

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FROM MY FILES FRIDAY:  When Edward Snowden sought asylum in Russia after leaking National Security Agency documents to the media, I began getting telephone calls. Reporters wanted to know if I thought the Kremlin would welcome Snowden or turn him over to American authorities. I predicted Moscow would protect him.  If  Russia would have refused him asylum, spies currently working for Russia would have become alarmed — even though Snowden never worked for Russian intelligence. The following blog describes how important image and reputations are in the spy game, so much so, that the Russians tried to interest me in helping deliver $2 million to CIA traitor Aldrich Ames several months after he was arrested.

A Spy Story: Ames, Blood Money and Me,  published Nov. 15, 2010

If you’ve read my book, Confessions of a Spy: The Real Story of Aldrich Ames, you already know that I was able to interview the CIA traitor, Aldrich Ames, for eleven  days without government censors listening to our conversations.    This is because federal  prosecutors had notified everyone – Ames’ defense attorneys, the FBI, the CIA, and Justice Department – that Ames was not to be interviewed by the media, except for the officials who mattered the most — the deputies in charge of the Alexandria  jail.

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How do other countries handle civil commitments to mental hospitals?

Forcing someone into treatment against his/her wishes is not only controversial in our country, but in others too.  In the U.S., each state establishes its own specific criteria, but all states require someone to be a danger to themselves or others before he/she can be forced into a hospital. [Several have adopted looser language, such as  “gravely disabled” or “unable to care for self” to their criteria, but dangerousness  remains the key criteria.]

I was surprised recently when I discovered that our focus on dangerousness  is out-of-step with the rest of the world. Most other countries rely on what is called a  “need for treatment” standard.

Only one nation has more stringent rules than we do. That country is Germany and, I assume, the reason it has established so many hurdles in its civil commitment process is because of abuses in its NAZI era past.

Our checkered past also is at the root of why we adopted “dangerous” behavior as our threshold.  Before the 1970s, it was much to easy to force someone into a mental hospital and commitments were often de facto life sentences.

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The National Alliance on Mental Illness bills itself as ” the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness.”  As a lifetime member of NAMI, active supporter of NAMI, and frequent speaker at NAMI groups, I greatly admire and support that goal. But I’m also curious about what that mandate encompasses.

What are NAMI’s priorities when it comes to specific mental disorders?

A recent conversation with Fred Frese and two emails from readers are responsible for my curiosity.

Fred has schizophrenia, is one of the finest speakers I’ve ever heard, and has been a tireless advocate for decades. If memory serves me correct, he has attended every NAMI convention since it was founded in 1979. In recalling NAMI’s history, Fred said that many of the women who helped found NAMI were adamant about challenging the then-commonly held belief that schizophrenia was caused by overbearing mothers.

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FROM MY FILES FRIDAY:  I first published this blog in December 2010, yet the question that it poses  is just as haunting today.

WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS DEATH? 

The residents of Morrisville, Pa., got an intimate look this holiday season at our troubled mental health care system. Paulette Wilkie, a homeless woman with a long history of schizophrenia, was found dead from exposure. The 56 year-old woman’s   body was discovered last week behind Ben’s Deli, a sandwich shop that she frequented.

Temperatures the night before had dropped into the mid 20s. But that was not cold enough to trigger the county’s emergency homeless plan. Temperatures must sink to 20 degrees or below for two consecutive days before teams can be dispatched to try to  persuade homeless persons to come indoors.

Reporter Ben Finley, writing in the Bucks County Courier Times, noted that people who knew Wilkie said she likely would not have gone into a shelter anyway. The owner of Ben’s Deli said Wilkie refused help from people concerned about her safety and health.Click to continue…