A YouTube Attack on SAMHSA

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 You might recall that Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Perry made headlines last week when he couldn’t remember during a presidential candidate debate the third federal agency that he wanted to eliminate if he makes it to Washington D.C..

Quick on the punch, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey has come up with a suggestion: the  Substance Abuse and  Mental Health Administration. The lightening rod psychiatrist  has turned to YouTube to make his pitch.

Why does Dr. Torrey want to shut down SAMHSA?  I suspect that one reason is because  several mental health groups that vehemently oppose Assisted Outpatient Treatment  laws, such as Kendra’s Law in New York,  are funded by SAMHSA grants and programs.  Meanwhile, Dr. Torrey’s group, the Treatment Advocacy Center, doesn’t accept federal funds.

What’s your view on Dr. Torrey’s campaign to eliminate SAMHSA? Does SAMHSA fund programs in your community that are helpful to persons with mental illnesses? I’d love to hear from the grassroots on this issue.

 

Hollywood Buys WITSEC for TV Drama

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My good friend, Gerald Shur, and I have received lots of inquires from Hollywood about  our nonfiction book, WITSEC: Inside the Federal Witness Protection Program since it was published ten years ago. For those of you who have not read it, Gerald is the Justice Department lawyer who came up with the idea of creating a government program that would protect mobsters and give them new identities in return for their testimony against their Mafia Godfathers.

 By the time Gerald retired in 1995, he had overseen the handling of such famous gangsters as Joseph Valachi, “Jimmy the Weasel” Fratianno and “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.  The witness protection program that he created helped shatter the mob’s code of silence.

Interested screenwriters and producers would call us and ask about WITSEC. But for a variety of reasons, we never sold the dramatic rights — until now.  The trade magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, announced the sale.

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Poor Taste in Brooklyn

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Unfortunately, Halloween spurs costumes and depictions of scary events that misalign and stigmatize persons struggling with mental disorders. Based on the number of Hollywood horror movies that promote this prejudice, no one should be surprised. Still, it is frustrating. And hurtful.

ABC’s smash hit, Dancing With The Stars, featured a dance routine last night where three of its male participants appeared in straight jackets, including one dancer in zombie makeup, escaping from behind bars. Thankfully there was no mention of the “insane.”

Perhaps the most blatant display this year of insensitivity appeared on the webpage,  A Brooklyn Limestone in Progress, whose owners are renovating a residence and charting their progress on the Internet.  Under the headline: Halloween Decor Reveal: Welcome to the Asylum, the owners pushed evey hurtful stereotype possible, including an especially offensive invitation to visit their house.

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Public Value or Cheap Sensationalism?

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There was a time in my life when I might have felt differently about a court battle that is currently being waged in Wisconsin. As a newspaper reporter, I talked alot about “the public’s right to know.”

But now that I am the father of a son with a mental disorder — well, I’m a bit more skeptical.

Bryan Stanley murdered a custodian, a lay minister and a priest at the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Onalaska, Wisconsin in February 1985.  At the time, he was twenty-nine years old and mentally ill. He believed he was a prophet sent by God to cleanse the church after a priest allowed girls to read Scriptures during Mass.

Found not guilty —“by reason of mental disease” — Stanley was sent to the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison in October 1985.  Some fifteen years later in March 2009, doctors at the institute decided Stanley could be safely discharged. After thoroughly reviewing his case, La Crosse County Circuit Judge Ramona Gonzalez agreed. She approved his release but ordered specific monitoring restrictions.

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Clubhouses Offer HOPE for Recovery

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I’ve spent much of the last several days in airplanes.

 In El Paso, Texas, I  spoke to criminal defense attorneys and then flew to Cambridge, Mass., to address a wonderful NAMI group in a local library. Next came a fundraiser for the HOPE Clubhouse in Ft. Myers, Florida;  a seminar sponsored by NAMI Four Seasons in Asheville, N.C.; and two speeches in the New Orleans area at the request of the South Central Louisiana Human Services Authority. This week, I will be flying to Boston to address the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

I am always touched when I hear recovery stories, especially those told by young people.  Jourdan Miller, a beautiful girl in her  early twenties,     described how important the HOPE Clubhouse in Ft. Myers was to her recovery. As with so many of our young people, Jourdan had excelled as a teenager and had gone to college with big plans – only to become sick.  She was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder and not long after that she became so ill that she had to drop out. At one point, she was suicidal. When she called the local police during a manic episode, rather than getting help, she ended up getting arrested and  jailed — “to be taught a lesson.”  That experience — at the hands of unsympathetic and poorly trained sheriff’s deputies — resulted in her developing PTSD.

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Vote for Janet Howell

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I believe we should vote for political candidates who care about reforming our mental health system. I believe we should do our best to defeat incumbents who don’t recognize mental health reform as an important issue or show no interest in improving our system.

State Senator Janet Howell represents Virginia’s 32 district. She has been an effective and strong advocate in Virginia for persons with mental disorders. No one has fought harder than she has to improve our state’s mental health services. I had the honor of serving with her on a task force that was rewriting our state’s mental health laws. She attended every hearing, asked poignant and thought provoking questions and offered concrete solutions.

If you live in her district, please, please vote for her.  She is making a huge difference in Virginia. We need more like her.