No one knew why he pulled away

And curled up in a ball in his room where he stayed

What’s wrong, his father and mother said

I’m hearing strange voices inside of my head

Ronald Hunter Jr. froze to death last week in Buffalo, New York.

As reported by Buffalo News reporter Lou Michel, the 21-year-old Hunter was homeless and mentally ill when he died from hypothermia alone and disoriented in two-degree weather with a wind chill that hit 20 degrees below zero. A surveillance video camera on a nearby building captured his final moments in a desolate section of a business park. He had removed his jacket and was trying to take off his shirt.

His father told the newspaper that Hunter first began acting strange shortly after he turned eighteen. “I found him curled up in a ball in the corner of a bedroom, and I said, “What’s wrong, baby?”

“I’m hearing voices telling me to kill myself,” he replied. His parents called crisis services and they diagnosed him with schizophrenia and behavioral disorders. “But because he was eighteen, it was up to him if he wanted help.”

When Chester Ray Maternick read the Buffalo newspaper account of Hunter’s death, he began to weep.

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The release of RESILIENCE, the memoir that I helped Jessie Close write, gave Glenn and Jessie Close the opportunity to appear together on the Dr. Oz show to discuss mental illness. Here is a a transcript of that show as reported and posted on RECAPO.

I’m thrilled that Jessie is using the release of the book to show the public a different face in the media than the one they usually see associated with mental illness.

Dr Oz: Glenn Close & Her Sister Jessie      FROM RECAPO

As Dr Oz so kindly put, Glenn Close is one of the finest actresses of her generation. But it’s what happened off screen that truly inspired Dr Oz and those that know more about Glenn Close than the characters she played. She was born into a privileged family with a lineage of wealth. Glenn’s mother and surgeon father frequently moved Glenn and her three siblings to serve as missionaries in a cult-like religious movement. It was Glenn’s sister Jessie who seemed to have the hardest time with her family’s unconventional lifestyle.

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NEWS ABOUT RESILIENCE: Jessie Close and I will be speaking at a book party Tuesday, January 13^th, at Fountain House in Manhattan beginning at 6 p.m. Fountain House is a fabulous clubhouse program whose roots date back to the 1940s. If you would like to attend, please send an RSVP via e-mail to Ashley Womble at awomble@fountainhouse.org. Unfortunately, Glenn Close will not be there since she is appearing in a Broadway play.

Glenn and Jessie will be featured on the CBS Morning News that Tuesday morning and will be on the Dr. Oz show on Wednesday. 

How Can One Defendant Be Legally Insane And The Other Not Insane When They Both Commit The Same Crime?

Washington Post reporter Dan Morse has been covering a horrific case that raises thorny questions about our criminal justice system and defendants suspected of having mental disorders.  

 

Two Washington D.C. area women are about to go on trial in Maryland for stabbing four children, two fatally, as part of an exorcism.

A psychiatrist has told the court that Monifa Sanford, age 22, was legally insane when she participated in the stabbings. However, a different psychiatrist told the court that Sanford’s cohort, Zakieya Avery, age 29, was not insane when the stabbings happened.

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1-8-2015  From My Files Friday:  More than four years ago, I wrote about how a lack of communication frequently prevents persons with mental disorders from getting meaningful help. Unfortunately, this continues to be a major problem in many communities. In a recent conversation, Judge Steven Leifman, who is featured in my book, CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, told me there are more than four dozen different mental health providers in Miami/Dade County and everyone one of them has a different way of handling patients. There is no sharing of information so a client may be diagnosed by one provider and given a prescription and then go across town to another, get a different diagnosis and a different prescription.

In this earlier blog post, I describe how Judge Leifman has been trying to bring order out of chaos.

WE NEED TO BEGIN TALKING TO EACH OTHER IF WE WANT TO FIX OUR SYSTEM  (First published 7-26-10)

During my travels, I’ve visited many communities where there is little or no communication. The police don’t talk to local providers who take care of persons with mental disorders and substance abuse issues. These providers don’t talk to each other. Because of HIPAA, no one wants to talk to parents. Oftentimes, patients and their advocates are not properly informed or asked their opinions.

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RESILIENCE: Two Sisters and A Story of Mental Illness, the memoir which I helped Jessie Close write, will officially go on sale January 13rd, but can now be found in many bookstores and, of course, can be ordered online.

I suggested that Jessie write a memoir after hearing her speak in 2012 at a National Alliance on Mental Illness event about her recovery from mental illness and co-occurring drug and alcohol addictions. I was deeply moved by her story and by how her family, especially her famous sister, the actress Glenn Close, supported her through a series of crises. It was Jessie who first asked Glenn to help fight stigma, a request that sparked the creation of  the advocacy group, BringChange2Mind.

Our literary agent, David Vigliano, notified publishers and we were fortunate enough to secure Deb Futter, a Vice President and Editor and Chief of Hardcovers at Grand Central Publishing, as the book’s editor.

I believe Jessie’s brutal honesty and RESILIENCE will inspire and help others.  I hope after reading the PROLOGUE, you will want to continue reading her amazing story.

RESILIENCE: Two Sisters and A Story of Mental Illness

By Jessie Close with Pete Earley

“She is not an ordinary or ‘run-of-the-mill” human being…” from an analysis of my handwriting when I was seventeen.

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