This is the second installment of my interview with Mary Giliberti, the newly hired executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. These questions were submitted in writing and answered through emails because of schedule problems on my part.

Question: NAMI was started by parents who believed they were being either blamed for their children’s mental disorders or ignored when it came to having  psychiatrists, politicians and others listen to their concerns. In recent years, NAMI’s membership has grown to include a wide number of consumers. Mental Health America has always offered a strong voice for consumers and often has taken stands that are different and opposed to NAMI’s positions. It is easy to say that NAMI should represent all points of view, but there are serious differences between how parents and consumers often view HIPAA, AOT, and forced medication. How do you plan to reconcile these differences within NAMI’s membership between traditional NAMI parents and consumers who often favor self-determination versus paternalism?  

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Mary Giliberti, the new executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, graciously agreed to be  interviewed during the first week of January when she took charge of the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization.  My mother’s funeral prevented me from scheduling a face-to-face conversation.  Knowing that many of you wanted to learn more about Ms. Giliberti and her views, I submitted written questions which she answered through emails. I am dividing our exchange into three blogs, with number two scheduled for Wednesday and the final segment for Friday.

I want to thank Director Giliberti for answering  my questions. She answered every question posed to her exactly as it was asked and did not set any pre-conditions. Ms. Giliberti was hired by the board after an extensive search that began early last year after Michael Fitzpatrick announced his retirement. Prior to accepting the board’s offer, she served as a section chief in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Earlier, she was director of public policy and advocacy for federal and state issues at NAMI.

Ms. Giliberti has spent more than twenty years working in the mental health field. She served as a disability counsel for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and as a senior attorney at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. She earned her B.A. at Harvard College and her J.D. at Yale Law School. She is a native of North Bellmore, N.Y.

Question: What interested you in applying for this position?

Giliberti: I wanted this job for three reasons.

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Bearing the scars from his son’s attack, Sen. Deeds returns to Legislature.

Virginia State Sen. Creigh Deeds has spoken out bravely about his son’s mental illness. Sadly, his story and attempts to help his son, Gus, will sound familiar to many of us.

The senator returned to the legislature this week for the first time since being stabbed last November by his son who then killed himself. The attack made national headlines after a local mental health official acknowledged that Gus had been deemed dangerous but not treated because there were no local hospital beds available. The next day, three hospitals said they had empty psychiatric beds but each was more than two hours away. This raised questions about whether local mental health officials had put sufficient effort into finding beds or whether Gus could have been taken to one of those facilities in time before the six hour mental health hold on him expired. Regardless, this family tragedy exposed weaknesses in Virginia’s system. (I’ll write more about the Deeds case in a future blog.)

Senator Deeds told his family’s story this week to a reporter at The Recorder, his hometown newspaper in rural Virginia. I salute Sen. Deeds’ bravery in speaking out and admire his determination to honor his son’s life by using his considerable political clout to help improve out system.

The Recorder Newspaper 

Bath County Virginia 

Senator Deeds Explains how system failed his son, Gus

By Anne Adams, Staff Writer

HOT SPRINGS — The loss is crushing.

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Let’s begin the new year by celebrating success stories and I can’t think of a better model for other communities to follow when it comes to stopping the criminalization of persons with mental illnesses than what I have personally observed in Bexar County, Texas, home of San Antonio.

Thanks largely to the leadership of Leon Evans, the CEO and President of the Center for Health Care Services, Bexar County has become an example of what can happen when a community joins together to improve its mental health services.

* The Bexas County jail — once so overcrowded that the county was considering building a new one — now has a surplus of roughly one thousand empty beds!

*Bexar County saved an estimated $9 million annually in jail costs and inappropriate emergency room admissions — close to $50 million alone in savings to the community since 2008.

How did Bexar County achieve these successes? Duh!  By focusing on diverting non-violent individuals with serious mental illnesses from incarceration into treatment and crisis services outside the criminal justice system.

And that is something every community and state should be doing!

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Actress Jodie Whittaker protrays my friend, Sandy Grimes, who helped catch Ames

I’ve received a number of emails and calls this week about whether the ABC mini-series entitled The Assets is based on my book about CIA spy Aldrich Ames. The eight part television show that begins tonight is NOT based on my book, Confessions of a Spy: The True Story of Aldrich Ames. But because I am the only journalist who was able to interview Ames without the government’s knowledge and censorship (see Promises to Traitors Matter) it is a logical question.

The Assets is based on the book, Circle of Treason: A CIA Account of Tratior Aldrich Ames and the Men That He Betrayed, written by Sandy Grimes and Jean Vertefeuille, two of the CIA employes who helped catch Ames.

Sandy is a good friend and so was Jean, who passed away last January. Both cooperated with me when I wrote my book and I encouraged them to write their own after mine was published. I gave their book a plug because I thought it was a terrific read that added important information about the CIA’s relationship with the Russians who were executed because of Ames’ treachery. (See  Fox Files To Show Interview About CIA Spy Aldrich Ames)  Ironically, it was Jean’s obituary that first got the attention of TV producers that led to The Assets. They wisely hired Sandy as a consultant.

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Once again, Patti has done a fabulous job decorating our house both inside and out to celebrate the excitement and  joy of the season. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to each and everyone of you. Be well, have hope, help others and pause for a moment to remember those among us who are homeless, alone, estranged from others or are incarcerated because of a mental illness.Click to continue…