Biggest Mental Health Convention – Plus More Events Make For Busy Last Several Days, But Best News Was Personal

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Linda Rosenberg kicks off annual convention

(4-23-18) This morning finds me participating in the opening session of NATCON18, the annual convention here in Washington D.C. of the National Council for Behavioral Health  – and what an event it will be!

Linda Rosenberg and her crew are renowned for putting on informative and spectacular conventions that few can rival. There are always lots of celebrities. This year, they include Chuck Todd of NBC News, Glynn Washington of public radio, and actress and activist Anna Deavere Smith.

But it’s the mental health experts who always draw me.

Unfortunately, Miami-Dade County Judge Steven Leifman and author/ suicide survivor Kevin Hines will be speaking Wednesday at the same time I am giving a Thought Leader talk entitled: Hard Lessons Learned: A Father’s Mission to Rescue His Son and How That Journey Saved Them Both. I would have enjoyed hearing them.

Dr. Elinore F. McCance-Katz, Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, will hold a town hall and, in a new addition to the schedule this year, Linda and her team have invited several controversial speakers to give Ted like talks during what is being called: Uncomfortable Conversations. Two of those invited to speak are:

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Mental-Health Officials Are To Blame, Not Our Criminal Justice System

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(4-20-18) A blog  I posted earlier this week by a frustrated father criticizing how the Loudoun County Virginia Sheriff’s office dealt with his son spread across Facebook prompting an angry community outcry.  Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman defended his deputies yesterday on this page.

Today, D. J. Jaffe, author of Insane Consequences and Executive Director of Mental Illness Policy Org,  argues that it is the mental health industry that is failing our loved ones, not the police. His comments were first published in National Review and are not directly related to the events in Loudoun County, but are germane to this continuing conversation. Share your views on my facebook page at Pete Earley Facebook. What needs to be done?)

Criminal-Justice Officials Should Stand Up to Mental-Health Officials

Police have become the real experts on serious mental illness. By D. J. Jaffe  first published in National Review 

The shooting of Saheed Vassell — a man who suffered serious, untreated mental illness — by New York City police has unleashed a firestorm of anti-police protest. But police rarely use force on mental-illness calls. When they do, it is often done because someone the mental-health system refused to treat became dangerous. It’s time for criminal-justice officials to tell the mental-health system how to do a better job so that police and sheriffs don’t have to go on these calls.

The responding officers who shot Vassell thought he had a gun because he was pretending to have a gun (actually a metal pipe) and was aiming it at people. Police had previously brought him to the hospital numerous times only to have the hospital release him without adequate follow-up care. That is the kind of problem police should force the mental-health system to fix. And the protesters should join them.

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Loudoun County Sheriff Responds To Father’s Complaints About How His Son Was Treated During Mental Health Crisis

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(4-19-18) I posted a letter Tuesday (17th) from a father in Loudoun County, Virginia who called the Sheriff’s Office for help when his son’s mental illness became difficult for the family to handle. The father complained about how Crisis Intervention Team trained deputies and the overall department handled the situation. 

This father’s son was released from the detention center yesterday (18th). By that time, he had spent seven days in a hospital receiving care and 30 days in jail, including five days in the Riverside Regional Jail two hours away from his home on suicide watch naked in a single cell.

He has been charged with seven misdemeanors and the father questioned in his letter why his son ended up being charged, arrested and held for a month without bond when his family called seeking help.

I forwarded his complaint to Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman.   I am posting his version of events in its entirety unedited and without comment. I feel it is important for him to have an opportunity to respond and appreciate him doing so.

Given that this young man already has spent 30 days in jail, I hope the charges against him will be dismissed when he appears in court next month and he is able to get meaningful community mental health care. 

Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office

Dear Mr. Earley,

I am in receipt of the article you published entitled, “I Called Loudoun County Deputies for Help. Instead My Son Was Jailed. Hospital: 7 days. Jail:29 days and Counting.” As the facts and circumstances contained in your posting on behalf of the complainant are inaccurate, please allow me to address them factually, step by step. I think this is important as this response will serve to educate the general public regarding the intersection of mental health and criminal justice, mandated processes within the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the paramount importance of safety as it pertains to citizens suffering a mental health crisis, family members surrounding these individuals, and the safety of responding law enforcement officers.

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I Called Loudoun County Deputies For Help. Instead My Son Was Jailed. Hospital: 7 days. Jail: 29 days & Counting.

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(4-17-18) (Update: Sheriff’s response posted on the 19th. Also, this is a letter to me. It is not about my son. Sorry for any confusion.)

Dear Pete,

My son was violent and damaging our home and threatening to kill himself.  He said he wanted the police to shoot him in front of me so it would be on my conscience.

Let me back-up for a moment.

My 20 year-old son has struggled with mental illness most of his life, early on he was diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, and bipolar. We have taken him to numerous therapists, psychiatrists, as well as trying multiple medications to regulate his mood and behavior over the years.

Recently, we noticed red flags signaling his mood was darkening. His behavior in our home was so unsettling that we felt we had no choice but to call the Sheriff’s office in Loudoun County. I specifically requested crisis intervention team trained deputies and I met with one of the first deputies on the scene to insure law enforcement was provided with  as much background information on my son as possible. I also described why I had called and specifically asked them not to hurt my son during intake.

We never expected what happened next.

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How Many Times Must We Say This? We Need To Stop Using Jails And Prisons As Mental Asylums

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(4-6-18) In 2007, my book: CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, called attention to the inappropriate incarceration of individuals with mental illnesses. Several others have been published since mine, including No One Cares About Crazy People by Ron Powers. Now there is yet another new alarm being sounded.  INSANE: America’s Criminal Treatment of Mental Illness by Alisa Roth.

I always welcome books, articles, and other media stories that call attention to the number of individuals with mental illnesses who are incarcerated. Whenever I am asked, I always stress that providing better mental care for prisoners is desirable, but creating a better mental care system in jails and prisons must never become our nation’s goal.

What should our goal be?

Ending the practice of warehousing individuals in our jails and prisons who are clearly sick. I am talking about Super Utilizers. (Read Judge Steven Liefman’s House testimony here.)

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Americans With Mental Illnesses: A Different Standard Of Justice? No Charges Filed In Alleged Scalding Death

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Prisoner dies in shower, but no evidence of foul play. Huh?

(4-9-18) Who is telling the truth about the alleged scalding death of a Florida inmate with schizophrenia – a state prosecutor or two investigative reporters?

On June 23, 2012, Darren Rainey, who was serving time for cocaine possession, was placed in a prison shower at the Dade Correctional Institution. According to news reports, the water was turned up to 180 degrees — hot enough to steep tea or cook ramen noodles. He was allegedly being punished by four correctional officers who kept him in the shower two full hours. Rainey was heard screaming, “Please take me out! I can’t take it anymore!” and kicking the shower door.

Inmates said prison guards laughed at Rainey and shouted, “Is it hot enough?”

Rainey died inside that shower. He was found crumpled on the floor. When his body was pulled out, nurses said burns covered 90 percent of his body. A nurse said his body temperature was too high to register with a thermometer. And his skin fell off at the touch.

That how the horrific event was first described by the Miami Herald‘s Julie K. Brown, who won a George Polk Award, one of journalism’s most prestigious prizes, for her investigative work. Her account was collaborated by Eyal Press in a lengthy piece published in The New Yorker. Florida Department of Corrections emails discussing how to describe the death were discovered later, according to The Miami New Times. And prison counselor Harriet Krzykowski gave the New Yorker other damning evidence that seemed to confirm that Rainey had been brutally murdered — and that she had been pressured to cover up evidence.

Late last month, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced on a Friday afternoon that no charges would be filed because “the shower was itself neither dangerous nor unsafe…and the evidence does not show that Rainey’s well-being was grossly disregarded by the correctional staff.’’

News reports quoted Rundle saying, “Nobody can condone someone being thrown into a hot shower and killed. We read the same thing everyone else did, but it wasn’t until we really investigated that we learned that is not what happened.”

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