I have received a slew of emails about the Democrats’ decision last week to introduce a mental health bill challenging the legislation that Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) is fighting to get passed in the House. The Wall Street Journal also offered its opinion, after citing one of my earlier blogs. Here is a sampling, beginning with readers who are wary of Rep. Murphy’s legislation, including Virgil Stucker, Executive Director and President, CooperRiss Healing Community.

Dear Pete

Good to see that you entering more deeply into the dialogue about HR3717 (Rep. Murphy’s bill.) I have read the bill twice. Mostly I am concerned by its pessimistic tone which seems to scapegoat those of us who focus on ‘recovery’, on efforts to help vulnerable individuals with mental health issues to achieve and sustain their highest levels of functioning and fulfillment. I enter this arena with deep respect for these individuals and only rarely need to help cause involuntary treatment to occur for them. Day by day, I walk with, dine with, work with, live with these individuals on their journey. I feel honored to be in their presence and to try to help provide some of the essential conditions of recovery within our program. I am sustained personally by vicariously participating in the recovery stories I see unfolding before my eyes.

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Happy Mother’s Day.  For the first time in my life, I was not able to celebrate Mother’s Day this year with my mom. She died December 19th, 2013. This is the eulogy that I spoke at her funeral.

There are four things that you need to know if you want to know about my mother, Jean Earley.  She loved her God, she loved her husband, she loved her children — and she ate burnt toast.

Let’s start with God.

My father didn’t start his career as a preacher. He owned a mom and pop grocery store in Douglas, Arizona, but he felt unfulfilled. He believed that God was calling him so he sold the store and studied to become a minister. His first church was in Buffalo, a town in the Oklahoma panhandle.  My father soon fell into a pattern. He would move to a small Disciples of Christ church that was struggling to attract members and build up that congregation through his preaching and his financial expertise until it was on firm footing and thriving. And then he would feel compelled to find yet another troubled church to rescue.

My mother was his defacto co-minister. She used her artistic skills to do chalk drawings during his sermons on Sunday nights to illustrate his lectures. She taught Sunday school, sang in church choirs, organized ladies groups, helped at church dinners and truly lived her beliefs.

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I greatly admire and support grassroots projects that originate from people with mental illnesses or those who love them. THIS IS MY BRAVE is exactly that — a  fabulous idea developed by Jennifer Killi Marshall, who writes a blog about her own mental illness and her family called Bipolar Mom Life.  With her associate producer, Anne Marie Ames, Jennifer launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise money for a stage performance that would feature people telling their personal stories about mental illnesses.  Jennifer doesn’t take no for an answer and she soon had raised more than enough cash to rent a theater in the D.C. area and begin pulling together talent for a professional theatrical production.

THIS IS MY BRAVE will be held May 18th from 3 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. and tickets are selling out fast. I would urge you to attend and bring a friend or neighbor with you. Watch the short video above to learn more and to see some of the performers, including my son, and then click here to get your tickets.

This is My Brave

Artisphere (Spectrum Theatre)
1611 N. Kent St
Arlington, VA 22209

Sunday, May 18, 2014 from 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM (EDT)

UPDATE: Since posting this blog earlier today, POLITICO has published its story about the two dueling bills and has confirmed much of what I first reported this morning in my earlier blog.  Here is POLITICO’s take on whether partisan politics is at play here. You will find a comparsion of the bills after the story.

Fears of slowed progress with new mental health bill

By PAIGE WINFIELD CUNNINGHAM

POLITICO  5/6/14 6:28 PM EDT

A new mental health bill proposed Tuesday by a group of House Democrats is stoking fears that it could hinder progress toward bipartisan reform.

While some advocates suggested the legislation could add to ideas already on the table from Republicans, others said they’re underwhelmed by the proposal and wonder why the Democrats felt a need to present it at all. And it was immediately blasted as a stripped-down, politically orchestrated effort by Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania, the GOP’s champion of a sweeping mental health reform bill.

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Arizona Rep. Ron Barber with former Rep. Gabby Giffords

The Democrats revealed competing mental health legislation Tuesday in a move to derail the bill that Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) has been pushing through the House. Behind the scenes, I was told that petty partisan politics are more at play here than the public may realize.  One story making the rounds is that Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the House, was not keen on having Murphy, a Republican, being responsible for pushing a social reform bill through Congress because social reform is supposed to be the hallmark of Democrats not Republicans.

Okay, I’ve just written that based on what several legitimate Capitol Hill sources told me and when I re-read it, I realized how childish it sounds. But honest, that is what I have been told by activists who are working behind the scenes trying to pass Murphy’s bill and those trying to stop it. Yep, by both sides.

I was also told that Rep. Ron Barber (D-Az.)  one of the drafters of the Democrat’s bill, was not happy that Rep. Murphy didn’t make enough of an effort to consult with him before introducing his bill.

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MENTAL HEALTH AMERICA AND BAZELON HOPE TO DERAIL REPUBLICAN PLAN

House Democrats will introduce a mental health bill later this week to challenge  the Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act introduced by Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) the only psychologist in Congress. Murphy was hoping to get his bill submitted for a vote next month on the House floor and had garnered some 70 cosponsors and editorial support  recently from The Washington Post.

Fears that Rep. Murphy’s bill was moving forward and might actually become law alarmed mental health groups that oppose the legislation. Mental Health America, the largest consumer mental health grassroots organizations, and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, which is the non-profit organization that championed the fight for civil rights for persons with mental disorders decades ago and remains an influential legal watchdog for consumers, worked tirelessly behind the scenes against the bill. Gina Nikkel from the Foundation For Excellence in Mental Health Care, an upstart umbrella non-profit group initially launched by author Robert Whitaker and championed by Virgil Stucker of CooperRiiss, also criticized the bill.

Before resigning as president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Executive Director Mike Fitzpatrick put NAMI on record as supporting Rep. Murphy’s legislation.  That move reportedly caused an uproar among NAMI board members, including complaints from NAMI’s growing consumer membership base who feared the new law would infringe on their civil rights. In a New York Times interview, NAMI Board Chairwoman Keris Myrick was quoted saying: ““I think almost everyone sees things in the bill that are long overdue, but also things they’re very concerned about.”

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