Why are there limited choices when it comes to mental health reform?

Last week, I published excerpts from Rep. Tim Murphy’s recent hearing entitled:  “Where Have All the Patients Gone? Examining the Psychiatric Bed Shortage.”  Experts at that hearing explained how a lack of crisis care beds has frustrated mental health workers and contributed to  jails and prisons becoming our new mental asylums.

The last excerpts that I published Saturday came from Arthur C. Evans Jr., the director of mental health services in Philadelphia who acknowledged the bed shortage but added this caveat:

“It is counterintuitive that the solution to a perceived inpatient bed shortage is to build a strong community-based service system. But, experience consistently shows this to be the case. An over emphasis on inpatient beds can drain needed resources away from the very services that prevent people from needing crisis services.”

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SHERIFF TOM DART’S TESTIMONY BEGINS AT 40:30

“The unfortunate and undeniable conclusion is that because of dramatic and sustained cuts in mental health funding, we have criminalized mental illness in this country and county jails and state prison facilities are where the majority of mental health care and treatment is administered. ” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.

Since taking charge of Chicago’s Cook County Jail in 2006, Sheriff Tom Dart has been a strong voice advocating for mental health services, as his poignant testimony before the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee showed.

TA has been arrested over 100 times. Her most recent arrest came about after she attempted to steal $20.00 from a person’s purse during a church service. TA is a chronic self-mutilator. She attacks her arms with her own finger nails or any object she can find. To keep her safe while in our custody, we made special mittens that went up to her armpits. Incredibly, she was sentenced to a Click to continue…

 
GUNTHER STERN’S FIVE MINUTE TESTIMONY BEINGS AT 54:31

“It is impossible to talk about people with severe, untreated, mental illness without talking about homelessness.”   Gunther Stern

I followed Gunther Stern for several days as he walked Georgetown streets helping homeless, often psychotic men and women, and I was deeply touched by his compassion. His testimony before the House Energy and Commerce subcommitte last week gave a human face to our failure to help individuals with mental disorders and co-occurring problems.

Greg was once a gifted constitutional lawyer who delighted his children with his dry wit. They were in their late teens when he began to show the signs of

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JUDGE STEVEN LEIFMAN’S FIVE MINUTE TESTIMONY BEGINS AT 46:45

“When I became a judge nearly two decades ago, I had no idea I would become the gatekeeper to the largest psychiatric facility in the State of Florida. The Miami-Dade County jail  contains nearly half as many beds for inmates with mental illnesses as all state civil and forensic mental health hospitals combined. Of the roughly 100,000 bookings into the jail every year, nearly 20,000 involve people with serious mental illnesses requiring intensive psychiatric treatment while incarcerated. On any given day, the jail houses approximately 1,200 individuals receiving psychotherapeutic medications, and costs taxpayers roughly $65 million annually..”  Judge Steven Leifman

Judge Steven Leifman from Miami is the reason I was able to write my book, CRAZY: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness, and his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee  last week exposed how both tax dollars and human potential are wasted when individuals with serious mental illnesses are incarcerated rather than treated.

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HAKEEM RAHIM’S FIVE MINUTE TESTIMONY BEGINS AT 59:20

“The biggest challenge I faced getting to where I am now was openly acknowledging my mental illness.” — Hakeem Rahim

In his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee last week, Hakeem Rahim described his first psychotic episode in 1998 when he was a freshman at Harvard University and his ultimate journey to recovery.

Over the course of my 16 year journey with mental illness, I have simultaneously embraced my diagnosis and realized that I am more than the label. I have embraced that I am more than medication, therapist appointments and support groups. I have learned that I am not “bipolar,” I am Hakeem Rahim, and not just any one piece of my treatment regimen.

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