(9-5-16) Another death in the same Virginia jail where an inmate with mental illness literally starved himself to death has sparked a fresh round of calls for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the facility.

In addition to this new death, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported Sunday (9-4) that prisoners being held in the the already under-fire Hampton Roads Regional Jail died nearly nine times more often than in other local or regional jails in Virginia.

Let’s start with the new death.

As first reported by Gary A. Harki in The Virginian Pilot, Henry Clay Stewart, a 60 year-old prisoner being held in the jail for violating parole on a shoplifting charge, repeatedly told jail officials that he needed medical help, in one instance, because he was vomiting blood.

“I have blacked out two times in less than 24 hours,” Stewart wrote Aug. 4 in imperfect English on an emergency grievance form obtained by his family after his death. “I keep asking to go to the emergency room. … I can’t hold water down or food.”

Two days later, he was dead.

Surprise, surprise, the newspaper quoted jail spokeswoman Officer N. Perry saying she could not talk about Stewart’s death because of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

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(9-1-16)    By Susan Resnick  Guest Post

The call came thirty-three years after I’d stopped hoping for it.

“Hey, it’s Nick,” he said. “Can you file a Freedom of Information request for my FBI files?”

No last name, no context. He acted as though we’d had frequent phone conversations instead of two fleeting ones in the past three decades. Coming from a different old friend, this request may not have seemed strange. I’m a journalist, so presumably I have experience getting classified information. Someone legitimately concerned that the FBI was tracking him might be wise to ask a third party to gather the documents.

Neither of these was the case.

Instead, Nick had misplaced the mind he’d already lost and found at least twice before. He has a serious mental illness, though don’t know exactly which one – schizoaffective? Bipolar II? – because I don’t really know him. He was a kid I made out with a few times, a guy who bought me coffee in an airport once when I traveled through his city. He also may have changed the course of my life.

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(8-30-16) For the first time in my recent memory, a presidential candidate has given a speech about the need for mental health reform and has promised to hold a White House summit about mental health if elected. Regardless of your political views, this recognition of mental health as a major issue is a step forward. 

Liz Szabo, who has done an excellent job at USA TODAY covering mental health, filed this story about Hillary Clinton’s call for better mental health care. Clinton’s rival, Donald Trump, has not yet issued a formal statement about mental health reform. If he does, I will post it. Meanwhile, you will recognize some familiar names in this story.

Clinton rolls out plan to improve mental health care

By Liz Szabo for USA TODAY

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for putting mental health care on par with other types of health care Monday (8-29)  as part of a wide-ranging plan to address key problems in the treatment of people with mental illness.

The proposal calls for expanding early intervention in mental illness; a national initiative to prevent suicide, which kills more than 40,000 Americans a year; increasing training for police who are called to the scene of a mental health crisis;providing mental health care for non-violent offenders to help them avoid going to jail for minor offenses; and investing in brain and behavioral research to develop better treatments.

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(8-22-16) Since 2010, I have posted 842 blogs on my author’s website, nearly all about mental health. This blog was first published on March 12, 2010, yet it remains my most often read post, which speaks volumes about how mystifying it is for many parents and others to understand why someone refuses to take anti-psychotic medication.  

Naturally, as soon as I published this, I received emails from readers who adamantly oppose all medication as well as others who explained that medication had helped them reclaim their lives. What those emails re-affirmed to me is that there is no one-size fits-all solution when it comes to mental health. What works for some, fails others. None of us should shame someone who has found a way to manage or cope with an illness. 

Why Won’t You Take Your Medication?

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(8-22-16) I’m taking a week off but I want to share this important story with you. God bless the Shoener family for their courage in speaking out about their daughter’s illness and death.

Inspired Life
She ‘loved life:’ A grieving father wrote openly about suicide and mental illness in daughter’s obituary
By Colby Itkowitz in The Washington Post

Reprinted courtesy of The Washington Post.

Only hours after he learned his only daughter was dead, Ed Shoener sat down to write her obituary. It felt like one way he could still take care of his little girl.

He and his wife, Ruth, had been steeling themselves for this day since Katie’s first hospitalization more than 11 years ago. He knew immediately why the police were at his doorstep the night of Aug. 3. Yet nothing prepares a parent for the moment they learn the details about how their child ended her life.

But if Shoener, a deacon at his Catholic church, learned anything watching his daughter’s long struggle with mental illness, it’s that the disease that plagued her is tragically misunderstood. The last thing he could do for his daughter was try to help others understand.

So, with stunning candor, he began her obituary like this:

Kathleen ‘Katie’ Marie Shoener, 29, fought bipolar disorder since 2005, but she finally lost the battle on Wednesday to suicide in Lewis Center, Ohio.

Then, overwhelmed by the fatherly pull to protect her, he wrote this:

So often people who have a mental illness are known as their illness. People say that “she is bipolar” or “he is schizophrenic.” Over the coming days as you talk to people about this, please do not use that phrase. People who have cancer are not cancer, those with diabetes are not diabetes. Katie was not bipolar — she had an illness called bipolar disorder — Katie herself was a beautiful child of God.

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