Pete Earley

A family frustrated by Aetna Insurance is going public with its story in what is becoming a growing trend — turning for support, outrage and help through social media.

In November 2013, “Jenny” was diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa, a serious, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by self-starvation and excessive weight loss. The family’s insurance company, Aetna, agreed to pay for treatment but only at facilities that were “in-network.”  Two years later, the now fifteen year-old’s condition has worsen much to the alarm of her parents.

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Bryan Stevenson’s number one bestselling book, JUST MERCY, describes his heroic efforts to free Johnny D. McMillian from Alabama’s death row. That case is the subject of my book, CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE, which first spotlighted Bryan’s successful campaign in 1996. My book won both a Robert F. Kennedy award and Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious Edgar.

Buy both as holiday gifts to get all of the details about how Bryan saved an innocent man’s life.

Here’s a recap of what books are available as gifts.

An audio sample of Duplicity, my newest novel.

Sent to inspect a Pakistan prison for human rights violations, NGO Attorney Christopher King encounters a bribe-seeking warden and becomes entrapped in a Taliban attack in this short audio snippet from DUPLICITY, my new action/suspense novel co-authored with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Duplicity

My newest, DUPLICITY is the first in a two-book series that Speaker Gingrich and I are writing that features two heroic Marines  — Capt. Brooke Grant, a African American military attache, and Sgt. Walks Many Miles, a Crow Indian embassy guard, in a battle against The Falcon, a charismatic terrorist forging an alliance between radical jihadist factions in Africa. It’s been described as a House of Cards and Jason Bourne thriller.

Resilience

If you prefer non-fiction, consider RESILIENCE: TWO SISTERS AND A STORY OF MENTAL ILLNESS, the autobiography that I helped Jessie Close write about her recovery from mental illness and addictions. Jessie speaks frankly about her bipolar disorder, suicide attempts, failed marriages and the resilience that eventually led to her healing and recovery in this lively, witty and poignant book that includes vignettes by her famous actress sister, Glenn Close.

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My decision Monday to name the Treatment Advocacy Center as the most impactful mental health organization during 2015 sparked a slew of emails. These two were representative of the range of reactions.

Con: ISIS and every mass-gun-murderer had a huge impact on the lives of thousands of people in 2015, too.  “Huge impact” does not necessarily mean ‘good, meaningful or beneficial”, though, does it?  

Pro: Why do civil rights advocates not see that when people are too sick to help themselves it can be the humane choice to get them treatment…Five years ago, (our son) was hospitalized against his will. He was livid.  Today, now in recovery and stable, he believes that move saved his life.

One cause I believe both sides would support is a better system that engaged individuals early on in their illnesses.

One emailer asked what national organization was the least impactful?

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The Treatment Advocacy Center is my choice as the organization that had the most impact in mental health during 2015.

Each December, I look back to see what group or person made a difference in mental health matters. In 2014, I chose Rep. Tim Murphy, (R-Pa,) Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds and Philanthropist Ted Stanley as key impact players.

Whether you agree or disagree with TAC’s actions — and it does have its distractors as well as its supporters — you have to acknowledge its national influence. Last Thursday, it released “Overlooked in the Undercounted: The Role of Mental Illness in Fatal Law Enforcement Encounters,” which reported that individuals with untreated mental illness were 16 times more likely to be killed during a police encounter than other Americans when dealing with law enforcement. That report was the latest in a series of TAC studies that have called attention to the plight of persons with mental illnesses. Consider these earlier studies:

“The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey” (April 2014)

“No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals 2005-2010″ online (July 2012)

More Mentally Ill Persons Are in Jails and Prisons Than Hospitals (May 2010)

Problems Associated With Mentally Ill Individuals in Public Libraries (March/April 2009)

The Shortage of Public Hospital Beds for Mentally Ill Persons (March 2008)

Because TAC focuses on implementing Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) laws,  anti-AOT critics have accused it of releasing studies that buttress its call for greater use of AOT. That might be true, but it’s also true that TAC has consistently and unrelentingly revealed flaws in our system that need repair  – and it’s done it louder and often more effectively than other advocacy organizations. (It’s also done it on a yearly budget of slightly more than $1 million — that’s not much in Washington’s advocacy circles.)

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Here’s a free 14-minute film that examines our failure to help individuals with serious mental illnesses and a sample from a new e-book by an investigative journalist with lived experience.

The film is The Realities of Serious Mental Illness by Dr. David Pickar, an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. The self-published book is entitled Not Just Up and Down: Understanding Mood in Bipolar Disorder by John McManamy.

The Realities of Serious Mental Illness begins with interviews with experts, consumers and families explaining schizophrenia and what it feels like to have a serious mental illness. The focus of Dr. Pickar’s film then shifts to advocacy when he interviews Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) about his Helping Families In Mental Health Crisis Act and praises Assisted Outpatient Treatment as an important recovery tool.

Because Dr. Pickar’s film endorses Murphy’s bill and AOT, the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Alliance on Mental Illness, have not been promoting it  — even though former NIH Director Tom Insel is interviewed in the film and Dr. Pickar heaps praise on NAMI. But Dr. Pickar felt as a psychiatrist that he needed to speak out frankly about both Murphy’s bill and AOT and he didn’t back down from making his case for supporting both in his informative film.

The Realities of Serious Mental Illness a film by David Pickar from David Pickar, MD on Vimeo.

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Kudos to the National Alliance on Mental Illness for publishing its third annual state survey  that identifies major mental health legislation by state and also reports which legislatures have increased or cut spending for much needed mental health care.

My home state of Virginia got high ratings largely because it implemented a psychiatric inpatient bed registry system that was championed by state Senator  Creigh Deeds  after he was unable to get his son, Gus, into a local hospital. Gus later attacked his father before ending his own life.

Deeds has used that preventable tragedy to become a tour-de-force in Virginia. He’s an inspiring example of the power of one person to bring about major changes! It’s nice to read that Virginia is actually being praised rather than ending up near the bottom of mental health lists.

Please download NAMI’s state-by-state report and check your state. Not only will you learn if your elected leaders upped or cut mental health budgets, you’ll also be able to read about key mental health legislation that has been passed. You can compare how other states have reacted legislatively to issues such as civil commitment and court-ordered treatment, early intervention, Medicaid and Medicaid Expansion, Health Insurance parity, children and youth services, suicide, and your state’s criminal justice system.  Gold stars pinpoint useful bills and red flags are used to spotlight awful bills.

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