Pete Earley

My parents, Jean and Elmer, 94 and 93, respectively, live with us and this week celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.  Having them here was another reason for us to be grateful on Thanksgiving!  I hope that you and your family also have had a wonderful week.

I’ve written in past blogs about how my parents have had their photograph taken each year on their anniversary. I need to update their album but you can view most of it.

Click here to see all of them on one page.

Click here to see a slide show.

I’m still getting calls from the media about the stabbing last week of Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds by his son, Gus, who later committed suicide. The emphasis has changed from outrage about a shortage of treatment beds to questions about family violence. Talking about violence always gets tricky. No one wants to increase stigma so I’m careful to point out that individuals with mental disorders are more likely to be victims than perpetrators.

Still, violence inside families is a reality.  A poll of National Alliance on Mental Illness family members found that 39% had been threatened by an ill family member or had their property destroyed. A similar poll of NAMI members in Massachusetts found that 50% of families had to cope with violent behavior. In 80 percent of cases where someone became violent, it was the parent who was the victim.

I was happy to hear over the weekend an interview on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition with Gary Mihelish about his adult son who lives with a schizophrenia. I first met Gary when he invited me to speak in Helena at a NAMI convention. It was one of my first speeches and Gary was kind enough to treat me during my visit to a historical tour followed by a buffalo steak! Gary did a fantastic job in the NPR interview, not sensationalizing violence but discussing it candidly and also talking about his son’s recovery. It is easy to understand why Gary was awarded NAMI’s highest honor for his years of service locally in Montana and also nationally by serving on the NAMI board.

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The stabbing of Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds by his son, Austin, who later killed himself, ignited national headlines this week.  Early reports said “Gus” Deeds was released from a mental health center untreated because there were no crisis care beds available. Officials later blamed a Virginia rule that says the state must either hospitalize or discharge individuals within six hours after picking them up for observation. After he was freed, Gus attacked his father and then  turned a rifle on himself.

I was overwhelmed with calls from reporters because I had written an editorial in 2010 for The Washington Post about how Virginia was backsliding on its promises to improve mental health services after the Virginia Tech massacre. The Post tweeted links to it shortly after the Deeds’ tragedy. It also reminded readers about another Op Ed that I’d penned that described how Virginia hospitals were “streeting” patients — turning them away from emergency rooms — because there were no beds available. That revelation had come from a damning report by VA Inspector General G. Douglas Bevelacqua who has been a lone and relentless voice in Virginia when it comes to spotlighting holes in our state’s system.

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‘FROM MY FILES FRIDAY: Here’s an edited version of a blog that I published after the mass shootings in Newtown. I believe it makes several points that are worth repeating. I hope you will agree.

LEARNING FROM LGBT’s HOW TO CHANGE MINDS

The shootings at Newtown, Aurora, Tucson and Virginia Tech, have finally turned a spotlight on our broken mental health system.

Two years ago, I spoke at a convention of journalists  from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.  I said that mental health advocates need to learn from the LGBT community.  Yesterday’s Washington Post published an editorial by immigration activist Frank Sharry that ecohed the same thought. Sharry wrote that gay activists have given underdogs a blueprint for how to successfully change public opinion.

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Where are Faith Communities on Mental Health?

A guest blog by the Rev. Alan Johnson

It was a both a very sad and a very uplifting Memorial Service last month in the church where I am a member.  Also as a clergy (member of the church not on the staff) I was given the burden and the blessing of officiating at that Memorial Service for a 36 year old who had ended his life.  How did the service come to be at this church?  There are several factors, not least being because of Pete Earley speaking in our church, another one being because the church has been involved in mental illness issues for several years.  I was asked to officiate also because my brother had ended his life 8 years ago.

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