What I Learned About Homelessness: Walking the Streets of Georgetown

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After I wrote CRAZY, I wanted to write a book about homelessness so I contacted Gunther Stern, the Executive Director of the Georgetown Ministry Center [GMC} in Washington D.C. and asked if I could spend some time with him and his staff. Georgetown is one of the wealthiest sections of the nation’s capital. It attracts the homeless because it is a fertile place to panhandle and it is one of the safer areas in the city to sleep outside at night.

Georgetown’s wealthy residents have always been adamantly opposed to having a homeless shelter operate inside their exclusive neighborhood. But after an elderly homeless man died from exposure in 1984 while  sleeping in a Georgetown telephone booth, the community was shamed into action.  Several churches agreed to open their sanctuaries at night to homeless individuals.   Between November and March, churches take turns. For two weeks, a congregation will provide an evening meal and overnight shelter to persons who are in need of lodging. When that congregation’s two-week stint ends, the homeless group moves to the next church. This alleviates the need for a full time shelter by taking care of the homeless during the winter months.

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How Much Do They Earn? Salaries of Nonprofit Mental Health Leaders

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This is the time of year when envelopes arrive in the mail from charities asking for donations. Before I contribute to charities, I like to learn how much their  top executives are earning.

According to the website, Charity Navigator, the median salary for the chief executive of a charity is $132,739.  Executives in major cities are paid more. CEOs in the Northeast earn an average of $156,914. Keeping those figures in mind, I decided to check the pay scale at mental health groups that are well-known or often mentioned in news stories.

I was surprised at how much some mental health executives were paying themselves, especially when their charities were losing money. me.

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Can Anyone Predict Dangerousness?

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Can psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners predict violence?

Because of the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus, in Tucson and, more recently, in Aurora, it’s an important question.

A recent article published in the Association for Psychological Science magazine examines trends in how mental health professions assess risk and predict violence. The article’s authors, John Monahan of the University of Virginia, and Jennifer L. Skeem, of the University of California, Irvine, begin by examining the mostly commonly used methods.

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Bits and Pieces: A Brilliant Documentary, Scholarships Available, and Fighting Stigma

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If you haven’t seen a film entitled A Sister’s Call  by Rebecca Schaper and Klye Tekiela you need to watch it. It is one of the most honest and moving documentaries that I’ve had the privilege of watching. (Check out the film’s three minute trailer above.)

I met Rebecca Schaper a week ago while speaking at the annual fundraiser for the National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter in Greenville, South Carolina. Her film was being honored by the local NAMI chapter because Rebecca’s brother, Call Richmond Jr., lived in Greenville and much of the filming of the documentary was done there. 

Call was diagnosed with paranoid schzophrenia. In 1977, he disappeared and stayed missing for twenty years.  When he finally reappeared, Rebecca took on the tasks of both rescuing her older brother and bringing him back into her family.

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The Presidential Insult The Political Pundits Missed

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Last Tuesday’s presidential debates have been scrutinized in microscopic detail. The Washington Post even published a front page story about each candidate’s body language. Yet none of the political pundits chastised President Obama for insulting one-in-five Americans. Not even the long-line of president-haters at Fox News.

What did the President say that was offensive?

“We have to…make sure that we’re keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill…”

A moment later he added:

“If we can get automatic weapons that kill folks in amazing numbers out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill.”

Substitute any other group except “the mentally ill”  into the President’s two sentences.

“If we can get automatic weapons that kill folks in amazing numbers out of the hands of criminals and the Hispanics – blacks — gays.”  You can even substitute the word Republicans. 

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Fear Mongering In Virginia: Can You Be Locked In a Mental Ward Without Reason?

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If you believe stories on the Internet, thousands of Virginia residents are being locked up in mental hospitals each year against their will because of a “corrupt” state involuntary commitment process. That’s right, as many as 20,000 are being forced into hospitals annually on a whim, because of unproven phone call accusations or as punishment because of their anti-government views.

This startling claim  has been made by John W. Whitehead, a Virginia civil rights attorney, who founded his own watchdog group– The Rutherford Institute — in Richmond. In a series of interviews with Business Insider, Whitehead said:

“I’m friends with the local police; I could call them right now and probably get you committed if you were in Virginia. They can arrive at your door based on somebody’s testimony or your Facebook page and take you away to a mental hospital… There’s a system here that is corrupt...”

Whitehead’s allegations were sparked by an incident in late August when local and federal law enforcement officers knocked on the door of  Brandon Raub, a 26 year-old former Marine, living in Richmond. The local FBI office had received a complaint about Raub because of several posts that he had put on his Facebook page.  The local FBI office notified the U.S. Secret Service and police department. On August 17th,  a team of officers went to evaluate Raub. During that interview, it was decided that Raub was showing signs of a mental disorder and needed to be temporarily detained until he could be evaluated and, if necessary, involuntarily committed to a hospital. 

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