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| Image from http://agathoi.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/stoic-week-and-a-trip-to-the-er/ambulance/ |
Why HR 3717 “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act” is so critical to
care
It’s 3:00 in the morning. I’m sitting in a brightly lit
waiting room at the ER, cuddling my then-three year old son, who can’t stop
screaming and tugging at his ears. His cheeks are bright red; his duck-fuzz
white hair stands up in all directions. I rub his green crocheted blankie—he calls
it “Biss” for reasons still unknown—against his forehead, trying to sooth him.
I’m exhausted. The whole night has been like this. But it
looks like we’re next in line for treatment.
Then my son's cries are drowned out by wailing sirens. An ambulance
pulls up to the bay; we hear (but cannot see) a flurry of activity, intercoms
buzzing. It’s a car accident, severe trauma. We wait, but without resentment.
The Emergency Room is not like a grocery store checkout line, with first come,
first served. It’s constant triage, assessing the most urgent needs first.
Ten years later, it’s my son, now 13, in the ambulance, held
in restraints to keep him from bolting or striking people. Ten years later, it’s
my son at the front of the line for treatment when we reach the emergency room.
But once he’s calm and rational again, they send us home with five days’ worth
of Zyprexa. There are no beds in the psychiatric hospital.
My emergency room story ended better than Virginia State
Senator Creigh Deeds’s, whose
beloved son Gus stabbed his father and shot himself. My story ended better than Jared Loughner’s, who
fired on Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. My story ended better than Eric Belluci’s,who
(despite the existence of Kendra’s Law)
killed both his parents with a hunting knife. My story ended better than Kelli Stapleton’s, who
became so frustrated with the lack of support that she took her daughter to the
woods without planning to return.
I still fear, as every parent of a child with a serious
mental illness fears, that my son’s story may end like Kelly Thomas’s—that he
will be beaten or shot by law enforcement officers who lack training in dealing
with people who have mental illness.
These stories—my own and millions of others—are why I strongly
support Representative Tim Murphy’s proposed comprehensive legislation to
overhaul a broken mental health system. I was one of the parents who testified
in an initial fact-finding forum, where Rep. Murphy and his colleagues asked
what families need to help our children. You can read my op-eds in the Idaho Statesman and Hartford Courant,
both of which outline briefly why this legislation is so important for families
like mine.
But the critics of HR 3717 are out in full force. Their position is pretty well summarized
on psychcentral.com author Jon Grohol’s blog post, “The Lie of Focusing onThose with Serious Mental Illness,” written in response to mental health advocate DJ Jaffe, who dared to address the opposition’s elephant in the room: funding.
Representative Murphy’s bill would restructure SAMHSA and require
accountability through evidence-based outcomes. And some people are afraid of
that.
I actually agree with Grohol about a few things. There’s no
question that ADHD or anxiety or OCDs can make life difficult for those who
have these conditions. And he’s right about arbitrary lines drawn in the mental
health community—I cannot tell you how often I have heard the phrase, “Well, my
son has autism. That’s just a developmental disability, not a mental illness
like what your son has.”
But Grohol is incorrect in stating that supporters of Murphy’s
legislation don’t think everyone with any kind of mental illness—not just
serious mental illness—deserves treatment. As for the “lie” of serious mental
illness? Here’s the thing. People with serious mental illness are NOT treated
better or with different resources, as Grohol contends. Too often, they are not
treated at all—at great cost to individuals, families, and communities. There
are ten times as many people with mental illness in jails as in hospitals—read author
Pete Earley’s excellent response, calling this fact “a national scandal.”
My biggest problem with Grohol’s argument is this statement:
“What’s not needed is cramming forced treatment
laws down state’s throats — even if their own citizens don’t want them.”
Forced Treatment. Wow,
that sounds horrible! Kind of like the Death Tax—remember how the Republicans
so brilliantly re-branded the estate tax, which affects a very small percentage
of Americans, and made us all afraid that we would have to pay it?
We’re not talking about “forced
treatment” here. We are talking about saving lives of people who, as a symptom
of their illness, may not be aware of their condition. And the correct term is
Assisted Outpatient Treatment or AOT. Already in the U.S., 45 of 50 states have
AOT laws on their books, because they recognize that these laws help people
with serious mental illness, save money, and improve communities. The fact is
that AOT laws work. They improve the lives of people with mental illness and
help their families. They reduce recidivism. Most important, they keep people
with mental illness out of prison.
Let’s go back to my
first night in the emergency room with my son. He had a double ear infection.
The doctor was able to soothe his pain with a topical solution and sent us home
with a prescription for antibiotics. The next day, he was a (mostly) cheerful
preschooler again.
But the person who was
in the car accident likely faced many months of recovery. I see mental illness
in the same way—no “arbitrary lines,” no “Balkanization,” just sound, medical
treatment decisions about urgency of care. I’m not saying my son’s bipolar
disorder is somehow “better” or “more important” than your child’s ADHD. But
the reality is that your child’s ADHD probably won’t land him or her in jail.
That’s not my reality.
