Join Important March 10 Mental Illness Teleconference with Pete Earley

Dial (712) 775-7031 at 7PM EST on Thursday, March 10 and use Access Code 715149. Mental Illness Policy Org invites you to join our popular evening teleconference interview series. DJ's next special guest will be former Washington Post reporter, advocate and author Pete Earley. Pete will tell his personal story trying to get care for a loved one, and use his experience as a former reporter to explain how to get the media to do more and better stories about serious mental illness. He'll answer all your questions. Pete is the author of Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness which documents how the failed mental health system leads to incarceration, and the grotesque conditions faced by the incarcerated mentally ill.  Pete was the first, and so far only journalist to highlight how the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision, which is touted by some, could be unleashing a second wave of disastrous deinstitutionalization.  He testified to Congress on multiple occasions, runs a very popular blog, and recently gave one of the best speeches on serious mental illness ever.  He is one of the most important mental illness advocates on the scene today. We hope you'll join us for this important call. Bring all your questions. Share this with your friends and social networks. To join the call, dial (712) 775-7031 at 7PM eastern(!) standard time on Thursday, March 10 and use Access Code 715149. Thank you for all you do to improve care for people with the most serious mental illnesses.

NYS Needs Kendra's Law & Psychiatric Hospitals. Don't let mental health industry close them

The two trade associations representing NYS mental health providers (NYAPRS and MHA) are having their annual rally in Albany tomorrow (Tue. 2/23). We OPPOSE their attempts to move mental health spending away from the 5% who are the most seriously mentally ill and towards the higher functioning. Their proposals to end Kendra’s Law and close state psychiatric hospitals puts patients, police, and public at needless risk. We will be in Albany on Tuesday to oppose raiding services that treat the seriously mentally ill.

1. Support making Kendra’s Law Permanent and Stronger. (S-04722/A01275).

While NAMI/NYS supports this, the trade associations do not. Kendra’s Law is NY’s most successful program for the most seriously mentally ill. It allows judges to order someone who already accumulated multiple episodes of arrest, violence, incarceration or needless hospitalization to stay in six months of mandated and monitored treatment while they continue to live free in the community. It is only available to those who already refused to accept voluntary treatment that was made available to them. It also allows judges to order community programs to accept these individuals into their programs. Kendra’s Law is proven to reduce arrest, violence, hospitalization and incarceration in 80% range each, cut costs to taxpayers and reduce stigma. 81% of those in it said it helped them get well and stay well.

S04722/A01275 make Kendra’s Law permanent, ensure court orders are reviewed before expiring, requires community directors to take reports from family members about loved ones who might benefit, and lowers cost by allowing patients to voluntarily stipulate to Kendra’s Law orders. The NYS Assoc. of Chiefs of Police support.

2. Oppose Closing more Psychiatric Hospital Beds.

The trade associations are supporting Gov. Cuomo’s budget proposal to close 225 more psychiatric beds that serve the seriously mentally ill. We oppose. The trade associations look at these beds as a bank account and want them closed so the savings can be given to their member organizations. But there are two problems with that. NYS is short at least 4,000 psychiatric hospital beds even if we had perfect community programs. So closing hospitals guarantees the sickest will not receive treatment. Secondly, even when some savings are given to community programs, they refuse to use them to provide actual treatment to the same adults who are being discharged from hospitals. Instead the funds are used on wasteful sideshows like educating the public, fighting ‘stigma’, identifying the asymptomatic, or funding programs with no evidence of efficacy. As a result, NYS has more mentally ill incarcerated than hospitalized. The percentage of prisoners in NYC jails with mental illness shot up 30% between 2010 and 2014.

We do support increasing housing options, but first we must increase those that provide 24/7 onsite support (group homes), versus the independent housing options supported by the trade associations that serve the higher functioning.