Tragedies Underscore Crisis in U.S. Public Mental Health System:
National Advocacy Organization Demands Reforms
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the wake of the deaths
of two persons in public psychiatric institutions - highlighting a pattern of
abuse and neglect of those who have psychiatric disabilities - a national
coalition of such individuals is calling on the incoming Obama administration
and the nation's top mental health officials to institute widespread,
substantive reforms in America's mental health treatment system. These would
include raising standards and regulatory expectations, and identifying and
funding pilot programs to demonstrate best practices in psychiatric emergency,
inpatient and community-based care.
The death of Steven Sabock, a 50-year-old man diagnosed with bipolar disorder
who died on April 29 in a North Carolina state psychiatric institution after he
had choked on medication - while, nearby, hospital employees, ignoring his
plight, entertained themselves with cards and TV - is just one example of the
dangerous dysfunction of the public mental health system, said Dan Fisher, M.D.,
Ph.D., of the National Coalition of Mental Health Consumer/Survivor
Organizations (NCMHCSO).
"The death of Steven Sabock at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, N.C., which made
headlines last week, is only one tragedy in the tragic history of the American
public mental health system - a system that the 2003 report of the President's
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health described as 'in shambles,'" said
Fisher, a Commission member. "The Obama administration should reconstitute the
Commission with a focus on specific outcomes, such as improving psychiatric
emergency care."
After Sabock's death, three hospital employees were dismissed and five others
were suspended for less than a week. However, no one has been criminally
charged.
Sabock's death is not an isolated incident. In June 2008, Esmin Green, who
had been involuntarily committed, collapsed in the psychiatric emergency room of
New York City's Kings County Hospital Center after having waited for a bed for
nearly 24 hours. She lay sprawled on the floor for more than an hour before the
medical staff took any notice - and that notice consisted of someone's prodding
her dead body with a foot, according to The New York Times.
Shortly thereafter, the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Services (NYAPRS) convened a series of regional Psychiatric Emergency Care
Forums across the state, bringing together local hospitals, local and state
mental health officials, peers (people with psychiatric disabilities), service
providers and family members.
The forums have yielded many promising recommendations, including expanding
low-cost alternatives to psychiatric emergency rooms such as peer-run warm lines
and crisis respite care, improving staff response via training and higher
standards, reforming federal and state certification and regulatory standards,
expanding access to community mental health services beyond normal business
hours, enhancing police training in crisis de-escalation and other strategies,
and preparing peers to better anticipate and manage crises via training and
support for the development of personal crisis/safety plans.
"These tragedies underscore the great crisis that exists in our nation's mental
health care systems. While the challenge to overhaul them is daunting, we know
much more today than in the past about what needs to be done," said Harvey
Rosenthal, executive director of NYAPRS, a NCMHCSO member organization. "We're
calling on the incoming Obama administration to recommit federal mental health
reform efforts that incorporate and implement recommendations from untapped
experts, people living with psychiatric disabilities like us."
The National Coalition of Mental Health Consumer/Survivor Organizations (www.ncmhr.org)
works to ensure that people diagnosed with mental illnesses have a major voice
in the development and implementation of health care, mental health, and social
policies at the state and national levels, empowering people to recover and lead
a full life in the community. The coalition currently consists of statewide
organizations run by people with psychiatric histories in 32 states, including
the District of Columbia, as well as the three federally funded consumer-run
national technical assistance centers.
The New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (www.nyaprs.org
) is dedicated to improving services and social conditions for people with
psychiatric disabilities by promoting their recovery, rehabilitation and rights.
Web site(s):
http://www.ncmhr.org and
http://www.nyaprs.org | 