Thursday, March 29, 2012

He Is Still Somebody!

A story described by: Ronda Grafford, a Mother from Murray, Kentucky

Written by: Alexis C. Custard

    For nine months an innocent child lives within their mother’s womb. The child eats, sleeps, grows and develops within the four walls of its mother; however, when they are born in the world and become mentally ill, they are not accepted on this Earth. But what if it were you? Morning, evening and night you hear voices in your head, you see prodigious figures of shadows and you’re not sure who or what they are. You become angry and want to kill yourself. Why, because you cannot escape the four walls from within-yourself.

    “At times I just want to crawl into a fetal position and give up on my lack of hope to help my own child” ... my name is Ronda Grafford, I live in Murray, Kentucky and I am the mother of a 31-year old son who lives with chronic paranoid schizophrenia. My son’s first psychotic break was in 2001 while away at school in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 21. During this time period, I was working a full time job, taking care of my elderly father and also my husband who had developed cancer.  By the end of 2008, my life became so dreadfully unbearable that I regretfully turned my son over to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services – State Guardianship.

    The state guardianship program moved my son 5 hours from his home into a personal care home. Due to the condition of my son's hygiene and apparent deterioration of his illness, I became concerned for his safety. I discovered he was being arrested on numerous occasions. I felt as if he was trapped in a place that no one understood his illness. As his symptoms worsen, I attempted to report my concerns but nothing changed. Finally, I requested for my son's guardianship to be returned to me. This was a lengthily and stressful process that took over a year.

    It costs around 700 dollars per day to place a patient in a State Mental Hospital. On the other hand, it only costs taxpayers around 52 dollars per day to house a mentally ill person in jail. This should not mean that it is humane to incarcerate people with a severe mental illness because of a cost savings to the state budget. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities have waivers for housing and supported services, in the state of Kentucky. However, people with mental illness rarely have these types of supports. People with mental illness cannot help their state of mind, just as people with other types of disabilities.

    The Michelle P. Waiver supports people with intellectual disabilities to live independently in the community. It states that an individual must be diagnosed with a developmental disability before they turn 18 years old in order to qualify for supports. This excludes the majority of individuals with brain diseases such as Schizophrenia, Bipolar, ADHD, etc. People with severe mental illness lack many funding sources that would help them be independent. Are they not human? They should receive equal opportunity like everyone else. It’s no different than incarcerating a person with Alzheimer’s. Would you place your family member with Alzheimer’s in jail or prison?

    I would like for my son to have the right to live in his community. I would like for medications to be administered that will allow him to have the right to live a healthy life, free of hallucinations and delusions. I would like for Kentucky to amend mental health laws to allow assisted outpatient treatment, (AOT) for people who are gravely disabled and lack the insight to their condition. I am also asking for my son to live in a safe and supportive housing environment rather than the revolving doors of hospitals, crisis centers, and jails. In order for this to happen, effective case management using evidence-based mental health treatment and services must be made available.

    “It seems there is no place for my son in our society”. I am thankful for my family that has helped in many ways throughout my son’s journey. Some families turn their backs on people like me and my son. My son has lived in so many situations and they all fail due to his untreated mental illness, lack of supportive housing and case management. He has been hospitalized 17 times since 2000. Think of the money the state could save, if each person like my son received the support and treatment they needed within their community versus hospitals, jails or prisons.

    One in four adults—approximately 57.7 million Americans— experience a mental health disorder per year. It could be you, a family member, someone you know or a person you walk by on the street. Please help my son escape the womb of the world that he constantly lives in. 

   Who is my son? He is a grandson, a brother, a nephew, a friend; an American citizen-he is still somebody!

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Published and produced by friends of ~ The Change Mental Health Laws in Kentucky Project, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The federal Office of Justice Programs has determined that AOT is an “effective” and evidence-based practice for reducing crime and violence

After months of researchaot-with-logo, the federal Office of Justice Programs has determined that assisted outpatient treatment is an “effective” and evidence-based practice for reducing crime and violence.

The "Crime Solutions" rating by the OJP is reserved for crime prevention strategies that “have strong evidence indicating they achieve their intended outcomes when implemented with fidelity,” including more than one study confirming the results. Read more here:http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/
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The federal Office of Justice Programs on Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT)

Program Goals
Assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), also known as outpatient commitment (OPC), is a civil legal procedure whereby a judge can order an individual with a serious mental illness to follow a court-ordered treatment plan in the community. AOT is intended for adults diagnosed with a serious mental illness who are unlikely to live safely in the community without supervision and treatment, and who also are unlikely to voluntarily participate in treatment. The goal of AOT is to improve access and adherence to intensive behavioral health services in order to avert relapse, repeated hospitalizations, arrest, incarceration, suicide, property destruction, and violent behavior.

Forty-four states have statutes permitting some form of OPC or AOT (Robbins et al. 2010). One example is New York State’s “Kendra’s Law.” The law, passed in 1999, which was proposed by the New York State Attorney General, was named for a young woman who was killed after being pushed in front of a New York City subway by a man with a history of serious mental illness and hospitalizations. The intent of the law was not only to authorize court-ordered community treatment but also to require mental health authorities to provide resources and oversight necessary so that high-risk individuals with serious mental illness may experience fewer incidents and can live in a less restrictive alternative to incarceration or involuntary hospitalization. Read more here:http://www.crimesolutions.gov/ProgramDetails.aspx?ID=228

    Wednesday, March 21, 2012

    Placing mentally disabled in Kentucky's personal care homes violates law ...

    The personal care home issues are just a tiny pin dot in comparison to the magnitude of issues for people suffering with serious and persistent mental illness, SPMI in Kentucky. Thanks to the Lexington Herald-Leader for bringing awareness to these problems. We must first attempt to educate Kentuckians of the waste in tax payers dollars and the inhumanity of how people with SPMI are forced to exist. Change is needed!   
    GG Burns, KY Mental Health Advocate

    Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/03/19/2117925/placing-mentally-disabled-in-personal.html#storylink=cpy
    By: Valarie Honeycutt Spears and Beth Musgrave — vhoneycutt@herald-leader.com

    Posted: 7:53pm on Mar 19, 2012; Modified: 12:19am on Mar 20, 2012
    FRANKFORT — The continued placement of mentally ill residents in Kentucky's personal care homes is a violation of federal disability laws, a watchdog state agency said Monday.
    Kentucky's personal care homes unfairly segregate people with disabilities from the community, denying residents their right to interact with non-disabled people to the fullest extent possible, according to a report by Kentucky Protection and Advocacy. The group is an independent state agency that protects and promotes the rights of people with disabilities.

    Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/03/19/2117925/placing-mentally-disabled-in-personal.html#storylink=cpy
    You can read the article in its entirety here :http://www.kentucky.com/2012/03/19/2117925/placing-mentally-disabled-in-personal.html

    TAC speaks out of HUD's response about the homeless.

    An interesting exchange took place on The Daily Show when comedian Jon Stewart interviewed with Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) about homelessness.
    "Between shelters, emergency rooms and jails, he told Stewart, it costs “about $40,000 in "tax payers dollars" a year to have a homeless person on the streets.” 
    for more info read the articles here:

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    I might add, it cost KY's tax payers around $30,000 a year to house these same individuals, (often suffering with untreated mental illness) in our jails or prisons.  It cost about $700 a day for these individuals to be in a state mental hospital.  KY's mental health budget hasn't increased in 14 years ~ so what is more humane? Would it be smarter to use these funds to help these individuals regain their life by treating their illness instead? Talk to your legislator about this and you'll be quick to learn that most are clueless of how these dollars are being spent or shall I say 'wasted'.  

    I encourage you to re-post or at least think of this article the next time you think a homeless person isn't costing us money.  

    Remember this article when you vote! GG  Burns, KY Mental Health Advocate

    Sunday, March 4, 2012

    The PEW report on Kentucky

    Over the past decade, Kentucky has had one of the fastest growing prison populations in the nation. Despite a decline during the past three years, the Commonwealth’s inmate population is 45 percent larger than it was at the start of the decade, compared with a 13 percent growth for the U.S. state prison system as a whole.  As a result of this growth, the Commonwealth’s spending on corrections has also increased. In FY 1990, general fund corrections spending in Kentucky totaled $140 million. In FY 2010, that amount was $440 million, an increase of 214 percent. Yet, the state’s recidivism rate is still high and remains above the levels from the late 1990s.

    In 2010, to seek new ways to protect public safety while controlling the growth of prison costs, the legislature established a bipartisan, inter-branch Task Force. The Task Force conducted an extensive review of state data and issued recommendations from the Public Safety Performance Project and its partners.
    In February of 2011, The Public Safety and Offender Accountability Act was introduced to implement this broad series of reforms, passing the Senate unanimously and the House by a vote of 96 to 1 before being signed into law by Governor Steve Beshear.  Overall, the new law ensures there is more prison space for violent and career criminals while helping to stop the revolving door for lower-risk, non-violent offenders. The Legislative Research Commission’s fiscal note estimates the reforms will bring gross savings of $422 million over 10 years. A portion of these savings will be reinvested in efforts to reduce recidivism, including strengthening probation and parole and programs for substance abusing offenders.  

    The Pew Charitable Trusts applies the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. The Pew Center on the States identifies and advances state policy solution

    State Work Resources
    2011 Kentucky Reforms Cut Recidivism, Costs (PDF)
    July 2011 | The Pew Center on the States

    News

    News Article Mar 26, 2011 - Bipartisan Effort Led to Kentucky Penal Code Reform
    Press Release Mar 03, 2011 - Pew Applauds Kentucky Leaders for Comprehensive Public Safety Reforms
    Opinion Editorial Mar 02, 2011 - Significant Accomplishment on Penal Reform
    News Article Mar 01, 2011 - Kentucky Senate Passes Corrections Reform Bill
    News Article Mar 01, 2011 - Beshear Will Sign Into Law a Sweeping Rewrite of State's Criminal Code
    News Article Feb 28, 2011 - Senate Approves Penal Code Changes