Sunday, February 15, 2009
Police Confronting the Mentally Ill
Exerpt:
From coast to coast, mentally ill people, without reliable access to the costly on-demand care they need, are left to fend for themselves. In the aftermath of the movement in the 1970s to close large mental asylums, many of today's mentally ill are left to their own devices; they are often homeless and without full-time advocates. With government unable or unwilling to properly serve this population, the criminal-justice system is left to pick up the slack.
Contrary to what many assume, the mentally ill are most often the victimized, not the victimizers. A 2005 study by researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University suggested that persons with serious mental illnesses are 11 times more likely than the general population to be victims of violent crime, with perhaps as many as 1 million crimes committed against those with serious mental-health issues each year.
Principled Mental Health Reform
Vindication for Dwight?
Holmes County, Florida Sheriff Election
Posted: 5:16 PM Nov 5, 2008
(WTVY-Channel 4 News)
A long time northwest, Florida lawman lost his bid for a fourth term in office. In January, one-time Deputy Tim Brown will be sworn-in as Holmes County's first republican sheriff since the civil war.
Brown spent the morning "thanking" voters for his "upset" victory over incumbent Sheriff Dennis Lee. Brown spent 18 years with the department, and the last six with the Florida Department of Corrections.
In 2004, Brown mounted an unsuccessful bid for the office, but this time around, he had two things going for him. He ran as a republican who voted more than three-to-one for Senator McCain for president. Brown also says he knocked on just about every door in the county.
Blog note: Many in town had credited Sheriff Lee (related to Officer Stephen Lee who originally attempted to unsuccessfully apprehend Dwight) with leading the raid that led to the death of Dwight McWaters.
GREAT ARTICLE FROM SEVERAL YEARS AGO
Courtesy of: The Panama City News Herald
Viewpoint - Our View: Mental problem
Wednesday, March 31, 2004
Our View
Mental problem
Responding to hundreds of thousands of patients warehoused in psychiatric hospitals, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled four decades ago that the confined mentally ill had a right to treatment and threw open the doors. Society has failed to cope with the problem ever since, culminating in the Saturday morning wounding of Bonifay Police Department Officer Steven Lee.
Lee took a shotgun blast while protecting his community from a deranged man shooting at imaginary people in bushes.
The accused shooter, Dwight McWaters, took a volley of bullets — two to the head, according to his family — because he was exhibiting symptoms of his mental illness and had access to a gun.
Lee is thankfully on his way to recovery. McWaters most likely will die, and he won’t be the first Floridian whose lifetime of mental illness came to an end this year during a confrontation with the police.
Two weeks after being legally forced into a hospital for escalating paranoia, Shawn Paul Fisher was shot in the head on Jan. 20 by a Polk County police sharpshooter after Fisher raised his shotgun and fired at sheriff’s deputies. Fisher had stopped taking his medication for schizophrenia and dialed 9-1-1. Authorities believe he wanted to be killed by police.
Last year, police in St. Petersburg killed 52-year-old marine biologist and Eagle Scout Thomas Albert Wallace after he attacked them from inside an abandoned water tank. His paranoid schizophrenia left him homeless and living in the industrial park. His sister said he was afraid to take his medication.
Seminole County Sheriff Donald Eslinger testified July 30 before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that in the previous five years at least 176 people with mental illnesses and 29 law enforcement officers have been killed in altercations across the nation.
Dealing with the mentally ill is now an everyday occurrence for the police. In some jurisdictions around the country, psychiatric calls outnumber robberies and assaults.
Since 1955, the number of patients in psychiatric hospitals has dropped by almost 500,000. The nation’s jails and prisons now house at least 283,000 mentally ill inmates, and an estimated 770,000 of the single adult homeless population suffers from some psychiatric ailment. It doesn’t take much guesswork to determine where America now warehouses its mentally ill.
The problem has no simple answer, but more people will die until society decides the solution takes more than putting an officer’s life on the line and a bullet to the head.
AN OPEN LETTER TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Dear Friend:
I am writing to you on behalf of my Uncle Dwight McWaters of Bonifay, FL who died April 2004. He was a wonderful man for the majority of his 40 years of life. He was a college educated chemist, an artist, and a proponent of the homeless. He would often minister to the sick and elderly with his music and art in fulfillment of his Christian values. He was a patriot and honorable citizen. He did not have a criminal record. Unfortunately, he struggled with mental illness for over 10 years. He was suffering from Bipolar Disorder (Manic-Depression) with psychotic symptoms (a loss of touch with reality). He was frequently hospitalized for psychotic breakdowns but would generally improve for a short while following medication and therapy. In October 2003, he experienced a severe breakdown. His behavior and comments seemed to indicate that he could become violent. We pleaded with local authorities to assist Dwight. Finally, after several days of family urging, he was ordered hospitalized by the local Judge. Nevertheless, he was released against the wishes of the majority of his family. I called the psychiatric hospital in Bay County, Florida several times to urge them to Baker-Act him. I knew the mental health care in his community was inadequate for the chronically mentally ill and he was better off in an inpatient facility. Even so, they did not or could not keep him. Then in late March, 2004, Dwight was seen by his neighbors shouting at bushes and firing his rifle into the woods. When local Bonifay, FL Officer Steven Lee arrived on the scene, Dwight felt threatened by Officer Lee’s attempts to take him into custody and shot him. Dwight barricaded himself in his home and refused to come out. He shot out of his window and Police returned fire at which time Dwight was fatally wounded. I was on the scene at the time but was unable to communicate with Dwight, only forced to watch in horror as this tragedy unfolded.
As a Licensed Psychologist and former U.S. Department of Justice employee, I’ve often advocated for the mentally ill. But never before has this issue impacted me so deeply and personally. In an effort to prevent these future tragedies, I urge you to help get the word out! Contact your local state Representative, Congressman, Senator, Governor, and President and urge them to pass the following legislation:
1)A Bill that would provide tax breaks for any mental health professional who volunteers to help educate local police on how to manage acutely and chronically mentally ill persons in the community
2) A Bill that would provide tax incentives for community mental health centers
in rural areas, and finally,
3) A Bill that would authorize prescription privileges for psychologists who work in rural areas. There is intermittent psychiatric care in Bonifay, FL where my Uncle lived and he had to drive 1 to 2 hours many times to find the nearest psychiatrist for medication. New Mexico and Louisiana recently passed a law allowing psychologists to prescribe medication for the mentally ill. These laws are expected to help rural areas most directly where psychiatrists are not likely to practice. If similar laws were passed in Florida and through-out the nation, access to much needed medications and psychotherapy would greatly increase.
Thank you for your kind consideration of this important matter. Please help me avert these future tragedies.
Sincerely,
W. Steven Saunders, Psy.D.
