short notes:
will brady's ruminations
will brady's ruminations
2007-02-12
criminals
As far as I'm concerned the Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections Patrica Caruso, should be personally held accountable for the murder of 21 year old Timothy Joe Souders.
Timothy Souders, a 21 years old man diagnosed with a major dpressive disorder, died naked and dehydrated in his isolation cell. Mr. Caruso was serving one to four years for resisting arrest, assault and destroying police property. He took medicine for manic-depression, psychosis and hypertension, and attempted suicide three times while a prisoner.
He was placed in solitary confinement "...because of unruly behavior... and left to lay shackled by his arms and legs to a concrete slab in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, for 17 hours soaked in his own urine. The guards claimed he refused water when offered. The "offere of water was necessary since the gurads had shut off water to the sink in his cell.
Mr. Souder was on a complex polypharmaceutical "cocktail, typical of those foisted on people deemed as severely mentally ill.
Several of the chemicals Souders was administered, including lithium and the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, are well known to cause kidney failure, increased urination, and dehydration without careful psychiatric monitoring.
Mr. Souder's death was videotaped by prison guards. The length of time in restraints was not disputed. Staff attempted to validate their own callous actions and fired a nurse for being inattentive and not completing paper work on time to get him transferred out of the prison.
Although a DOC social worker recommended that Mr. Souter be immediately transferred to a less restrictive mental health facility before has last days, that reccomendation was ignored. Providing mental health care, in Michigan, is corntrated out to Correctional Medical Services, which prides itself on "... reputation for providing quality, responsible correctional healthcare services nationwide." I suppose it is moot to determine whether or not they actually do provide excellent care, but they were faulted as not taking Mr. Souter out of the prison and placing himn in an appropriate care setting in a timely manner. The independent reviewers at the Prison Policy Initiative, has cited CMS as providing below standard or incomletent treatment in at least two other states, including Missouri and Texas.
While I seriously doubt that Ms. Caruso was present for Mr. Souder's ungraceful death [he died of thirst after 4 days in locked seclusion and restraints] her leadership role at the Michigan State Department of Corrections clearly sets a tone for what is acceptable for her guards to do to inmates and what is not. She laughed during the 60 Mnutes interview, defending this reaction with a glib "...well, the guards have to protect themselves from being hit with feces and urine by the inmates". Her rationales presented for restratints, although prefaced with empty claims such as that "...restraints are never used to punish inmates", that they'd only be used for safety purposes, except that, clearly, the safety of young Mr. Souder apparently was never in the cards.
Evidently, indiscriminate use of restraints is deemed acceptable in the State of Michigan. In the facility where I work, the maximum length of time that a person can be kept in restraints is 3 hours. Even then there must be 15 minute checks to see if the person has calmed down and released. But where I wrok, use of restraints has been aggressively discouraged in favor of actively working to help someone who is out of control to de-escalate aggressive behaviors. In Michigan, Commissioner Caruso said they are "considering" limiting the use of restraints to 6 hours. That said, the prios has already been reported as violating Court orders to limit this type of intervention.
According to Amnesty International standards, this suggests that Michigan officials consider torture by means of excessive use of restraints is acceptable as well. Personally, I find this reprehensible if not truly obscene.
At the very least, I hope Commissioner Caruso doesn't sleep well these days. But why is that I suspect that she doesn't care at all. Maybe it was the nervous laugh on the 60 Minutes interview about dealing with unruly prisoners.
As far as I'm concerned the Director of the Michigan Department of Corrections Patrica Caruso, should be personally held accountable for the murder of 21 year old Timothy Joe Souders. Timothy Souders, a 21 years old man diagnosed with a major dpressive disorder, died naked and dehydrated in his isolation cell. Mr. Caruso was serving one to four years for resisting arrest, assault and destroying police property. He took medicine for manic-depression, psychosis and hypertension, and attempted suicide three times while a prisoner.
He was placed in solitary confinement "...because of unruly behavior... and left to lay shackled by his arms and legs to a concrete slab in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, for 17 hours soaked in his own urine. The guards claimed he refused water when offered. The "offere of water was necessary since the gurads had shut off water to the sink in his cell.
Mr. Souder was on a complex polypharmaceutical "cocktail, typical of those foisted on people deemed as severely mentally ill.
Several of the chemicals Souders was administered, including lithium and the antipsychotic drug Seroquel, are well known to cause kidney failure, increased urination, and dehydration without careful psychiatric monitoring.Mr. Souder's death was videotaped by prison guards. The length of time in restraints was not disputed. Staff attempted to validate their own callous actions and fired a nurse for being inattentive and not completing paper work on time to get him transferred out of the prison.
Although a DOC social worker recommended that Mr. Souter be immediately transferred to a less restrictive mental health facility before has last days, that reccomendation was ignored. Providing mental health care, in Michigan, is corntrated out to Correctional Medical Services, which prides itself on "... reputation for providing quality, responsible correctional healthcare services nationwide." I suppose it is moot to determine whether or not they actually do provide excellent care, but they were faulted as not taking Mr. Souter out of the prison and placing himn in an appropriate care setting in a timely manner. The independent reviewers at the Prison Policy Initiative, has cited CMS as providing below standard or incomletent treatment in at least two other states, including Missouri and Texas.
While I seriously doubt that Ms. Caruso was present for Mr. Souder's ungraceful death [he died of thirst after 4 days in locked seclusion and restraints] her leadership role at the Michigan State Department of Corrections clearly sets a tone for what is acceptable for her guards to do to inmates and what is not. She laughed during the 60 Mnutes interview, defending this reaction with a glib "...well, the guards have to protect themselves from being hit with feces and urine by the inmates". Her rationales presented for restratints, although prefaced with empty claims such as that "...restraints are never used to punish inmates", that they'd only be used for safety purposes, except that, clearly, the safety of young Mr. Souder apparently was never in the cards.
Evidently, indiscriminate use of restraints is deemed acceptable in the State of Michigan. In the facility where I work, the maximum length of time that a person can be kept in restraints is 3 hours. Even then there must be 15 minute checks to see if the person has calmed down and released. But where I wrok, use of restraints has been aggressively discouraged in favor of actively working to help someone who is out of control to de-escalate aggressive behaviors. In Michigan, Commissioner Caruso said they are "considering" limiting the use of restraints to 6 hours. That said, the prios has already been reported as violating Court orders to limit this type of intervention.
According to Amnesty International standards, this suggests that Michigan officials consider torture by means of excessive use of restraints is acceptable as well. Personally, I find this reprehensible if not truly obscene.At the very least, I hope Commissioner Caruso doesn't sleep well these days. But why is that I suspect that she doesn't care at all. Maybe it was the nervous laugh on the 60 Minutes interview about dealing with unruly prisoners.
THINGS YOU CAN DO: Watch the 60 Mnutes Video | Check out the Real Cost of Prisons Blog | Sign on to the petition to restrict restraint use in Michigan prisons
UPDATE 02/15/07: Other bloggers writing about the murder of Timothy Souder include Care2 : Friends of Timothy Joe Souter and John Schneider | PICTURE CREDITS: Michigan Department of Corrections; Stills taken from CBS 60 Minutes
UPDATE 02/15/07: Other bloggers writing about the murder of Timothy Souder include Care2 : Friends of Timothy Joe Souter and John Schneider | PICTURE CREDITS: Michigan Department of Corrections; Stills taken from CBS 60 Minutes
Labels: arrogance, malfeasance, mentally ill, prisons, torture
¶ 14:55 1 comments
2006-11-25
compassionate conservatism at work
Massachusetts outgoing carpetbagging governor Mitt Romney is throwing disabled and poor out on the streets for the Holidays according to a recent article in Boston Globe.
Mind you, I don't consider mental hospitals ...or any institutional setting [prisons, shelters, nursing homes] as an acceptable way of providing housing for the least fortunate in our society, but to take what is there from people, is unconscionable.
But this attitude, where those with wealth and privilege find further disenfranchising the poor completely acceptable, is not surprising. Just disheartening.
Massachusetts outgoing carpetbagging governor Mitt Romney is throwing disabled and poor out on the streets for the Holidays according to a recent article in Boston Globe.State psychiatric hospitals will begin turning away new patients on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, in response to emergency budget cuts issued earlier this month by Gov. Mitt Romney. The cuts will force the elimination of 170 Department of Mental Health staff positions, including staffers who provide care to hundreds of emotionally disturbed children and teens.A few days later, the rationale for budget cuts further restricting winter bed spaces in Massachusetts homeless shelters was blamed on "...some idiotic state bureaucrat couldn't see the people through the numbers and should probably be stripped of his or her calculator before doing similar damage. It means that the governor's constant religiosity should include a little more compassion for the poor and a little less zeal against gay marriage." but what else can we expect.
Representatives of the Massachusetts Hospital Association and the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems said they were informed of the moratorium on new patients by Mental Health Commissioner Beth Childs on Friday. Besides barring new inpatient admissions to mental health facilities, Child's department will also restrict access to residential programs, advocates said.
"These are the unkindest cuts imaginable, and their timing is hard to fathom," Massachusetts Hospital Association President Ron Hollander said in a written statement. "We implore the governor to restore these essential services to the people who depend on DMH."David Matteodo, head of the Massachusetts Association of Behavioral Health Systems, said the chronically and severely disabled will be denied the critical care they need. "That is the harsh consequence of these cuts, which will be imposed on a mental health system that is already under tremendous strain," he said.
Mind you, I don't consider mental hospitals ...or any institutional setting [prisons, shelters, nursing homes] as an acceptable way of providing housing for the least fortunate in our society, but to take what is there from people, is unconscionable.
But this attitude, where those with wealth and privilege find further disenfranchising the poor completely acceptable, is not surprising. Just disheartening.
Labels: homelessness, mentally ill, politicians, social justice
¶ 22:52 0 comments
2006-05-26
mental health system | crisis intervention
My friend who, a few weeks ago, was losing touch with conventional reality and spending more time in a parallel one, ended up in a psyche hospital last Friday. Although he was a client of what is known as an ACT Team they really had no involvement in his going to an in-patient setting.
Although he had provided the community provider agency with the proper consent [in writing, authorizing I could speak to them about his situation] three weeks ago the ACT Team Coordinator [the boss] not only refused to talk with me, but refused to even listen to my observations outlining my friend's increasing fragile mental state. ...and he slammed the telephone down. End of discussion.
In frustration and alarm, I got in touch with someone I know who works at a state agency who agreed to intercede with the ACT Team coordinator's boss. This led to a week-and-a-half of back and forth calls that involved neither myself nor the Coordinator nor my friend. "What does Will want?" was the weak defense.
Stupid me, I though what I wanted was pretty obvious. Namely, for staff who work on what is supposed to be a "...24 hours a day, seven days a week..." basis with and on behalf of people who experience "...debilitating symptoms associated with mental illness... and to minimize or prevent recurrent acute episodes..." and to aid in avoiding unnecessary hospitalization.
Now, this ACT Team doesn't have an attending psychatrist, whose job would be to assess how well a multi-medication regimen might be acting for someone to minimize or blunt the severity of psychiatric symptoms. They haven't had one of over a year. They have a prescribing nurse. Not that I have any disagreements with the nurse, but presumably a psychiatrist ought to know the finer points of psychopharmacology more so than a nurse.
And this ACT Team doesn't make daily stops to my friend's house, either. The agency has sub-contracted that obligation out to a home-visit nursing organization. The staff from that place see him, maybe, 10 to 15 minutes a day.
Point being, the staff who are legally and clinically assigned to treat this man on a 24/7 intensive involvement basis, spend hardly any time assessing his condition. And they are this lax about these things when working with a man who has never been shy about speaking his mind; when working with a man whom the Agency staff know has a friend who is well connected AND whose job is to investigate neglect and abuse cases.
What do they do with their less connected, and possibly even more symptomatically compromised clients?
There's more... that's for the next post.
Although he had provided the community provider agency with the proper consent [in writing, authorizing I could speak to them about his situation] three weeks ago the ACT Team Coordinator [the boss] not only refused to talk with me, but refused to even listen to my observations outlining my friend's increasing fragile mental state. ...and he slammed the telephone down. End of discussion.
In frustration and alarm, I got in touch with someone I know who works at a state agency who agreed to intercede with the ACT Team coordinator's boss. This led to a week-and-a-half of back and forth calls that involved neither myself nor the Coordinator nor my friend. "What does Will want?" was the weak defense.
Stupid me, I though what I wanted was pretty obvious. Namely, for staff who work on what is supposed to be a "...24 hours a day, seven days a week..." basis with and on behalf of people who experience "...debilitating symptoms associated with mental illness... and to minimize or prevent recurrent acute episodes..." and to aid in avoiding unnecessary hospitalization.
Now, this ACT Team doesn't have an attending psychatrist, whose job would be to assess how well a multi-medication regimen might be acting for someone to minimize or blunt the severity of psychiatric symptoms. They haven't had one of over a year. They have a prescribing nurse. Not that I have any disagreements with the nurse, but presumably a psychiatrist ought to know the finer points of psychopharmacology more so than a nurse.And this ACT Team doesn't make daily stops to my friend's house, either. The agency has sub-contracted that obligation out to a home-visit nursing organization. The staff from that place see him, maybe, 10 to 15 minutes a day.
Point being, the staff who are legally and clinically assigned to treat this man on a 24/7 intensive involvement basis, spend hardly any time assessing his condition. And they are this lax about these things when working with a man who has never been shy about speaking his mind; when working with a man whom the Agency staff know has a friend who is well connected AND whose job is to investigate neglect and abuse cases.
What do they do with their less connected, and possibly even more symptomatically compromised clients?
There's more... that's for the next post.
Labels: crisis intervention, mentally ill, social comment, social justice
¶ 09:05 1 comments
2006-04-15
rainbow's promise | mental health
We had a rainbow show up over the max-security building at work the other day, and perhaps this bodes well, for things have not been good of late.
It's no secret that the Department of Justice is coming to do a site visit where I work. The reasons for this are varied, but doubtless include the death of James Bell, in 2002, when, in front of nearly 30 staff, died of a heart attack yet, according to investigative reports, no one did anything except put him in restraints.
Among the residents where I work [you might call them "patients"], there is a sense that little has changed since that event, though much has.
The place still has a long way to go and even though, according to the the National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI] the state of Connecticut ranks a "B" [tied with Ohio for the quality of care provided to people], there is far to go before care providers can rest on their laurels.
Many staff still fail to grasp the importance of respecting another person's personal space [let alone their rights]. Grievances I receive all too frequently have
birth in someone's utter lack of consideration about others. This kind of obdurate behavior muddies what might be a person's really critical issues. The nurse who rudely dismisses a man complaining of severe lower back pain, might be ignoring a developing tumor [that actually happened ~ the man is now paralyzed from the waist down].
Then there's the preoccupation, even sloven fealty to Big Pharma; as if taking a mouthful of meds actually solves problems like some magic bullet. Let me clue you in here ~ in and of themselves, psychotropic meds are not cure-alls. Many have severe and crippling side-effects that could last for life and the taker of meds has to "choose" between living with extreme discomfort, diabetes, kidney failure, even the possibility of premature death. All this in exchange for numbing the intensity of one's psychiatric symptoms. Yet, so frequently, nursing staff's first response to expression of crisis is "So do you want a PRN?" Make's you wonder what ever happened to sitting down and actually listening to someone to hear their personal tales of woe before being inappropriately prescriptive.
Clinical professionals, as well as lay-people fail to grasp the basic reality that many individuals with perceptual and cognitive conditions that become disabling, severe and long-lasting, can and do recover from their inability to deal with those conditions. For some, "recovery" means the conditions go away completely, for others, they learn to adapt and function with the conditions, however difficult that me be for not only themselves, but for others with whom they live.
But that recovery rarely occurs in a vacuum. Those around those with the difficulties and travails that society has dubbed to be "mental illnesses" have to be available to provide, care, compassion, support, uncondtional love, understanding and forebearance. Not someting easily done, perhaps, but without it the rainbow's promise is all the more difficult to find.
RESOURCES: Advocacy Unlimited; Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law; Dr. Peter Breggin; Centre for Evidence Based Mental Health; Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery; MindFreedom; National Alliance on Mental Illness; National Institute of Mental Health; Mental Health Matters | Cross posted at Rondacker's LiveJournal Diary
It's no secret that the Department of Justice is coming to do a site visit where I work. The reasons for this are varied, but doubtless include the death of James Bell, in 2002, when, in front of nearly 30 staff, died of a heart attack yet, according to investigative reports, no one did anything except put him in restraints.
Among the residents where I work [you might call them "patients"], there is a sense that little has changed since that event, though much has.
The place still has a long way to go and even though, according to the the National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI] the state of Connecticut ranks a "B" [tied with Ohio for the quality of care provided to people], there is far to go before care providers can rest on their laurels.
Many staff still fail to grasp the importance of respecting another person's personal space [let alone their rights]. Grievances I receive all too frequently have
birth in someone's utter lack of consideration about others. This kind of obdurate behavior muddies what might be a person's really critical issues. The nurse who rudely dismisses a man complaining of severe lower back pain, might be ignoring a developing tumor [that actually happened ~ the man is now paralyzed from the waist down]. Then there's the preoccupation, even sloven fealty to Big Pharma; as if taking a mouthful of meds actually solves problems like some magic bullet. Let me clue you in here ~ in and of themselves, psychotropic meds are not cure-alls. Many have severe and crippling side-effects that could last for life and the taker of meds has to "choose" between living with extreme discomfort, diabetes, kidney failure, even the possibility of premature death. All this in exchange for numbing the intensity of one's psychiatric symptoms. Yet, so frequently, nursing staff's first response to expression of crisis is "So do you want a PRN?" Make's you wonder what ever happened to sitting down and actually listening to someone to hear their personal tales of woe before being inappropriately prescriptive.Clinical professionals, as well as lay-people fail to grasp the basic reality that many individuals with perceptual and cognitive conditions that become disabling, severe and long-lasting, can and do recover from their inability to deal with those conditions. For some, "recovery" means the conditions go away completely, for others, they learn to adapt and function with the conditions, however difficult that me be for not only themselves, but for others with whom they live.
But that recovery rarely occurs in a vacuum. Those around those with the difficulties and travails that society has dubbed to be "mental illnesses" have to be available to provide, care, compassion, support, uncondtional love, understanding and forebearance. Not someting easily done, perhaps, but without it the rainbow's promise is all the more difficult to find.
RESOURCES: Advocacy Unlimited; Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law; Dr. Peter Breggin; Centre for Evidence Based Mental Health; Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery; MindFreedom; National Alliance on Mental Illness; National Institute of Mental Health; Mental Health Matters | Cross posted at Rondacker's LiveJournal Diary
Labels: big pharma, drug wars, mentally ill, obituaries, prisons, Recovery
¶ 13:17 0 comments
