Dispatch From the National NAMI Convention

It’s 4 AM in Chicago and I can’t get back to sleep. I have a full day ahead of me at the national NAMI convention. Rewind to yesterday ...

I stroll into the convention hotel late morning, after a long and restorative sleep. I’m demonstrating my didgeridoo to someone in the lobby area when I look up and see Nanci Schiman from the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation. Very good way to start the day. It’s going to be old friends reunion day at NAMI for me, as well as making new connections.

The morning is more of nuts and bolts sessions. I attend one on making outreaches to underserved populations. This includes prisoners. Wayne McGuire of NAMI Oklahoma tells us how he got NAMI Connections groups started in the prisons there. It was a laborious process, taking years. These things don’t just happen overnight.

Wayne had a successful career as an assistant professor before being blindsided by his illness and losing everything, then going through his own recovery and reincarnating himself as an advocate. Mental illness makes advocates of all of us. I’m in a room full of doers in a convention full of doers.

I don’t feel like that at our California state caucus. Someone from a local affiliate raises the issue of how a certain portion of NAMI dues goes to State and another portion to National, leaving little left over for the affiliate. Fair enough, I think, but then he and his cohorts keep bitching about it. And bitching.

And then helpful people explain - and keep explaining. The clock is running out and there are zillions of important issues to discuss. Finally, I raise my hand and request we move on to other stuff.

This is typical of boards everywhere. People driving each other crazy. It’s human nature.  It’s all part of the process of getting things done. By the time the meeting ends, I feel we’ve accomplished something.

The convention has been going on for a day and a half when we finally get to the official “Opening.” TV reporter Bill Curtis tells us about his son Scott, with schizophrenia, who died of complications from obesity. When he made mention of his son on the air, he relates, his colleagues looked at him as if he had leprosy. “No one wants to talk about it,” he told the gathering. “It’s time we started talking about it.”

Jessie Close shares some of her personal journey, one that includes her own challenges of living with bipolar, not to mention the additional burdens of raising a kid with a schizoaffective diagnosis. She tells us of an everyday event - of making son Calen’s Christmas homecoming safe for him. Everyday event, but significant.

Highly significant. These little things matter bigtime. Son Calen addresses us. Living with mental illness definitely has its challenges. But here he is up on the stage, talking to at least a thousand people in the room. Perhaps because many Christmases ago his mom helped him survive the day? Gave him asylum?

Little things, big results.

The last part of the session is given over to author Pete Earley interviewing NAMI CEO Michael Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick lets us know that the Medicaid stuff happening in Washington is the worst crisis he’s seen in 30 years. More discretionary power will be given to state politicians, he tells us, which in his own experience is never a good thing. In essence, states will be given free rein to slash mental health services. It’s already happening and it will get worse.

On a different matter, he tells us: “You can never underestimate policy-makers and their lack of understanding of mental illness.”

Most of the people in the room know Pete Earley from his book, “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness.” Pete updates us on his kid, Mike, who had his first psychotic break soon after graduating from college, which set off a family nightmare that saw his son in the criminal justice system rather than being treated.

Sometime after the book came out, Pete relates, Mike flipped out yet again. The police brought him to the same hospital where the original nightmare started. Same script. Doctors wouldn’t treat him. He’s fine, the physician told the officer who brought him in. New twist to the script: The officer had been CIT-trained. Fine, said the officer. Then I’ll drop him off in front of your house.

Mike got admitted, got treated, got services. Then he trained as a peer specialist. He’s now helping others and hasn’t had a setback in four years.

A different outcome, but there is never an ending to the story. Or any other stories. I have been listening to stories all day. Over lunch, on the run, over a beer. You don’t just retire from being an advocate, from pushing back against the madness. Not when you’re living in a story with no ending ...

Police Relations and Personal Safety

Yesterday, I summarized a Washington Post op-ed piece by author Pete Earley (“Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness”) that was harshly critical of a Fairfax County (VA) prosecutor’s reasoning in deciding not to charge an officer for fatally shooting an unarmed man in his vehicle.

The prosecutor, in a public statement, rationalized that because the victim, David Masters, had been diagnosed with a mental illness and had been reported by his family as acting strangely earlier, then, apparently, it was okay for the officer to fire two rounds into him.

David Masters, a former Green Beret, had been suspected of stealing flowers outside a shop. Fairfax County had provided some police with Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) in 2008, but it hasn’t been offered since. CIT teaches police how to respond to situations involving individuals with mental illness.

I was not planning to do a follow-up. But that was before I read the comments to Pete’s op-ed.

“This article is a load of crap,” read one. “The cop did what he did based on this training. JOIN THE DEPARTMENT IF YOU HAVE THE STONES TO DO SO INSTEAD OF BITCHING HERE!!!”

Read another: “Monday Morning QBs. I'm pretty sure you'd all place blame on the officer if he were shot and killed.”

And another:

You should do a ride-along with your local Police Dept and learn just how dangerous it is to be a cop when stopping someone. It is really quite enlightening - much more so then watching "cops" on tv. ...it would help of citizens were better trained on how to behave properly when interacting police officers: keep your hands where they can see them and then tell them what you are going to reach for and when you are going to reach for it. No surprises for them means no surprises for the citizen.

Fortunately, the expressions of outrage far outnumbered those who would issue every officer with a license to kill:

“Since when is bizarre behavior an excuse for the police to shoot someone?” is fairly representative, as is:

A cop's primary responsibility is to protect the community that pays him to serve it, which at a minimum means not shooting people if you don't have to. If his primary responsibility was to protect himself, he would shoot everything that moves.

Before I get to my response, here is a doozy that was posted several minutes after mine:

Oh so easy to second guess at a computer screen in a nice office rather than face crucial decisions on the street. Let's have more concern for citizens on the highway and others (including the police) put in danger from a deranged person or who suffer financial and other loss because of that person. (And if you want to say "it's only money" then you cover any damages from your checkbook) If there is a "villain" in this piece it is the system that allows deranged, volatile people--mentally ill--people to wander at will. Sorry, my sympathy in this case in limited. If you disagree invite the crazies--yes, politically incorrect as it may be to call them that--to your neighborhood and street.

Finally, my response:

The commenters defending the prosecutor and police here expressly state that the author and those who agree with him have no understanding of the police and the dangers they face. That is blatantly untrue. If understanding is the issue, I would cordially invite these same individuals to learn about mental illness. It's everywhere and it's very close to you if you open your eyes to it. Moreover, no one is immune from it - not even "normal" people.

Public safety is a major issue, but heaven help your personal safety if you just happen to panic behind the wheel of a vehicle and you fail to control your fear and agitation. A uniformed man with a gun is approaching. You've lost your ability to stay calm or even follow simple instructions. In that situation, you better pray to God that the officer has had CIT training. You better pray to God that officials who represent you and your fellow citizens hold that officer accountable for his actions. You better pray to God that the public - which includes your friends and family and neighbors and colleagues - understands you. Otherwise, you - yes you, Mr Normal - are just a nutjob who pissed off a cop. Are you ready to live in that kind of world?

No doubt this won’t be my last post on the issue. Stay tuned ...

Pete Earley - Outrage in Fairfax

Pete Earley is the author of the highly-acclaimed “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness.” Prior to turning his attention to mental illness, Pete, a former Washington Post investigative journalist, had achieved fame writing books on such topics as crime, criminal justice, Vegas, and spies. Then, one day, out of nowhere, ten tons of bricks dropped on his head.

Several years ago, Pete stood by helpless as his son Mike, fresh out of college, went off his Zyprexa and flipped into florid psychosis. But for doctors to treat him, first they needed his consent. Never mind that Mike’s condition had robbed his brain of all power to reason. Rules are rules. Of course, should Pete's son do something outrageous ...

A couple of days later, Mike obliged. In a highly delusional state, he broke into someone’s home and took a bubble bath. It took six Fairfax County (VA) police and a police dog to subdue him. Now a felony charge hung over Pete’s son. As Pete explained to a session I attended at the 2006 NAMI convention: “We’ve made them criminals as well as mentally ill.”

Pete’s wife urged him to do as a journalist what he could not do as a parent. Driven by his family nightmare, Pete did his own homework and turned in an eye-opening account of the degradation and horror visited upon those left to fend for themselves.

I’ve had occasion to meet up with Pete twice since then. (Pete was highly complimentary of my own book, and provided me, unsolicited, with a ringing endorsement.) He’s in high demand as a speaker at mental health conferences, and when he talks he leaves no doubt that the fire burns hot in his belly. Same with when he writes.

Yesterday’s Washington Post features an op-ed piece by Pete. According to the facts he presents:

In November, David Masters, 52, was fatally shot in his vehicle at a busy intersection after being stopped by police, who suspected him of stealing flowers outside a local business. On Jan 27, Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond Morrogh announced that his office would not file charges against the unnamed police officer involved in the shooting.

In Pete Earley’s words, Morrogh ...

... offered this stunning summary of what happened: "Unfortunately, we had a mentally ill man who was behaving bizarrely ... His family indicated he was behaving under delusions, that he might feel he was under attack if approached by the police. I think that's the explanation for his actions."

Pete is quick to point out that this is pure speculation on the part of the prosecutor, who apparently felt that an after-the-fact determination that Masters must have been crazy was reason enough to fire two rounds into him. As Pete points out:

The three officers did not know that Masters had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder when they confronted him. Many drivers open their jackets to retrieve their wallets when stopped by the police. The fact that a driver might be belligerent or challenge the police when confronted is not some automatic signal that he is mentally ill. What proof does Morrogh have that Masters was in the midst of a psychotic or delusional episode when he was stopped?

Pete also notes that “Morrogh's statement implies that individuals with mental illnesses cannot control their disorders and are prone to violence,” and that “even if Masters's disorder actually was a factor, there is an excellent chance that the officers who confronted him were not trained in how to determine whether someone acting ‘bizarrely’ is psychotic.”

Pete goes on to say that Crisis Intervention Training (CIT), which teaches police how to respond to situations involving individuals with mental illness, was offered to Fairfax Police in 2008, but has not been offered since.

Why are we not surprised?

(Note: Lest we rush to judgment, there is nothing in Pete's piece to suggest that the officer involved should be charged in the fatal shooting. That is obviously a separate issue. The concern here is the prosecutor's outrageous disregard for a citizen his office is charged with serving and protecting.)