Our Health Policy Matters

Claiming that D.C. crime is out of control, President Trump has brought in the National Guard. Never mind that crime rates are down in the District. The optics are compelling. Trump blames homeless people. As Fox News reported , he is giving them two choices – jail or homeless shelters to treat mental health and substance use disorders. If these choices seem reasonable, they aren’t. Sending someone to jail who hasn’t committed a crime is a bad, even unconstitutional, idea. Like our new South Florida gulag, this notion offends many of us. And many, if not most, of the people who are chronically homeless have seriously undertreated mental health conditions. Jails and shelters don’t have the money or resources to provide that treatment. What this boils down to is comfort. Seeing homeless people congregating makes some people uncomfortable. President Trump is suggesting that the freedom to congregate peacefully is a freedom reserved only to some of us – not everyone. There’s bigotry t...

Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia  is now in the Columbia University Press catalog. Cover Photo Credit: Hartford Courant, Shana Sureck You can find it using this link:  http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16828-1/losing-tim It will be available in the Fall of 2014.  It is a story of how the mental health policies of the last generation of policymakers (of which I was a member) failed my son, and how the policies of this generation of policymakers continue to fail him, and so many like him. I can't say that I hope you will enjoy it, but I do hope you will find it moving.   And that it will help move us all - including the next generation of policymakers - to action.  It is long past the time we could pretend that neglect is a synonym for common sense and compassion.

Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia  is now in the Columbia University Press catalog. Cover Photo Credit: Hartford Courant, Shana Sureck You can find it using this link:  http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16828-1/losing-tim It will be available in the Fall of 2014.  It is a story of how the mental health policies of the last generation of policymakers (of which I was a member) failed my son, and how the policies of this generation of policymakers continue to fail him, and so many like him. I can't say that I hope you will enjoy it, but I do hope you will find it moving.   And that it will help move us all - including the next generation of policymakers - to action.  It is long past the time we could pretend that neglect is a synonym for common sense and compassion.

On a recent bright and sunny Monday afternoon, I took the sixteen-minute BART ride from Oakland – where I was doing some work – into downtown San Francisco.  I went to several places where people who are homeless tend to congregate.  What I saw made me wonder.  Do we realize that if we do nothing, up to half of the people who are chronically homeless are likely to die in the next ten years? I exited the BART train at the Civic Center/UN Plaza station.  When I arrived above ground, I saw more than a hundred homeless people in the vicinity of the station.  They were sitting or resting on the plaza, pretty much keeping to themselves. Scores of tourists, business people, and shoppers hurried about their business.  There was no interaction between the two groups.  It reminded me of the way old-time cartoons had the action layered on top of a static backdrop – a crowd bustling with activity set against the backdrop of stationary homeless people...

On a recent bright and sunny Monday afternoon, I took the sixteen-minute BART ride from Oakland – where I was doing some work – into downtown San Francisco.  I went to several places where people who are homeless tend to congregate.  What I saw made me wonder.  Do we realize that if we do nothing, up to half of the people who are chronically homeless are likely to die in the next ten years? I exited the BART train at the Civic Center/UN Plaza station.  When I arrived above ground, I saw more than a hundred homeless people in the vicinity of the station.  They were sitting or resting on the plaza, pretty much keeping to themselves. Scores of tourists, business people, and shoppers hurried about their business.  There was no interaction between the two groups.  It reminded me of the way old-time cartoons had the action layered on top of a static backdrop – a crowd bustling with activity set against the backdrop of stationary homeless people...

Anna Brown was 29 years old when she died suddenly last September. She left two small children.  Sometimes, the tragic and untimely death of a young mother commands our attention.  Anna’s death in Missouri drew a little national interest just last week.  She died alone on a concrete jail cell floor.  It happened just a few minutes after she was arrested for trespassing.  She refused to leave a hospital emergency room while she was in agonizing pain.    Anna Brown was homeless, had mental illness, and was on Medicaid.  Hospital officials thought she was a drug-seeker.  They were wrong.  According to news reports , a morning fog blanketed St. Louis on September 20, 2011 – the day Anna died.  She spent much of her final day going from emergency room to emergency room begging for care.  She started at St. Louis University Hospital complaining of pain in her leg.  She was evaluated and released with...

Anna Brown was 29 years old when she died suddenly last September. She left two small children.  Sometimes, the tragic and untimely death of a young mother commands our attention.  Anna’s death in Missouri drew a little national interest just last week.  She died alone on a concrete jail cell floor.  It happened just a few minutes after she was arrested for trespassing.  She refused to leave a hospital emergency room while she was in agonizing pain.    Anna Brown was homeless, had mental illness, and was on Medicaid.  Hospital officials thought she was a drug-seeker.  They were wrong.  According to news reports , a morning fog blanketed St. Louis on September 20, 2011 – the day Anna died.  She spent much of her final day going from emergency room to emergency room begging for care.  She started at St. Louis University Hospital complaining of pain in her leg.  She was evaluated and released with...

I first heard about James McGillivray, Lloyd “Jim” Middaugh, and Paulus “Dutch” Smit about a month ago, though not by name. A tiny news crawler reported that three men were victims of a serial killer in southern California. James McGillivray’s body was found near a Placentia, CA, shopping mall on December 21 st .  53 year-old McGillivray hung out almost every day at the mall.  Regulars there called him humble, unobtrusive, and a “nice guy.”  A 17 year-old commented “I don’t know why someone would kill him.”  McGillivray was sleeping when he was attacked and stabbed to death. Jim Middaugh’s body was found along a riverbed trail in Anaheim on December 28 th .  He was also stabbed to death as he slept.  After his death, his mother – to whom Middaugh was exceptionally close – described her six foot, four inch son as a “gentle giant.” Dutch Smit was 57 years old when his body was found outside a Yorba Linda public library on December 30 th . ...

I first heard about James McGillivray, Lloyd “Jim” Middaugh, and Paulus “Dutch” Smit about a month ago, though not by name. A tiny news crawler reported that three men were victims of a serial killer in southern California. James McGillivray’s body was found near a Placentia, CA, shopping mall on December 21 st .  53 year-old McGillivray hung out almost every day at the mall.  Regulars there called him humble, unobtrusive, and a “nice guy.”  A 17 year-old commented “I don’t know why someone would kill him.”  McGillivray was sleeping when he was attacked and stabbed to death. Jim Middaugh’s body was found along a riverbed trail in Anaheim on December 28 th .  He was also stabbed to death as he slept.  After his death, his mother – to whom Middaugh was exceptionally close – described her six foot, four inch son as a “gentle giant.” Dutch Smit was 57 years old when his body was found outside a Yorba Linda public library on December 30 th . ...