Mental Health Notes

Mental Health Care: You Get What You Pay For?

by Alicia Sparks, Mental Health Notes on May 15th, 2008

I sat on this story for a little while - since May 4 - thinking that if I let myself cool down first I’d be more likely to sound rational when I posted about it.

Well, I’ve not cooled down one bit. In fact, I’m probably more enraged now than I was when I first read it.

The gist of the story, Records show abuse, violence in state mental hospitals, is pretty much summed up in the first sentence of the Houston Chronicle article:

More than 70 employees at Texas’ 10 state mental hospitals have been fired and dozens others disciplined since 2005 over allegations of brutal beatings and other physical abuse, according to a newspaper report.

Naturally, finding out about such abuse infuriated me. However, that’s not the information within the article that really stuck with me. What really stuck with me - what really soaked into my bones and festered and forced me not to delete the bookmark I’d set for this article and eventually led to writing this post - were the following two paragraphs:

Texas juvenile prisons, group homes for the disabled, and state schools for people with mental disabilities all came under fire last year for reports of widespread physical and sexual abuse. The state psychiatric hospitals, like other systems for vulnerable Texans, are chronically starved for cash, advocates of more state funding say, and services at the local level can’t keep up.

“You get what you pay for,” said state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, who has bipolar disorder. “When you financially dumb something down, you make services cheap, something’s got to give. Unfortunately, it usually ends up being a mentally ill or disabled Texan.”

You get what you pay for…? Excuse me? Excuse me?! I’m sorry, Mr. Coleman, but you are gravely mistaken if you expect me to believe that the lack of funding means you have no other choice but to hire abusers. And you are beyond gravely mistaken if you expect anyone to believe the lack of funding means these mentally ill patients shouldn’t expect anything other than poor medical treatment and abuse.

I get poor. I understand lack of funding. I know what it means to be without health insurance and have to rely on state-funded services. I know it firsthand.

However, I also know there are good - genuinely good down to their bones - people out there who aren’t so consumed with the almighty dollar that they won’t take job positions that don’t pay out the wazoo. I know there are people out there who will not see low-paying jobs as invitations to beat the hell out of, rape, and overmedicate patients.

I know that lack of funding doesn’t mean that someone out there can’t get up off his or her ass and pay attention.

Other disturbing quotes from the article include:

“Disciplinary records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show the violence against patients included chokeholds, headlocks and threats.”

“But some advocates fear the mentally ill patients may face greater risks. Patients of the psychiatric hospitals are largely indigent, transient and not connected to their families, so they have few allies as they bounce through the mental health system.”

” ‘It’s a population that’s easy to abuse because they’re not on the radar in any way,’ said Richard Hansen, a Texas mental health advocate who was chemically restrained, shackled and beaten to the point of broken ribs years ago while suffering from bipolar disorder in a New York mental hospital.”

“Other employees were punished for offensive treatment, from using racial slurs on patients to making verbal threats and sexual advances. Some ignored patients’ cries for help while they watched TV, played video games and wrote text messages. Others stole state property and sold tobacco products to patients.”

According to the article, Texas “funds just 27 percent of mental health needs in the community.” Advocacy Inc. mental health policy specialist Aaryce Hayes told the newspaper, “If we said we were serving just 27 percent of people who had cancer, or diabetes, nobody would be comfortable with that.”

Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not attacking Texas. I understand that this is a nationwide problem, and I’m equally frustrated with every state. God knows, living in West Virginia I have no room to point fingers. Too, I am truly grateful for folks like Hansen and Hayes who dedicate themselves to advocating for mentally ill patients.

However, I’d be lying if I said I weren’t completely and utterly disgusted and enraged right now.

Image: Newscom

Ken Jensen is currently rockin’ out in the This Is Why I ROCK! series here at Mental Health Notes. If you have a mental illness and are still living the life you love, head on over the the official announcement post and enter!

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