With the November election approaching, members of several advocacy groups gathered Saturday to propose questions and create dialogue over the critical issues surrounding Measure S and Proposition 19.
Families ACT!, an organization founded in 2007 to address possible injustices inherent in current policies that have led to the neglect and criminalization of citizens, called a press conference at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Headquarters and spoke to members of the media about the country’s failed drug policies, specifically the effects they have on laws and families of Santa Barbara County.
The group made the case that unless the county invests in an effective treatment model to address the mental health needs as well as the substance use disorders of those who are crowding the county jail, building a new jail will not solve the problem.
“Our prisons are overcrowded, our jails are overcrowded, one out of 99 Americans is incarcerated, one out of 31 Americans is either incarcerated or under correctional control,” said Suzanne Riordan, Executive Director of Families ACT!. “Our incarceration rate is far greater than any country in the world.”
Riordan said that instead of focusing on creating more space, we should be asking questions about why our incarceration rate is so high.
“It doesn’t matter how many jails we build in Santa Barbara County,” said Riordan. “We’re not going to be able to turn this around until we provide some treatment for people and until we look at who is sitting in our jail, who is sitting in our prisons, and why are they there.”
Gretchen Burns Bergman, the executive sirector and Co-Founder of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and an organizer from Mothers United Against the War on Drugs, said the reason is quite clear: our current polices take punitive measures instead of focusing on therapy.
“We’re joining with friends, family members and fellow activists to stop the violence, the mass incarceration and overdose deaths resulting from draconian drug policies,” Bergman said of A New Path, an organization working to reduce the shame associated with addictive illness.
“Criminalization is not the answer when it comes to addition,” added treatment advocate Stefanee White. “We need to remove the stigma of guilt, fear and shame that are attached to addiction and mental illness so these young adults can receive the help that they need.”
Also on the November ballot is Proposition 19, which would legalize the possession of marijuana for personal use. Bergman said A New Path has officially endorsed Proposition 19 in an attempt to put an end to unsuccessful prohibition policies.
“Prohibition has failed again,” Bergman said, “And moms are leading the charge to end prohibition just as they did with alcohol prohibition in the 1930s, not because we love drugs and alcohol, just the opposite. It’s because we love our children and we want them to receive the services they need.”
A New Path asserts that government control and taxation of marijuana would create opportunities to reduce recidivism.
“Proposition 19 will tax and regulate marijuana,” Bergman said. “Regulation will inhibit access to minors and reduce mass arrests. Taxation could generate billions of dollars that could be used for much needed treatment services. Too many young people have lost their lives or their liberties to a war on drugs, which has really become a war waged against individuals and their families.”
Measure S, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase that would help to fund the construction of a new North County Jail, was also highly scrutinized.
“We have a 70 percent recidivism rate in this county and in this state,” Riordan said. “So if we just keep building new jails and new prisons, nothing will change.”
In addition to funding a new North County jail, the tax increase would also contribute $5 million per year to “recidivism reduction efforts and alternatives-to-incarceration.” While Riordan is happy to see money allocated toward rehabilitation, a more transparent plan is necessary, she said.
“What we want today in Santa Barbara are answers from our Sheriff Bill Brown… From our mental health department, from our country supervisors and from our public health department,” Riordan said. “We want to know that if we vote for Measure S and $5 million is advocated per year for 14 years for programs to prevent recidivism, exactly how is this going to be done? We need to start asking some really tough questions. Where is that $5 million going to go? Is it going to be administered by the Sheriff’s Department? Is it going to go for programs that are more of the same?”
“Are we going to do anything differently?” she asked.
As a result of a lack of clarity in how the money raised by Measure S will be spent, Families ACT! has chosen not to position themselves on one side or the other until more information is revealed.
“We have not taken a stand because it’s not specific enough,” said Onja Lawson, a family advocate with Families ACT!. “It doesn’t tell us what the extra $5 million is going to be used for. The language and wording is not very clear. We need more specific guidelines on how the money will be used, not just saying ‘recidivism.’”
Bergman concluded her speech by asking members of the community to become involved in A New Path’s campaign.
“Speak out, demand change for the future of our children and our children’s children,” Bergman said. “The United States spends $40 billion a year on a failed war on drugs.”
“In this economic time, this is absolute insanity,” Bergman said.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
A New View: Families Act! examines link between mental health services, drug laws, jail overcrowding and Measure S By NOAH SMITH -- SEPT. 17, 2010
Debate has swirled surrounding Proposition 19 and Measure S, but little of the discussion has focused on the possible links between the two.
Families ACT! and other area groups are hoping to change that.
“There is a connection between our drug laws, lack of mental health facilities, and jail overcrowding,” says Suzanne Riordan, executive director of Families ACT!, a group that advocates for individuals who suffer from mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction.
Riordan will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. this Saturday at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Headquarters to tackle the issues head-on.
She will be joined by Gretchen Burns Bergman, a nationally recognized organizer representing Mothers United Against the War on Drugs and A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing).
Families ACT! was founded in 2007, after multiple instances during 2005 and 2006 in which young dually diagnosed individuals died in Santa Barbara.
“We need more community support for residential treatment programs,” Riordan said. “Jail overcrowding is only a symptom of a much bigger complex of problems.”
Proposition 19 would effectively legalize marijuana possession for personal use while Measure S would authorize a half-cent tax increase to go toward the construction of a new Santa Barbara jail.
Both will be on the Santa Barbara County ballot this coming November.
“We are working for a therapeutic drug policy,” Bergman said. “Lives are at stake and we are losing our children to the war on drugs and addiction. We need an end to prohibition. People should not be criminalized for drug addiction. We cannot punish our way out of this problem, we need more therapeutic, as opposed to punitive measures”
Currently, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s department runs the Sheriff’s Treatment Program (STP), a drug and alcohol counseling program.
The county also runs the pre-conviction Substance Abuse Treatment Court, which allows serious drug offenders to undertake treatment in order earn a dismissal of their charges.
Yet, there is a 2-to-3 month waiting list for the STP and, according to the Santa Barbara Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders, three out of four who apply don’t get in.
The Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Prison Overcrowding of 2008, cites this lack of access and states that it is a result of the overcrowding problem.
Measure S would also provide up to $5 million for programs which attempt to prevent recidivism.
Riordan acknowledges the funding for recidivism prevention included in Measure S, but says that it is “not addressing mental health problems.”
“Building another jail does not address the real causes of jail overcrowding,” she said. “We need to overhaul our criminal justice system with an emphasis on treatment, not incarceration.”
“There are alternatives to incarceration,” she said.
In a video report for the public summarizing the Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Commission, contributor Dr. Aris Alexander, former consultant to the Wisconsin State Prison System, adds that “mentally ill people are not good for jails and jails are not good for mentally ill people.”
Families ACT! and other area groups are hoping to change that.
“There is a connection between our drug laws, lack of mental health facilities, and jail overcrowding,” says Suzanne Riordan, executive director of Families ACT!, a group that advocates for individuals who suffer from mental illness and drug and alcohol addiction.
Riordan will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. this Saturday at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Headquarters to tackle the issues head-on.
She will be joined by Gretchen Burns Bergman, a nationally recognized organizer representing Mothers United Against the War on Drugs and A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing).
Families ACT! was founded in 2007, after multiple instances during 2005 and 2006 in which young dually diagnosed individuals died in Santa Barbara.
“We need more community support for residential treatment programs,” Riordan said. “Jail overcrowding is only a symptom of a much bigger complex of problems.”
Proposition 19 would effectively legalize marijuana possession for personal use while Measure S would authorize a half-cent tax increase to go toward the construction of a new Santa Barbara jail.
Both will be on the Santa Barbara County ballot this coming November.
“We are working for a therapeutic drug policy,” Bergman said. “Lives are at stake and we are losing our children to the war on drugs and addiction. We need an end to prohibition. People should not be criminalized for drug addiction. We cannot punish our way out of this problem, we need more therapeutic, as opposed to punitive measures”
Currently, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s department runs the Sheriff’s Treatment Program (STP), a drug and alcohol counseling program.
The county also runs the pre-conviction Substance Abuse Treatment Court, which allows serious drug offenders to undertake treatment in order earn a dismissal of their charges.
Yet, there is a 2-to-3 month waiting list for the STP and, according to the Santa Barbara Task Force on Co-Occurring Disorders, three out of four who apply don’t get in.
The Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Prison Overcrowding of 2008, cites this lack of access and states that it is a result of the overcrowding problem.
Measure S would also provide up to $5 million for programs which attempt to prevent recidivism.
Riordan acknowledges the funding for recidivism prevention included in Measure S, but says that it is “not addressing mental health problems.”
“Building another jail does not address the real causes of jail overcrowding,” she said. “We need to overhaul our criminal justice system with an emphasis on treatment, not incarceration.”
“There are alternatives to incarceration,” she said.
In a video report for the public summarizing the Sheriff’s Blue Ribbon Commission, contributor Dr. Aris Alexander, former consultant to the Wisconsin State Prison System, adds that “mentally ill people are not good for jails and jails are not good for mentally ill people.”
Mental Patients Swamp Unprepared ERs in Sacramento County
Mental patients swamp unprepared ERs in Sacramento County
By Bobby Caina Calvan and Phillip Reese
bcalvan@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 - 8:17 am
With fewer places to turn, mental health patients are overwhelming Sacramento County emergency rooms – increasing wait times, straining law enforcement and exposing the limited ability of ERs to deal with serious mental disorders.
Last fall, Sacramento County shuttered its mental health crisis stabilization unit, the main facility for serving the community's emergency mental health needs, particularly for the uninsured and poor. ERs quickly saw their traffic jump.
During the first three months of 2010, about 4,100 patients with a primary diagnosis involving a mental disorder visited emergency rooms in the county – up 30 percent from a year ago and 55 percent from 2007, according to data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
A mental health patient now arrives in a Sacramento County emergency room every 30 minutes, on average. One in every four arrives with a psychotic disorder, according to state data.
"It's caused a major disruption in this county," said Scott Seamons, the regional vice president for the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California.
"Hospital emergency rooms aren't licensed to provide psychiatric care. They are not equipped nor do they have the staff to provide that care on a routine basis," he said.
Emergency departments must divert staff to keep a constant eye on mental health patients. As a result, wait times at ERs have increased.
What's more, many mental health patients are uninsured, raising costs for everyone else.
In 2008, the latest data available, one in five ER patients in Sacramento County with a primary diagnosis of mental disorder had no insurance – about 50 percent higher than the uninsured rate among all ER patients, state data show. That ratio may have gone up with the recent service cuts, since many patients using public mental health facilities are poor.
Besides closing the crisis unit, the county has cut the number of beds at its inpatient treatment facility from 100 to 50.
"If there is an emergency – either medical or psychiatric, the community is being informed to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room," county spokeswoman Laura McCasland said in an e-mail.
Last month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the county's plan for further mental health cuts. The judge's order bars the county from switching Medi-Cal patients to a controversial new system of outpatient care.
The county wants to transfer as many as 4,000 patients from private community treatment programs to county-run clinics. The move could save millions but would uproot many from programs they have relied on for years.
"We live in a time when there are dwindling resources for people in need of mental health care," said John Boyd, who oversees mental health services for Sutter Health's Sacramento Sierra region.
"Emergency rooms are doing an incredible job stepping up to handle the crisis. We are working as hard as possible," he said.
Wait stretches into days
When Anna Davis had a mental health crisis in May, she discovered how ill-equipped emergency rooms are to deal with patients like her.
"It was torture," she said of her 36-hour ordeal in Sutter General's emergency room.
Davis, who has struggled with bipolar and personality disorders for much of her life, was overwhelmed when she sought help at Sutter. "I was going to do something," said Davis, who is covered by Medi-Cal.
Davis arrived at the hospital at 5 a.m. Her only constant company for the next day and a half were security guards making sure she didn't hurt herself.
"I couldn't get any of my medicine. I felt like I was put in a room and left," Davis said.
When she asked why it was taking so long to get treatment, she was told by staff that the emergency room was busy, she said, adding that people were "very nice," but distracted by their other duties.
It was a different story when Davis went to a county mental health facility a few years ago in an emergency. She was attended to quickly, she recalled. "I felt safe."
Once homeless, Davis is now living with her fiancé and hoping to go back to work. She's doing better, she said, but worries about the eroding public network she had relied on in the past. "It's the people who don't have anything that are going to be hurt," she said.
Hospitals have tried to train staff to deal with the influx of mental health patients.
"There are a lot more stressed out people out there," said Catherine Geraty Hoag, director of social services for the area's Mercy hospitals.
"We're doing the best we can. We've had to look at security needs. We try to put the person with mental health issues in the safest place. We've done education for our staff … to train them to work with people who are depressed or psychotic," she said.
Police strained by trend
Emergency rooms, however, aren't designed to accommodate mental health patients who might pose a risk to themselves or others. There are no isolation rooms, and "we can't provide that intensive care against a person's will … unless they're a danger to themselves," she said.
In the past year, a few local hospitals have seen increases in the number of reported assaults. Some staff and patients have expressed concern.
"The general public really could get hurt," Davis said.
Kathryn Kleinman, a therapist who helps run the Genesis Program at Loaves & Fishes near downtown Sacramento, said it's become much more difficult these days to get a mental health patient involuntarily held for observation.
"I cannot get a hold without someone standing there with a knife to their throat because the police don't want to sit with someone (in the emergency room) for hours," Kleinman said.
Once inside the hospital, the burden of paperwork can consume hours, said Sgt. Norm Leong, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department.
It used to be an in-and-out process lasting a mere five minutes at the county's facility. Hospitals usually take about 30 minutes to process a mental health admission, and the process can sometimes require as long as two or three hours, Leong said. "You're taking officers off the street and potentially delaying response time to emergencies."
Leong said there are no easy solutions, although his department is taking part in discussions with hospitals, the county and other interested parties to address what most acknowledge already borders on a crisis.
"Every hospital, including UC Davis, has really worked hard to come up with better ways to treat psych patients," said Carol Robinson, chief nursing officer at the medical center, which has seen a 61.6 percent increase in ER mental health cases in the past year. "It's so complex. … Mental health has so many different aspects of care."
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/15/2959681/mental-patients-swamp-unprepared.html#ixzz11Z0b8RE9
By Bobby Caina Calvan and Phillip Reese
bcalvan@sacbee.com
Published: Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 - 8:17 am
With fewer places to turn, mental health patients are overwhelming Sacramento County emergency rooms – increasing wait times, straining law enforcement and exposing the limited ability of ERs to deal with serious mental disorders.
Last fall, Sacramento County shuttered its mental health crisis stabilization unit, the main facility for serving the community's emergency mental health needs, particularly for the uninsured and poor. ERs quickly saw their traffic jump.
During the first three months of 2010, about 4,100 patients with a primary diagnosis involving a mental disorder visited emergency rooms in the county – up 30 percent from a year ago and 55 percent from 2007, according to data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.
A mental health patient now arrives in a Sacramento County emergency room every 30 minutes, on average. One in every four arrives with a psychotic disorder, according to state data.
"It's caused a major disruption in this county," said Scott Seamons, the regional vice president for the Hospital Council of Northern and Central California.
"Hospital emergency rooms aren't licensed to provide psychiatric care. They are not equipped nor do they have the staff to provide that care on a routine basis," he said.
Emergency departments must divert staff to keep a constant eye on mental health patients. As a result, wait times at ERs have increased.
What's more, many mental health patients are uninsured, raising costs for everyone else.
In 2008, the latest data available, one in five ER patients in Sacramento County with a primary diagnosis of mental disorder had no insurance – about 50 percent higher than the uninsured rate among all ER patients, state data show. That ratio may have gone up with the recent service cuts, since many patients using public mental health facilities are poor.
Besides closing the crisis unit, the county has cut the number of beds at its inpatient treatment facility from 100 to 50.
"If there is an emergency – either medical or psychiatric, the community is being informed to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room," county spokeswoman Laura McCasland said in an e-mail.
Last month, a federal judge temporarily blocked the county's plan for further mental health cuts. The judge's order bars the county from switching Medi-Cal patients to a controversial new system of outpatient care.
The county wants to transfer as many as 4,000 patients from private community treatment programs to county-run clinics. The move could save millions but would uproot many from programs they have relied on for years.
"We live in a time when there are dwindling resources for people in need of mental health care," said John Boyd, who oversees mental health services for Sutter Health's Sacramento Sierra region.
"Emergency rooms are doing an incredible job stepping up to handle the crisis. We are working as hard as possible," he said.
Wait stretches into days
When Anna Davis had a mental health crisis in May, she discovered how ill-equipped emergency rooms are to deal with patients like her.
"It was torture," she said of her 36-hour ordeal in Sutter General's emergency room.
Davis, who has struggled with bipolar and personality disorders for much of her life, was overwhelmed when she sought help at Sutter. "I was going to do something," said Davis, who is covered by Medi-Cal.
Davis arrived at the hospital at 5 a.m. Her only constant company for the next day and a half were security guards making sure she didn't hurt herself.
"I couldn't get any of my medicine. I felt like I was put in a room and left," Davis said.
When she asked why it was taking so long to get treatment, she was told by staff that the emergency room was busy, she said, adding that people were "very nice," but distracted by their other duties.
It was a different story when Davis went to a county mental health facility a few years ago in an emergency. She was attended to quickly, she recalled. "I felt safe."
Once homeless, Davis is now living with her fiancé and hoping to go back to work. She's doing better, she said, but worries about the eroding public network she had relied on in the past. "It's the people who don't have anything that are going to be hurt," she said.
Hospitals have tried to train staff to deal with the influx of mental health patients.
"There are a lot more stressed out people out there," said Catherine Geraty Hoag, director of social services for the area's Mercy hospitals.
"We're doing the best we can. We've had to look at security needs. We try to put the person with mental health issues in the safest place. We've done education for our staff … to train them to work with people who are depressed or psychotic," she said.
Police strained by trend
Emergency rooms, however, aren't designed to accommodate mental health patients who might pose a risk to themselves or others. There are no isolation rooms, and "we can't provide that intensive care against a person's will … unless they're a danger to themselves," she said.
In the past year, a few local hospitals have seen increases in the number of reported assaults. Some staff and patients have expressed concern.
"The general public really could get hurt," Davis said.
Kathryn Kleinman, a therapist who helps run the Genesis Program at Loaves & Fishes near downtown Sacramento, said it's become much more difficult these days to get a mental health patient involuntarily held for observation.
"I cannot get a hold without someone standing there with a knife to their throat because the police don't want to sit with someone (in the emergency room) for hours," Kleinman said.
Once inside the hospital, the burden of paperwork can consume hours, said Sgt. Norm Leong, spokesman for the Sacramento Police Department.
It used to be an in-and-out process lasting a mere five minutes at the county's facility. Hospitals usually take about 30 minutes to process a mental health admission, and the process can sometimes require as long as two or three hours, Leong said. "You're taking officers off the street and potentially delaying response time to emergencies."
Leong said there are no easy solutions, although his department is taking part in discussions with hospitals, the county and other interested parties to address what most acknowledge already borders on a crisis.
"Every hospital, including UC Davis, has really worked hard to come up with better ways to treat psych patients," said Carol Robinson, chief nursing officer at the medical center, which has seen a 61.6 percent increase in ER mental health cases in the past year. "It's so complex. … Mental health has so many different aspects of care."
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/15/2959681/mental-patients-swamp-unprepared.html#ixzz11Z0b8RE9
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