About In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform:
“It's one of the most fascinating and disturbing books I've read in a long time.”
–Donald Wilson, 4/5 stars on Goodreads
Read more at www.davidegeiger.com
Buy the book!
By former NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey
Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (RET.)
Reentry program supports those who want to live up to their highest potential | Opinion
On Thursday, April 6th, 2023, our Annual Reentry Conference - Training for the Dignity of Work, will focus on how "industry-recognized" training profoundly changes lives. For court-involved, addicted, and veterans of combat, who have struggled to secure employment, skill-based certifications change so much in the job marketplace.
Ande Richards' thoughtful examination of NJRC training highlights how individual odds have been transformed by training. For persons who were unable or unwilling to access education earlier in their lives, NJRC's training offers a profoundly powerful Second Chance.
NJRC, God-willing, can do most things right with legal, medical & behavioral, federal & state benefits, housing, but without long-term employment, a career, it will be difficult to sustain a healthy and productive life. Please read and enjoy Ande's compelling story, thanks.
So much has happened for the better in the criminal justice system during the past few years: mentors, education, jobs, housing, and so much more. There may be a future in this. So, let’s have that go on its own for now while we work on another related topic.
“I am the Master of the Universe!” This is more than some adolescent’s video game mantra. In my mind, this is the underlying thinking of our most serious criminals, drug lords, human traffickers, terrorists, mobsters, and similar. They prove their point with weaponry, death and destruction, and similar.
Let me think about this. What do you have to say?
Written by NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey
Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (RET.)
The NJRC Annual Conference will be on Thursday, April 6th at 9 am at the Mac Mahon Student Center, Saint Peter’s University, Jersey City. The conference is titled
Training for the Dignity of Work. We will hear from NJRC program participants, employers, labor and business leaders, and government officials as to how to strengthen training to provide good jobs.
A good job, a long-term source of income, is critically necessary to provide for long term health, stability, and transformation. Our program participants are almost heroic in overcoming substantial odds of addiction and trauma.
Please register today to support the men and women who are rebuilding our lives, to support the labor and business leaders who are putting them to work, and the committed political and government leaders who support our daily efforts to transform lives.
Please register today at the Eventbrite link below. This conference will move your heart and soul and fortify your spirit. Be there.
The New Jersey Reentry Corporation (NJRC) is a non-profit agency with a social mission to remove all barriers to employment for citizens returning from incarceration.
www.reentry.org
Today we are proud to release our Voice of the Patient Report, which captures the powerful stories of people living with schizophrenia and those who care for them. The report summarizes the compelling testimony provided during our Externally-Led Patient-Focused Drug Development meeting on Nov. 2, and was submitted today to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The stories people shared at the meeting were profoundly moving. It was heartbreaking to hear about serious side effects and other difficulties with many current treatments, but heartening to hear the stories of those who have found treatments that work for them – and who are reclaiming their lives as students, parents and professionals.
The meeting gave our community a voice – and it was heard. FDA’s Dr. Bernard Fischer told us during the meeting that “the FDA recognizes that there is more work to be done to get better treatments for schizophrenia.”
We are indebted to the people with schizophrenia and their caregivers who participated in this effort. We also deeply appreciate the FDA’s partnership, as the EL-PFDD initiative provides a valuable forum for the most important voice in the treatment discussion: The patient.
We thank our meeting co-hosts, who joined us to provide a united front in the fight for treatment equity for people living with schizophrenia:
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Mental Health America
The National Council for Mental Wellbeing
The National Alliance on Mental Illness
Thanks also goes to our meeting sponsors, whose funding provided webcasting and consulting services for the meeting:
Platinum sponsors: Boehringer Ingelheim, Karuna Therapeutics and Sunovion Pharmaceuticals
Gold sponsors: Cerevel Therapeutics and Janssen Neuroscience
Silver sponsors: Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Neurocrine Biosciences, Otsuka and Teva
Bronze sponsors: BioXcel Therapeutics and Lundbeck
People with schizophrenia have the right to effective medicines – just like anyone else with a serious disease. They deserve respect and recognition that they are people who want to live and thrive. We are working every day to make that happen.
About schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a spectrum of serious neuro-psychiatric disorders in which people experience periods during which they interpret reality differently. Symptoms of schizophrenia may include a combination of visual and auditory hallucinations, false beliefs, cognitive impairments, and lack of awareness about how their thinking and behaviors may impair their daily life.
Schizophrenia is thought to be a progressive neurodevelopmental disorder, with the earliest signs most often appearing during adolescence, and sometimes in childhood. It often is not identified until young adulthood.
Approximately half of those with schizophrenia achieve recovery, living and working in the community; 25% of people need ongoing support; and approximately 15% do not see improvement. People with schizophrenia often experience co-occurring negative health outcomes, leading to a life expectancy shortened by an average of 28.5 years.
Schizophrenia costs the U.S. an estimated $281.6 billion in 2020, with a significant amount of direct costs due to health care, incarceration, supportive housing and homelessness. For each person diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 25, the total lifetime cost to the economy is approximately $3.8 million or $92,000 per year.
Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (RET.)
Dear David,
Before I get into the details, I just wanted to say thank you for writing this. This book needed to happen for various reasons, and I’m honored that I was able to read it. The understanding of mental illness in this country has come a long way, but yet, it also feels very far behind. There is still so much to be discovered, and until then, the current system is all that we have to work with,
And it seems that part of what the current system has turned into has you to thank. Even if you don’t receive the credit you deserve for this change, I’d like to thank you. So many lives have been made better by your actions and ideas.
Schizophrenia exists on my father’s side of the family. My grandmother had it, but none of us knew what it was until she retired to a nursing home and sought therapy. Because of this, I was exposed to schizophrenia as a child, and have understood for a long time that those with schizophrenia are not dangerous people. However, the rest of society doesn’t seem to grasp that yet. They need an inside book, and your book does just that.
Congratulations on making this book a reality!
“This book left me shocked beyond words.”
–Daniel Davis, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
Read more at www.davidegeiger.com
Buy the book!
As we reflect on 2022, we have many legislative accomplishments to celebrate and significant momentum to carry forward into 2023. Thank you to all our advocacy partners — these successes would not have been possible without your help!
We are celebrating key wins that reduced barriers to timely treatment. Treatment Advocacy Center helped pass bills that made significant improvements to civil commitment law in seven states! We engaged in the regulatory process in Maryland to establish the first-ever legal definition of “danger” for the purposes of involuntary commitment. Treatment Advocacy Center’s research was also used to inform ambitious programs in California and New York City to help those with untreated severe mental illness get treatment.
We made progress against the discriminatory federal Medicaid Institutions for Mental Disease exclusion. A federal waiver for SMI was approved in Maryland, and steps have been taken toward securing waivers in California, Missouri, and New York. Treatment Advocacy Center also supported two federal bills to repeal the IMD once and for all, and we look forward to continuing this fight in 2023.
We advocated for critical mental health provisions in the federal budget, including the reauthorization and expansion of the assisted outpatient treatment grant program and requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct a study on the cost of serious mental illness (including the costs to family members and caregivers and SMI’s effects on employment). We also made sure SMI was included in congressional discussions around priorities for the new federal agency, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, and will continue to do so moving forward.
Thank you to each person who supported us in these efforts by participating in one of our advocacy campaigns. We distributed 12 action alerts, and you sent 1,119 messages directly to decision-makers in 2022!
To read the full article, see Take Action - Treatment Advocacy Center
Also, see www.davidegeiger.com
Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (Ret.)
We advocated and Congress acted.
Thrilled to announce that Congress passed legislation yesterday authorizing a national study of the costs of serious mental illness to both governments and families that stem from homelessness; medical care, incarceration and other criminal-justice system encounters; loss of employment; and caregiving.
The schizophrenia community has unfairly shouldered many of these significant costs for decades. The new study will provide the critical data we need to improve funding and services for people living with schizophrenia and other serious brain diseases.
Our “Societal Costs of Schizophrenia and Related Disorders” analysis helped drive this legislation. We’re proud of the role we played in this success, but it’s just the beginning.
There is much more work to be done, but we have laid a solid foundation and we’re energized for the coming year. You can power our work:
Donate today: https://sczaction.org/donate/.
PS: If you’re holiday shopping on Amazon, please designate us for donations from AmazonSmile. Just use this unique AmazonSmile link and begin shopping to donate to us: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/33-1213657
Reviewer comment for In the Matter of Edwin Potter
“By the end of the book, I was left with an appreciation of the strength and resilience of human beings who suffer greatly and fight to come out the other side.”
–Phillip Hinton, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
Read more at www.davidegeiger.com
Buy the book!
From S&PAA
People living with schizophrenia and other psychosis spectrum disorders are too often misunderstood or ignored, and current treatments are outdated and can cause significant side effects. On November 2, 2022, the schizophrenia community finally had the spotlight, as those living with the condition and their family members shared their treatment needs and concerns with drug developers and FDA staff.
The Externally-Led Patient-Focused Drug Development (PFDD) meeting – “Reimagine Schizophrenia: Transforming How We Are Treated, Function and Thrive” – offered the chance to make what matters to those living with the neurobiological brain disease a higher priority in drug development and the FDA review process.
The meeting was co-hosted by the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration created the PFDD program in 2012 to collect information about the patient perspective on drug development – specifically, what people living with a disease considered to be meaningful treatment benefits and how they want to be involved in the drug-development process.
While current treatments for schizophrenia can help control symptoms, most have significant side effects, such as weight gain and tardive dyskinesia, a condition that causes involuntary facial and other muscle spasms. Fortunately, many new treatments are in development, making it more critical than ever that we tell drug developers and regulators what we need from new treatments: what benefits we expect and what risks we may be willing to tolerate if we can achieve those benefits.
Comments from David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (RET.)
This past November 2, 2022, there was an exciting event. S&PAA was able to schedule a 5-hour conference with the FDA regarding drug development and testing for those who have schizophrenia. I am one of those, and I was one of the panelists.
It was a virtual conference with several hundred people, and we heard from those who have the disease as well as those who are caretakers of someone who has it. We heard from the top ranks of the FDA about how important this conference is.
S&PAA is now working on the “Voice of the Patient”, a report of what was found in the conference regarding patients with schizophrenia. That will not be available until sometime in early 2023. In the meantime, I sold a few books there.
Reach the conference recording at their website.
Review of In the Matter of Edwin Potter
“David Geiger straight-forwardly addresses tough topics without sugarcoating anything. Geiger's story is a must-read.”
–Nathan Lane, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
A quarterly legislative update from the Treatment Advocacy Center
Fall 2022
Our Fall 2022 issue of SMI Advocate covers legislative news from June 30 to October 4. With most state legislatures having already adjourned and Congress on summer recess during the majority of this period, we have the chance to dive deeper into a series of bills in California in addition to sharing several other updates.
The California State Legislature passed Gov. Gavin Newsom's CARE Court program, designed to disrupt the revolving door of homelessness, short-term hospitalization and incarceration those with untreated severe mental illness often experience. The legislature also passed reforms to the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (responding to feedback from stakeholders last year on ways to improve the law) and a bill allowing assisted outpatient treatment courts to hold status hearings and be more involved in treatment.
The Maryland Department of Health has proposed a regulation to define "danger" in Maryland, where the lack of statutory definition has long been a barrier to timely treatment. A bill to establish a psychiatric deterioration standard is still active in Ohio, and legislatures in Massachusetts and Michigan passed bills related to the psychiatric bed shortage.
Congress reconvened from summer recess in early September. Treatment Advocacy Center is advocating for President Biden's new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, tasked with developing leaps in innovation in biomedical and health research, to include direly needed clinical research on SMI. We continue to closely watch the progress of bills in the U.S. House and Senate to reauthorize and improve the Assisted Outpatient Treatment grant program, incorporating our recommendations to broaden its pool of eligible applicants.
Don't miss our Winter 2022 issue of SMI Advocate in December which will recap the entire year of legislative accomplishments!
Read the full article at: https://www.votervoice.net/iframes/Treatment/newsletters/46330
You’re Invited to Participate! “Save the Date” Link, Calendar Invite Now Available for Nov. 2 PFDD Meeting
A “Save the Date” link is now available that provides the information you’ll need to view the livestream of our Externally-Led Patient-Focused Drug Development meeting on schizophrenia on Nov. 2.
The virtual meeting, “Reimagine Schizophrenia: Transforming How We Are Treated, Function and Thrive,” will run from 10 am to 3 pm ET, and will feature two panels of people who live with schizophrenia and those who care for them. We’ll also have discussion sessions on key topics that you can participate in via phone and email. (You won’t be required to disclose your name.)
When you click on the Save the Date link, it also will take you to an Early Comments form on our website, which you can use to submit comments on a variety of questions about living with schizophrenia. We may choose your comments to share with other participants during the meeting, and they could be included in our Voice of the Patient Report to be published after the meeting. Again, this type of participation won’t require you to be personally identified.
This meeting is an important chance for our community to help the FDA, drug developers and healthcare providers better understand how schizophrenia affects our lives and what we need from drug treatments to help us thrive. Please save the meeting date on your calendar today! It’s time for our voices to be heard.
About the PFDD meeting
The Externally-Led Patient Focused Drug Development (PFDD) meeting – “Reimagine Schizophrenia: Transforming How We Are Treated, Function and Thrive” – offers the chance for people living with schizophrenia and their family members to share their treatment needs and concerns with drug developers and FDA staff who review new drug applications. Many new treatments for schizophrenia are in development, making it more critical than ever for drug developers and reviewers to understand what treatment benefits people with schizophrenia expect – and what risks they may be willing to tolerate to achieve those benefits.
The virtual meeting will be co-hosted by the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, Mental Health America, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.
About schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a spectrum of serious neuro-psychiatric disorders in which people experience periods during which they interpret reality differently. Symptoms of schizophrenia may include a combination of visual and auditory hallucinations, false beliefs, cognitive impairments, and lack of awareness about how their thinking and behaviors may impair their daily life.
Schizophrenia is thought to be a progressive neurodevelopmental disorder, with the earliest signs most often appearing during adolescence, and sometimes in childhood. It often is not identified until young adulthood.
Approximately half of those with schizophrenia achieve recovery, living and working in the community; 25% of people need ongoing support; and approximately 15% do not see improvement. People with schizophrenia often experience co-occurring negative health outcomes, leading to a life expectancy shortened by an average of 28.5 years.
Dear David,
Big changes are here! Hope Street Coalition has re-focused, re-tooled, and refreshed our work to better advocate for the untreated and unhoused. To demonstrate our new focus, we have changed our website www.hopestreetcoalition.org. Check it out and let us know what you think. I’d like to feature a couple of new resources on the updated site.
First are our video interviews with moms who understand the challenges of getting treatment for their loved one and how their journeys demonstrate the failure of our mental illness and addiction treatment systems. Share these videos on social media by clicking the “share” button at the top of the screen.
Second is the Hope Street Data Tool that provides an easy-to-use way to understand U.S. Department of Urban Development (HUD) homelessness data. You can compare trends in homelessness data, discover the federal award amounts for your region’s Continuum of Care, and see how much housing has been created and its impact on homelessness. Be sure to zoom in on the map and explore the drop-down menus to gain insight into how the federal policy is working.
Hope Street Coalition has also created a way to for you to get more involved as an advocate. For a membership fee of only $50 a year, you can be a part of our coalition of advocates who are involved in specific campaigns and activities. Be a part of special events, our congressional outreach project, state updates, and more by becoming a Hope Street Advocate.
On the legislative front, Hope Street is developing federal Housing That Heals legislation to create more integrated housing and longer-term therapeutic settings for those who need treatment. Check out the Housing That Heals page and sign up to be a part of our work.
You can also check out our news blog—I just posted an article on the LA Alliance for Human Rights’ victory in Los Angeles with L.A. County. We’ve also added a FAQ section to help inform and educate about homelessness, mental illness, and substance use disorders. If you have a question you’d like addressed, submit it on our Contact page.
There are exciting developments occurring and more opportunities than ever to impact public policy and change the way we provide lifesaving treatment and housing to the unhoused and untreated. Thank you for being a part of Hope Street Coalition and please consider supporting our efforts with a tax-deductible gift.
Sincerely,
Paul C. Webster
Founder and Director
760-696-2445
www.hopestreetcoalition.org
paul@hopestreetcoalition.org
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Review of In the Matter of Edwin Potter
“I had to read this book for my sociology class on mental illness. This book opened my eyes to the struggles that those face in my country (The United States). As well as the horrid stigmatization surrounding mental health in my country. I recommend this book to anyone that is curious about mental health in general. Raw emotions are put into this book from Edwin Potter, an educated and professional man's perspective which helps bring it to a more personal level to the reader.”
-Pierre Owen, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
By Paul Webster
Paul Webster is a former Senior Policy Advisor for HUD. He started his own organization in late 2021 to address homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse – Hope Street Coalition. What follows is a status report regarding a lawsuit to address homelessness in LA County as well as the City of LA. (See the previous blogs on my web site.) - DG
Hey David, sorry to ignore your first message. The LA Alliance for Human Rights is in the process of settling its portion of its lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles. In that settlement, the City has agreed to provide more shelter and housing for people experiencing homelessness. The challenge is that LA County has been very slow in working with us to settle our suit. The County is the entity that provides treatment and services to those with mental illness and addiction. We are still working with the County to formalize its role in the settlement. -PW
Review of In the Matter of Edwin Potter
“I was very grateful that Geiger chose to write this book. One thing I have learned from our family’s experiences is that mental illness in general, and schizophrenia in particular, have shredded more lives than one tends to think. When I chose to share my story with friends and colleagues, I learned that everyone either has mental illness in their family or knows someone who does. Schizophrenia is in the room with us, and avoiding eye contact is no less than self-delusion.”
–Jaylyn Mcdowell, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
To read more articles, read reviews, find resources, view YouTube and other videos and tutorials, access the IMOEP website at www.davidegeiger.com
IMOEP is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.davidegeiger.com
Janet Hays, President of Healing Minds NOLA, brought us great news that was reported in this blog on August 2, 2022. The Louisiana legislature passed a law that was put into effect on August 1, 2022, that would recognize that a person may need treatment for Serious Mental Illness (SMI) based upon the “deteriorative nature of the illness itself, not just behavior.” This is wonderful. We do not have to wait anymore for the patient to kill himself or someone else to treat the illness – at least in Louisiana. Go Janet!
Nevertheless, there is more to do in both illness and criminal justice reform. This from my book In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform:
“The typical prison inmate does not have the skills necessary to succeed in accepted society. That is the problem. What do we do? We need to teach them: reading, writing, arithmetic, social skills, job skills, language skills. They need mentors, housing, help with their substance abuse, and a change in the laws that keep them from taking part in society. The mentally ill have a different set of problems that cannot be fixed by throwing them into prison. Schizophrenia, for example, is a neurological problem, a spectrum illness much like autism. They don’t throw people with autism into prison as medical treatment. Why those with schizophrenia? Having mental illness is not a crime any more than having heart disease or diabetes are crimes. It needs medical research.”
In New York City, John Jay College Institute of Justice and Opportunity is addressing these issues and finding they work.
To read more articles, read reviews, view YouTube and other videos and tutorials, access the IMOEP website at www.davidegeiger.com
IMOEP is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.davidegeiger.com
“In all honesty, I didn’t really have high expectations of this book at first glance. It seemed like the typical Non-fiction inspired books that would make no sense of some sort. But the moment I started reading it, the more I realized that it is more than just that.
“This book is groundbreaking in its sense. It opens up our hearts and minds as to what mental disorder is all about. The insights that are brought about by this book are very helpful and educational. The author's way of engaging the readers into each life event of Edwin Potter is mesmerizing.”
– Reviewer on Goodreads.
Buy the book!
Hi David,
Today a new law goes into effect that allows people living with serious mental illnesses to receive treatment based on psychiatric deterioration in addition to the danger to self/others and grave disability.
Act 382 now recognizes that a person may need treatment based on the deteriorative nature of the illness itself, not just behavior. REAL serious mental illnesses, like schizophrenia, bipolar disease, schizoaffective disorder, major depressive disorders, etc., are manageable but not preventable nor curable. We will know when they are because someone will win a Nobel prize for it.
About half of people living with Schizophrenia and Bipolar Diseases lack insight they are sick and, therefore, logically will not seek help. The cruel irony, in many ways of serious mental illness, is that many times the part of the brain that's causing the mental illness symptoms is the same part of the brain that would that's necessary for knowing that you have a problem. Without treatment, the consequences are incarceration, homelessness, and death.
Today, many families in Louisiana will sleep easier knowing that they no longer have to wait for a loved one to become violent or terribly chronically ill, in order to get them to a doctor with expertise in psychiatric diseases.
As we’ve stated in past communications, this legal change is not a panacea to a fragmented and disconnected system of substandard care plagued by low wages and staff/provider shortages. There is much work to be done to improve hospitals and treatment and care throughout the continuum.
Healing Minds NOLA recently started bi-monthly advocacy group meetings to identify problems our stakeholders are seeing/experiencing in New Orleans and across Louisiana. Your voices need to be heard. Your stories need to be told. To sign up, just send us an email with a request to join, and we'll add you to our list. The next meeting will be Wednesday, August 10th at 5:30 pm.
Thanks again to Representative Royce Duplessis, who listened through the tears of families handcuffed to help loved ones in serious mental illness crises, and to our partners at Treatment Advocacy Center, who helped to craft the Bill.
We cannot do what we do without your support. Consider donating today to help us grow our advocacy. Our voice is your voice. Let’s pump up the volume!
Please visit us on social media and at HealingMindsNOLA.org
With gratitude,
Janet Hays
Director - Healing Minds NOLA
(504) 274 6091
Healing Minds NOLA is a 501c3 non-profit charitable & educational organization dedicated to identifying & creating alternatives to incarceration, homelessness, and early death for seriously mentally people.
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Copyright © 2020 *HEALING MINDS NOLA*, All rights reserved.
Read Goodreads reviews of In the Matter of Edwin Potter at www.davidegeiger.com
IMOEP YouTube and other videos at www.davidegeiger.com/videos
IMOEP is available at Amazon, Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, and www.davidegeiger.com
Summer 2022
This Summer 2022 issue of SMI Advocate covers legislative news from April 5 to June 29. We are celebrating the enactment of eight bills that will reduce treatment barriers for people with severe mental illness (SMI) in five states and have many updates to share.
Four states made significant changes to their civil commitment laws. The Louisiana State Legislature enacted a bill establishing a psychiatric deterioration standard for inpatient civil commitment to make treatment possible sooner. The Maine Legislature authorized funds to remove a legal and cost barrier to outpatient civil commitment. Legislatures in Arizona and Colorado also enacted laws changing civil commitment processes.
Our advocacy work to eliminate the shortage of psychiatric beds and demand an end to the discriminatory institutions for mental diseases (IMD) exclusion continues to make progress. The Colorado General Assembly passed legislation making substantial investments in both civil and forensic psychiatric beds, taking an innovative approach that can serve as a model for other states confronting the bed shortage. While applying for an IMD SMI waiver is an administrative process, legislatures can pass bills to require agencies to apply for waivers. The Missouri General Assembly included language in their state budget requiring its Medicaid department to apply for an IMD exclusion waiver.
While most state legislative sessions have adjourned, six states remain in session, including Ohio and California. A bill that would establish a psychiatric deterioration standard in Ohio's civil commitment law was reported out of committee and will likely be considered by the Ohio House of Representatives this fall. The California State Legislature is prioritizing addressing untreated mental illness and homelessness this session and considering a number of bills in the area of civil commitment. These include Gov. Gavin Newsom's CARE Court proposal as well as a bill to expand the definition of "gravely disabled" in the Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) Act.
This spring, Treatment Advocacy Center continued to advance federal legislation and initiatives to reduce barriers to treatment for SMI. We have worked with congressional staff on bills to fund assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) programs, repeal the discriminatory IMD exclusion, reform and decriminalize the nation's crisis response system and increase research and knowledge of SMI.
The deadline for states to launch the federally-mandated 988 crisis hotline for mental health emergencies is just two weeks away. Treatment Advocacy Center partnered with NAMI and Cicatelli Associates Inc. to host an online training, "Crisis Conversations Problem Solving Convening," to help prepare advocates working to ensure the SMI community is included in planning and implementation.
We could not do this work without you, our partners on the ground advocating every day to fix our broken mental health system. Thank you for taking the time to join us in our advocacy campaigns. This quarter, we ran state campaigns on key legislation in California and Louisiana, and you sent a total of 326 messages to your lawmakers. Visit our Action Centerfor a list of active campaign and contact your lawmakers today!
We hope you find this summer issue of SMI Advocateinformative. If you missed the previous issue, check out ourSpring 2022 edition. We had a busy and successful winter and early spring, when seven states enacted bills making substantive improvements to civil commitment processes!
If you have feedback on this publication or would like to share information about a bill in your state, we would love to hear from you! Contact Legislative Advocacy Manager Clara Keane at keanec@treatmentadvocacycenter.org.
To read the full article link to Action Center (votervoice.net)
To read more articles, read reviews, view YouTube and other videos and tutorials, access the IMOEP website at www.davidegeiger.com
IMOEP is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.davidegeiger.com
David Geiger is a licensed and retired professional electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts because of his schizophrenia. He began writing about mental illness and criminal justice reform in May 1998. He writes about his illness in his book In the Matter of Edwin Potter as well as those who have the illness and are caught up in the criminal legal system.
By S&PAA
Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (RET.)
June 23, 2022
Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed groundbreaking legislation designed to produce pioneering, fact-based data that will support improved public policies and better care for people living with schizophrenia. The bill secured overwhelmingly bipartisan support, with a vote of 402-20.
The Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act (HR 7666) authorizes a study of the costs of serious mental illness on U.S. families, hospitals, nursing homes, and the penal system, as well as a method designed to provide more accurate prevalence data for people living with schizophrenia.
The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate, where S&PAA is seeking to work with Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Chris Murphy (D-CT), and others to include it as an amendment to the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s mental health package, with action expected later this summer.
We will be reaching out again soon for your help in urging your U.S. Senators to support the Senate version of the bill.
We thank all of you who took the time to reach out to your local U.S. Representatives as part of our advocacy efforts to support the bill. We also thank U.S. Reps. Guy Reschenthaler (R-PA) and David Trone (D-MD), without whom this could not have been achieved.
The House passage is an important step toward giving people living with schizophrenia the dignity of being acknowledged and treated properly. When we raise visibility of the prevalence and burden of this brain disease, we move closer to our vision of earlier diagnosis and successful treatment.
On to the Senate!
About schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a spectrum of serious neuropsychiatric brain diseases in which people experience periods during which they interpret reality abnormally. Symptoms of schizophrenia may include a combination of hallucinations, delusions, cognitive impairments, anosognosia (lack of awareness of their illness), and disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily life.
Schizophrenia is thought to be a progressive neurodevelopmental disorder, with the earliest signs appearing during adolescence as the brain is developing. Eventual diagnosis typically occurs during young adulthood. While approximately half of those with schizophrenia improve or achieve remission, others remain untreated or experience periods without treatment. It is estimated that about 50% of people with schizophrenia do not take their prescribed medications, most commonly because of anosognosia. Lack of treatment leads to severe negative health outcomes, including a life expectancy shortened by an average of 28.5 years.
By Janet Hays
Submitted by David E. Geiger, MEE, PE (RET)
Hi David,
Great news! HB 335, legislation that will allow people living with serious mental illnesses to receive treatment based on psychiatric deterioration, passed the Senate today with a vote of 35-0.
What a great way to end Mental Health Awareness Month! Providing people living with serious mental illnesses… REAL illnesses… access to treatment as an alternative to homelessness, incarceration, or death – is a step in the right direction.
Today, many families in Louisiana will sleep easier knowing that the day is soon coming when they will no longer have to wait for a loved one to become violent, or terribly chronically ill, in order to get them to a doctor with expertise in psychiatric diseases.
As we’ve stated in past communications, HB 335 is not a panacea to a fragmented and disconnected system of substandard care plagued by low wages and staff/provider shortages. We are not stopping here. We are committed to our mission to advocate for the implementation of a full streamlined continuum of coordinated psychiatric treatment and care for people suffering from often debilitating serious mental illnesses.
This summer, with the help of the Tulane Internship Program, we will be expanding efforts to recommence our community outreach meetings. Your voices need to be heard. Your stories need to be told. Watch for an update on all we have planned soon.
Special thanks to Representative Royce Duplessis who listened through the tears of families handcuffed to help loved ones in serious mental illness crises, and to our partners at Treatment Advocacy Center who helped to craft the Bill.
We cannot do what we do without your support. Consider donating today to help us grow our advocacy. Our voice is your voice. Let’s pump up the volume!
With gratitude,
Janet Hays
Director - Healing Minds NOLA
(504) 274 6091
Please visit us on social media and at HealingMindsNOLA.org
Send comments and questions, concerns, and praise, to HealingMindsNOLA@gmail.com
Healing Minds NOLA is a 501c3 non-profit charitable & educational organization dedicated to identifying & creating alternatives to incarceration, homelessness, and early death for seriously mentally people.
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Copyright © 2020 *HEALING MINDS NOLA*, All rights reserved.
Make your tax-deductible donation to Healing Minds NOLA today.
Re: In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform
To read more articles, read reviews, view YouTube and other videos and tutorials, access the website at www.davidegeiger.com
IMOEP is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.davidegeiger.com
“I thought that people who have schizophrenia are a menace to society and that we need to be very careful of associating with them. However, this book changes that belief…”
—Harvey Copper, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
David Geiger is a licensed and retired professional electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts because of his schizophrenia. He began writing about mental illness and criminal justice reform in May 1998. He writes about his illness in his book In the Matter of Edwin Potter as well as those who have the illness and are caught up in the criminal legal system.
From Institute Updates (John Jay College of Criminal Justice Institute of Justice and Opportunity)
Released April 2022
Posted on IMOEP blog June 2022
Reinstating TAP supports incarcerated people's access to education. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that less than 5% of incarcerated Americans are college-educated. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, nearly 70% of incarcerated individuals want to pursue higher education.
Reinstating TAP can increase opportunities for people of color who are disproportionately negatively impacted by the criminal legal system.
Learn more!
To read more articles, read reviews, view YouTube and other videos and tutorials, access the website at www.davidegeiger.com
IMOEP is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and www.davidegeiger.com
Re: In the Matter of Edwin Potter: Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Reform
“I highly recommend this as a knowledge-based read and something where we can learn and reflect about.
“Edwin Potter has schizophrenia, and yet he was able to live a normal life after having spent some years in the mental health institution. We can also be made aware of how life in the mental institution is being played out, the people who helped you, and the politics behind it. Furthermore, it was very interesting to see that Edwin was able to live a normal life right after. He was open to love again, find a good job, and have kids too.”
--Leonardo Charles, 5/5 stars on Goodreads
David Geiger is a licensed and retired professional electrical engineer who spent 7 years in psychiatric hospitals and over 40 years since 1979 in the courts because of his schizophrenia. He began writing about mental illness and criminal justice reform in May 1998. He writes about his illness in his book In the Matter of Edwin Potter as well as those who have the illness and are caught up in the criminal legal system.