How The Mental Health System Failed Family Of Woman With Schizophrenia
Melinda Kavanaugh's family battled with HIPPA, state budget cuts and laws that never seemed to work in their favor, as Melinda shut down their efforts to help.
The Kansas City Star:
Slipping Away: As Schizophrenia Consumed Melinda Kavanaugh, Family And System Couldn’t Help
Mom was sick again. The 11-year-old boy riding with her in a cab bound for the Kansas City airport hoped somehow it wasn’t true. How could this be? How was she getting plane tickets to California? How could they really be going to Disneyland, completely out of the blue? (Robertson, 4/17)
In other news, New York's NYC Safe program worries mental health advocates —
The Associated Press:
NYC Listing Of Potentially Violent Mentally Ill Stirs Qualms
When a homeless man was taken for a psychiatric evaluation because he argued with shelter police, doctors found no reason to commit him. Then City Hall stepped in. At the urging of a mayoral aide who cited a new city program to monitor mentally ill people considered potentially violent, the man was involuntarily hospitalized for a week. ... The case crystallizes the unease that has surrounded the NYC Safe program since Mayor Bill de Blasio launched it last summer after some high-profile attacks raised alarm about the mentally ill. The program — apparently unique among American cities — keeps tabs on a roster of people with psychiatric problems and a history of violence, hoping to help them before they reach a breaking point. (Pearson and Peltz, 4/18)