MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCATES PUSH REFORMS by Gary Warth

San Diego Union Tribune 8/7/19

Coalition seeks support for new laws and policies from presidential candidates

By Gary Warth

POWAY

A grassroots coalition of nationwide and local mental health advocates is asking all presidential candidates to support reforms in laws and policies that they say will make it easier for people to get treatment and for families to help their troubled loved one.

“The first thing you need to do is educate the candidates, because most people don’t understand serious mental illness,” said Poway resident Linda Mimms, a National Alliance on Mental Illness-trained advocate who helped craft a five-point platform that is being presented to candidates.

Mimms has called for reforms to mental illness laws for the past several years, arguing that parents of adults with mental problems should have more rights and courts should have more flexibility to mandate treatment.

Among the proposals in the platform are a call to create a cabinet position exclusively focused on serious mental illness and changes to laws that would ensure mental health professionals are permitted to share and receive diagnostic information with and from parents or caregivers.

Laws about mental illnesses became part of a national discussion this past week after mass shootings in Texas and Ohio. Mimms said she was encouraged when President Trump called for reforming mental health laws to better identify and even involuntarily confine people who may commit violent acts while also ensuring more patients receive early treatment.

She cringed, however, when he referred to “mentally ill monsters,” and noted that a small percent of mass shooters had been diagnosed with mental problems.

There are connections, however. A Wall Street Journal editorial this week cited studies between 2000 and 2015 that suggest a third of mass killers had untreated severe mental illness, while an FBI study found 40 percent had received a psychiatric diagnosis, and 70 percent had other mental health issues.

The platform was drafted after a monthlong online discussion among about 70 people who were not associated with any one group and were from 30 states. Mimms, who has a degree in public policy, wrote the final version that was adopted by organizer Dede Ranahan, author of “Sooner Than Tomorrow — A Mother’s Diary About Mental Illness, Family, and Everyday Life.”

Other local advocates who worked on the platform were Katherine Smith-Brooks and Bob Brooks of Carlsbad and Mary Sheldon of Poway.

The platform’s first topic calls for reclassifying serious mental illness from a behavioral condition to a neurological medical condition, which will unlock more research funding and help in insurance reimbursement, according to the advocates. It also calls for a cabinet position on serious mental illness and the inclusion of schizophrenia in a Centers for Disease Control program that collects data on risk factors of neurological conditions.

The second topic calls for reforming the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, which the platform writers said creates barriers that shut out parents and caregivers from the treatment of family members.

The third calls for the repeal of a rule that prohibits Medicaid payments to facilities with more than 16 hospital psychiatric beds for people ages 21-65, which the advocates argue has created a national shortage of treatment options.

The fourth platform topic calls for long-term care of people with severe mental illness, including early detection and follow-up treatments after release. The platform calls for federal incentives to states that address a full array of services and supportive housing care.

The final topic is about decriminalizing serious mental illness and includes reforms that can lead to more involuntary treatment, which Mimms said was her personal top priority.

“Serious mental illness is the only disease where the doors to treatment are shut unless a crime is committed,” the platforms reads. Specifically, it calls for redefining criteria for involuntary commitment with terms that are objective and based on scientific, medical needs.

A letter that will be sent to all candidates asks each to address the topics in their campaign appearances and debates, Mimms said. 

gary.warth@sduniontribune.com

Click here to read the article in the San Diego Union Tribune 8/7/19 about our 5 part plan for SMI.

NOTE FROM DEDE: If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a country to help a child with SMI. This coalition is from across our country. Let's keep the momentum going. As Linda has done, contact your local media outlets and send them our plan. Unfortunately, our effort is manifesting in a time of wrenching, national grief. Fortunately, our plan is ready to go. If you'd like a copy of the plan, the cover letter, and an addendum of additional ideas, post your email address in the comments section below, or send it to me at dede@soonerthantomorrow.com. Then forward the documents to people in your sphere of influence. Thanks to everyone participating.

http://www.bit.ly/soonerthantomorrow

Yamileth Lopez holds a photo of her deceased friend Javier Amir Rodriguez at a makeshift memorial for victims in El Paso, Texas. (Mario Tama Getty Images)

PLEASE JOIN THE CONVERSTAION ON MY FACEBOOK PAGE by Dede Ranahan

The following is an ongoing discussion on my personal Facebook page - Dede Moon Ranahan. If you’re on Facebook, please click on my page and join the conversation. Or enter your comments through the comment link below. Or send your comments to me in an email: dede@soonerthantomorrow.com

SMI (SERIOUS MENTAL ILLNESS) ADVOCATES AND SUPPORTERS

GOAL: This effort is short-term. To get SMI recommendations for a national SMI plan before the 2020 presidential candidates (Republican, Democrat, Independent). None of them are currently talking about SMI (not mental health, not drug addiction). SMI. The SMI community is looking for a candidate/s who will champion SMI and its concomitant issues. With adults and children impacted and their immediate families, we represent roughly 72 million people in the US.

THE ASK: That candidates talk about SMI in their campaign appearances and debates and post a national SMI plan on their campaign websites.

To encourage them, we'll be submitting a cover letter, one-page outlined/bulleted plan, references and resources to aid them in developing their plan, and if they will read that far, the full list of 18 topic areas.

RESULTS OF YOUR VOTES FOR THE TOP 5 ISSUES FOR A ONE-PAGE PLAN:
1) Reclassification of SMI as neurological brain disorders
2) IMD (Institutes for Mental Disease Exclusion)
3) HIPAA Reform (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
4) Continuum of Care
5) Decriminalization of SMI

NOW WE MUST REFINE THIS TOP 5 LIST.
PLEASE ANSWER 1 OR MORE OF THESE QUESTIONS IN A FEW SENTENCES:
1) Why is reclassification of SMI important?
2 )Why is IMD repeal important?
3) Why is HIPAA reform important?
4) Why is a Continuum of Care important?
5) Why is Decriminalization of SMI important?

1) Name one specific action a president can take to advance the reclassification of SMI.
2) Name one specific action a president can take to advance IMD repeal?
3) Name one specific action a president can take to advance HIPAA reform?
4) Name one specific action a president can take to advance a Continuum of Care?
5) Name one specific action a president can take to advance the Decriminalization of SMI.

Thanks, Dede

1. RECLASSIFICATION OF SMI
-Reclassify schizophrenia and related disorders as neurological conditions or neurobiological brain disorders. Eliminate “behavioral health” nomenclature.


2. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
-Reform current HIPAA laws.
-Present patient and family with a social worker to support the family unit throughout the care process including medication and psychiatric treatment.
-Require mandatory training for everyone in the medical profession about HIPAA and a required test on proven knowledge.
-Develop a federal program for the administration of a psychiatric advance directive (PAD) which includes a universal release of information and designates an agent if capacity is lost. Must include enforcement mechanisms to require mental health/illness facilities to follow the directives.

3. IMD (Medicaid’s Institutes for Mental Disease Exclusion)
-Repeal it.
-To prevent warehousing, use unscheduled check-ups on those receiving services.

4. A FULL CONTINUUM OF CARE
-Early intervention at all stages of illness.
-Provide Inpatient (IMD waivers), Outpatient (ACT, FACT, PACT, AOT, Clubhouses), Housing (full array from locked stabilization to unlocked intensive, medium intensive, peer-run PSH, Asylum).
-Require a psychiatric standard of care for various SMI diagnoses like other medical specialties. Diagnosis should be staged as cancer is.
-Provide more long-term care.
-Remove ER’s as entry for mental health hospitalization. The ER process and chaotic environment are not conducive to the well-being of SMI patients.
-Give federal assistance to states providing supportive housing.

5. DECRIMINALIZE SMI
-Eliminate solitary confinement in jails and prisons.
-Support nationwide civil mental health courts and expand criminal ones that are already established to keep SMI out of jails and prisons.
-Establish mental health courts on a federal level, and coordinate federal courts and state-run mental health facilities.
-Move crimes that SMI commit in the federal system into state courts.
-Provide a digitized system to connect county/hospital medical records to jails and prisons.
-Mandate a way for families to provide medical history to jail/prison doctors to inform treatment.
-Provide uniform psychiatric screening of the incarcerated and use standardized protocols for medication of SMI prisoners.
-Require strict limits on waiting for trial time.

A LETTER TO SHARE OR TO COPY AND PASTE by Dede Ranahan

TO ALL 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES:

I often hear discussions about mental health awareness, but don't hear discussions about serious mental illness (SMI). 
With SMI, (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, OCD), some people do not recover and cannot work or live independently. Some are so sick they don't realize they're sick (anosognosia), don't respond to treatment (if they get it), and end up incarcerated, homeless, missing, suicidal or dead.

The SMI population represents roughly 5% (10million) of the mentally ill in the US. And ten times as many people with SMI are incarcerated as are hospitalized. These individuals don't get the attention they deserve and consistently fall to the bottom of the proverbial heap.

If it "takes a village to raise a child," it takes a country to help a "child" with SMI -- parity in mental health care, IMD exclusion repeal (beds), HIPAA reform, housing, hospitalization instead of incarceration, brain disease research, supported education, and on and on. So far, our country is not stepping up. A serious mental illness system does not exist.

The presidential candidate I'll support will have the courage and insight to raise SMI issues and to create a plan to deal with them on a national scale. 

What is your plan for SMI? (Not mental health. Not drug addiction.) I would like to read about it on your website. Thank you for your prioritization of SMI issues.

If you agree, please share widely. Or copy and paste.

#seriousmentalillness #SMI #schizophrenia #schizoaffectivedisorder#bipolardisorder #depression #OCD #parityinmentalhealthcare #IMDrepeal#HIPAAreform #braindiseaseresearch #treatmentnotincarceration#soonerthantomorrow

http//www.bit.ly/soonerthantomorrow

THE COST OF NOT CARING - A LETTER TO CONGRESSMAN UPTON FROM NSSC

NSSC is a nonpartisan alliance of diverse individuals and organizations who are uniting to ensure that mental illness, health, and criminal justice systems count those with SMI, SED, and their families in all federal, state, and local policy reforms. We are voices for the 10 million adults and 7 million children living with and dying too young from serious mental illness.

March 22, 2019

The Honorable Fred Upton
2183 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Mr. Upton,

Our coalition is approaching you today in an effort to persuade you to introduce a bill which would clarify the cost of untreated and under treated serious mental illness (SMI) in America. We refer to this as “The Cost of Not Caring.” This bill would ask our federal, state and local governments to provide a report detailing the exact amount of monies allotted each fiscal year to address the effects of untreated serious mental illness on our society.

Our coalition is currently attempting to quantify the personal cost to our families related to caring for a loved one with a serious mental illness. Through a conjoined effort, we are calculating the cost of items such as out of pocket mental health care costs -- i.e., lost wages, psychiatric services required for caregivers and family members, homes lost to second and third mortgages to gain treatment or to pay legal fees, and 401Ks/Retirement Accounts that have been exhausted because of the need to secure help for a loved one with SMI. These are just some examples of overlooked expenses that we are personally left to deal with when we are responsible for a person with a serious mental illness who is not receiving proper care.

However, we cannot assign a dollar amount to unquantifiable costs -- such as, the marriages that have been destroyed, the family relationships that have fallen apart under the stress, the careers destroyed and jobs lost, the physical injuries or deaths of family members and others inflicted by those with SMI--and the dreams and futures of our loved ones that have been shattered when serious mental illness presents itself. These expenses we understand all too well.

We need your help to address the other expenses; the ones that are affecting our nation. We would like you to introduce a bill that would require an account of the actual total expense that untreated mental illness has on our society as a whole. This is going to be a formidable task, but one that must be accomplished. We need to determine exactly what the cost of not caring is having on our society. We hope that having an accountable system of recorded expenditures will help our government finally understand that being proactive, rather than reactive in the treatment of serious mental illnesses, not only makes more sense on a humanitarian level, but also on a financial level.        

Particular areas of interest that this bill should address listed as sample costs -- at federal, state, and local level:
1. Cost of physical illnesses. Please bear in mind that 75% of persons with SMI have at least one chronic physical illness, 50% have two, and 33% have 3 or more.
2. Cost of homelessness with the focus on persons with untreated SMI, including costs to courts, police, prisons, judicial systems, and medical systems.
3. Cost of not allowing for AOT (Assisted Outpatient Treatment) to treat those who suffer from serious mental illness and anosognosia living with family,  including contact with police, crisis services, and courts when we cannot get help for our loved ones. Involvement of treatment teams, in communities where those resources even exist, who continue to engage with patients are often necessary several times a week because patients are in crisis, but there is no improvement when patients are refusing medication.
4. Cost of SMI for patients who go through revolving doors--in and out of hospitals and emergency rooms because they are not treated early enough and/or not kept long enough to stabilize them.
5. Cost of criminal justice involvement among persons with SMI with and without treatment.
6. Cost of disability payments.
7. Cost of lost income.
8. Cost to family members who bear much of the emotional and financial burden of these illnesses.
9. Cost of healthcare for co-morbid conditions such as substance use disorders (SUD’s).
10. Cost of the loss of productivity due to premature death or those with SMI who are institutionalized, incarcerated, or homeless.

We look forward to hearing from you and hope that you will accept this challenge. The time for us to quantify these costs is now so we can have a discussion, to detail its finer points, and move forward with a strategic plan that includes accountability for “The Cost of Not Caring.”

Sincerely,
National Shattering Silence Coalition
https://www.facebook.com/NationalNSSC/

Full disclosure: Dede Ranahan is member of the NSSC Steering Committee.

HAPPENING NOW: HAVE YOU SEEN MY SON? by Kelli Nidey

February 19, 2019: I don't usually talk about this. My oldest son, Mitch, has battled bipolar disorder for a long time, and has suffered from a head injury. He’s overcome addiction and the extremes of mania with medication and religious devotion, but a few months ago, he went off his medication.

Today, after the best week he’s had in many years — painting a beautiful picture for me, hanging out with old friends, volunteering at Helping His Hands, cleaning the house, and walking the dog — Mitch packed his bag and left while I was in another room.

He messaged that he’s headed to California because, “God wants me to save the lost there.” He’s taken off, before, and gone as far as Colorado where he was lost in a snowstorm and rescued by a good samaritan. He went to California with a homeless veteran, during a very bad time in his life. He’s always survived but I’m terrified, every time he leaves like this, I’ll get the worst kind of call or never hear from him again.

I don't know why I'm sharing now. I’ve been down this road so many times. I guess I’m tired. And I know there are other people struggling with PTSD or the neurological disorders that we label mental illness. I'm also hoping, if anyone sees him, they’ll help him get home.

I’ve rented him a hotel room in Carlyle, Illinois. I feel like I am enabling him, but right now, I don’t want him to freeze to death.

February 22, 2019: Mitch is hitchhiking and stayed at a hotel in St Charles, Illinois last night — the Sleepy Inn near highway 370. He was leaving there, this morning, to go further west. The night before, he stayed outside and I had the police check on him. He stopped at a hospital there for back pain but he didn’t stay. At the time the police talked to him, he was dressed warmly, cooperative, and spoke lucidly. They didn’t feel like they had enough to force him into the hospital. The local hospital wouldn’t help because he’d crossed state lines.

People helped him, this evening, and he’s now in Troy, Missouri. Someone fed him, and bought him socks and foot medication. I rented a room for him, in Troy, so I can sleep tonight. I feel like I’m on a roller coaster. Mostly, I’m trying to keep track of his whereabouts, and praying he stays warm.

My other son is away at college, with his girlfriend, so he’s been able to separate from the drama. I started a demanding job a few months ago. Thank God I have it or this would be even more stressful, financially.

A friend shared that her son is traveling the country in a bus he bought, and that he lived on the streets one winter. I had no idea her son was sick. We all hide and isolate.

February 25, 2019: This past weekend, in Troy, Missouri, Mitch said, “I still plan to travel west.”

He’s walking.

HAPPY PIC

Lines.

Hope you have a good weekend everybody!

IT'S COMFORTING TO KNOW THAT YOU JUST GET IT (PART II) by Anonymous

JANUARY 30, 2019: Morning. It’s 5:30 a.m. and, as usual, I'm on the patio with my coffee and my dogs, trying to find some strength. Some clarity. Today at 9:30 a.m., my husband, middle son, and I will go before the mental health court to ask for long-term care for my 32-year-old son. I'm not usually easily intimidated, but I'm terrified — for many reasons.

Why am I scared? This is what I wanted, what I've fought so long and so hard for. What will the judge think of us as parents? Will he note the dark circles under my eyes? Will he look at my hair, that I haven't cut or colored in over three years (my hairstyle is always ponytail), and say to himself, "She doesn't practice self-care. How does she expect her son to do so?”

I know. I know how shallow this sounds. I'm dreading facing my son who always looks tired and wiped out. I know he’ll look worse today, after being in the hospital for 13 days. How do I keep from wanting to hug him (not that he ever lets me) or from talking to him? How will I keep my mom-emotions in check? He's already told the doctors, nurses, and social workers that his parents are insane. I know long-term care is what he needs, but my mom-heart feels like it's shattering. I know we’re all struggling, today, in different ways because of mental illness.

I hate this illness, a horrible thief that steals our children from us. My faith in a higher power is hanging by a thread, but if you pray, please say a prayer for my family.

Afternoon: We went to the hearing and waited and waited. While waiting, our son's public defender spoke with us. She encouraged him to sign the papers for a court-ordered living treatment facility, or he would most definitely be sent to the state hospital. The social worker finally came out and told us our son reluctantly signed for the residential treatment facility. There are negatives to either alternative. The hearing was postponed, while they try to find a facility that will accept him, given that he's not been med-compliant for more than three months — ever. So the state hospital is still on the table.

A few hours later, I decided to visit my son for the first time since he was Baker-Acted (involuntarily committed). I wasn’t going to try to persuade him to cooperate or beg him to let us help him because it's pointless. Even when he was signing the paper work with his public defender, he was telling her, “I’m not sick.” I wanted to see him, and take him some clean, warm clothing because it’s cold. He left the day of the Baker Act in shorts and a basketball jersey. I wanted to take him clothes, and tell him I love him.

The first 10 minutes he was hugging me, holding my hand, and telling me he would do anything, if I got him out of there. When I explained, “It’s in the state’s hands now,” everything went south fast. He was irate, delusional, and yelling at the social worker. Nothing’s settled, but I'm cautiously optimistic that he has a good, competent team working in his behalf. Of course, thing's change. Tomorrow might be a completely different story. It's such a roller coaster.

My son at three in his Superman p.j.’s

IT'S COMFORTING TO KNOW THAT YOU JUST GET IT (PART I) by Anonymous

January 27, 2019: On Friday the hospital social worker called. We had a plan set in place for my son's release. He was supposed to go to a residential living/treatment facility, but this morning, I spoke to his nurse and she said he's set for release tomorrow and she doesn't know if they’ve found a place for him yet. Due to not having insurance, she said, “There could be a problem.” This is a completely different story from the conversation with the social worker on Friday.

This was a shitty decision to have to make — to say my son can't come home because he won't stay med compliant and because I'm afraid of him. I was sad, but relieved that he would be in a safe place getting treatment and, after 10 years (two years dealing with the mental health care system), he and our family would be able to breathe. I can't take a breath to relax, even when he's in the hospital, because I’m still dealing with red tape BS.

Ug. Twice, on this Sunday morning, I’m told there’s no residential treatment facility available because my son doesn't have insurance. “You can just let him go to a homeless shelter if you’re afraid." 

So, this "mama bear" lost her stuff. The social worker put in an emergency call to my son's psychiatrist. He called back right away and began the usual "blah blah blah." I kept pushing, telling him what my son and family have been through — beatings from cops, sleeping with a gun in his bed that we had no idea he had — and everything we’ve seen.

Finally, the doctor said he could petition the mental health court to get him into the state hospital. We’ll have to go before a judge, my son, and his public defender and tell them everything from the beginning until now. The doctor said, “It's not a guarantee. The judge may deny your petition. Are you and your family willing to do this? Because it's hard. Your son will be medicated, probably calm. In the hospital, he's not nice or happy to take meds, but he's doing it.”

I said, “My family is ready to face this to get him the consistent long-term help he needs.”

Since every thing changes every day, with every conversation, with every person you speak to, I'm waiting for another phone call telling me something completely different. I'm so pissed. It's hard enough for a family to deal with a loved one with mental illness who has zero insight into his brain disease. Then, when you finally are able to get him to a hospital for help, you have to deal with the red tape, the social workers, and the nurses who all tell you something different.

I'm a strong woman but I'm mentally exhausted. I'm sorry. My friends and family really don't get the ups and downs we go through as caregivers. When someone says, "I feel your pain," I need to know that you do. I don’t like to hear that anyone else is suffering like me or my son — I wouldn't wish this life on anyone — but It’s comforting to know someone really has an understanding of mental illness and that you just get it. May the force be with all of us.  

My son one year before college graduation.

HAPPY PIC

On a clear day, you can see forever…

Hope you have a good weekend everybody!

I FEARED HE'D BE BLOWN TO PIECES by Deborah Harper

Jared was my second son born into our family of two boys in 1991. He was a quiet child, deeply intuitive and sensitive, musically gifted, and athletic. A boy full of life and funny faces and stories. He always made us laugh. Our Jared.

As he approached his junior year in high school, life began to take twists and turns that led us to seek help. The hope was always that help was just an appointment away. Then, as Jared became an adult at the ripe old age of 18, privacy laws separated us. I was behind an immovable glass wall, unable to reach him. HIPAA stood guard like a heartless warden of his declining mental health. The nightmare began, and evolved into multiple chapters of heart-wrenching sadness, agonizing decisions, and defeating barriers.

March 12, 2018: My boy needs continuous prayers. He’s been in a group home for three years. I had to make him homeless in order to make him eligible for residential support. He spent seven months in a respite bed, above an overdose crisis lock-up treatment center in the worst area of Worcester, Massachusetts, waiting for a bed in a group home.

This past year, Jared grew more depressed over his circumstances and wanted desperately to return home. He began self medicating with alcohol. The house set up a protocol to call an ambulance if they believed he was intoxicated. The ambulance brought the police and, because Jared suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia, he didn’t believe the police were real police. They grabbed him, he pulled back, and they proceeded to beat the daylights out of him. They beat him so badly he had to be taken to the hospital.

North Hallway, Position 8 —  A bed with a confused, hungry, and lost young man could be found in that hallway on a gurney. His illness, schizophrenia, was treated like a crime. His ride to the hospital began with a knee pressing into his neck, and tight cold wrings that left behind purple shadows of remembrance on both wrists. He was surrounded by at least six or seven other hallway-mates. They also bore the markings of a war-torn life battling the disease that we treat as dirty. I saw dirty hair, dirty clothes, and listened to dirty mouths. Whispering and cries were the audible clues they were suffering. No one was offered a drink of water. I observed avoidance. Did I detect annoyance?

Twenty long hours in that hallway waiting for the next step. This was a crisis — so many in need and so few helpers and healers. I was there for him, but no one showed up for any of the others. The lost and neglected souls of the North Hallway.

After the hospital, Jared was locked up at a Worcester police station and bail was posted. He had to appear in court to be charged with assault on police. When he arrived at court, they put him in lock-up all day. The judge heard his case at 4:30 p.m. He ruled that Jared was a danger to himself (drinking) and others (resisting police). They sent him to a Plymouth, Massachusetts, correctional facility for a mandatory 90-day rehab. This rehab required that he live in a cell, wear an orange jumpsuit, and be treated like a criminal.

My son tried calling me, yesterday, and it took four minutes to set up an account to pre-pay $1 per-minute to talk to him. By the time I did that, he’d hung up. I could barely breathe.

The grief and feelings of helplessness are indescribable. The mentally ill are so drastically mistreated and misunderstood. There are no beds available in genuine rehab places because of the opioid crisis. The only places left are correctional facilities.

Distress worsens mental illness. Mental health care is a system built on failure and supported by a nation that stigmatizes mental illness. It’s only recently recognized that we’re still in the dark ages when it comes to treating diseases of the brain.

January 19, 2019: Jared was just released from a 40-day imprisonment at a house of correction followed by a 35-day inpatient hospitalization at a state hospital. He had a psychotic break in late October while visiting me for a few days. He believed I was part of the KKK and pulled a kitchen knife out of the knife rack. He didn’t hold the knife up to me and I never saw what kind of knife he pulled. I called for help, reluctantly, because we had just had a three-year case dismissed for assault and battery on a police officer because he resisted them last time I called them.

The local police called in what is a called a STOP team, which I would classify as a SWAT team. Heavily armed men unloaded from vans and surrounded our house. They appointed me the negotiator and hooked me up to a speaker inside the house while a robot took photos inside the house. My small dog was inside with Jared. It was cold and raining. Every 45 minutes I had to stand three feet away from two men holding automatic weapons and one holding a shield and a taser. I was shaking like a leaf. I was luring my son into a trap. If he did anything threatening, I feared he’d be blown to pieces. Team members were in the woods, too. I could see little red lights coming from their weapons and helmets — a scene from Star Wars. The Ewoks in the woods. They evacuated my neighbors. It was insane.

After an eight-hour stand off, the police smashed a battering ram through Jared’s particle-board bedroom door that didn't have a lock, destroyed his room, stepped on his guitar, and arrested him. They charged him with attempted murder among three other trumped up charges.

I started a Go Fund Me campaign and borrowed money from my family to pay for a private attorney. The court appointed attorney was definitely not paying attention and cared very little about Jared's rights. 

The local newspaper wrote a story that made my son sound like a terrorist — I believe to justify the manpower that was brought to the neighborhood. Over 25 state police cruisers, 2 local police departments, and an ambulance surrounded my home and lined my street. I wrote to the paper and asked to tell my side of the incident. They featured me and my story on the cover on the Sunday edition.

Jared’s back at the group home. He’s stable. They’re working with him to keep him busy and going to therapy and AA.  I saw him yesterday. He was cleaning his room, lining up his shoes, hanging up his clothes, and tolerating my visit. In the past, he wouldn't want me in his space. This is progress.

Every day is a gift. I believe in God and the power of prayer. 

“You can always achieve the triumph of radical empathy (and understanding of the heart.)”