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Tulsa World

December 17, 2001

Reprinted with permission of the author. All rights reserved.

Letter to the Editor

By Mary T. Zdanowicz

Everyone hopes the death of a Vinita Hospital nurse at the hands of a man overcome by severe mental illness was an isolated incident. (“Mental health report doubted,” Dec. 2 Tulsa World). Oklahoma may pass new laws to prevent further tragedies. But what about current laws that could have helped but were not used?

Department of Mental Health Commissioner Terry Cline seems to understand, saying “This is the type of problem we run into … patients don’t take their medicine and they decompensate.” He mentions that both inpatient and outpatient treatment are available.

But he fails to mention the availability of court-ordered outpatient treatment, a way to ensure that deteriorating patients remain in treatment.

That may be because Oklahoma rarely uses this legal mechanism, although studies have shown it to be extraordinarily effective in reducing hospitalization, arrests, and episodes of violence.

Ricky Martin’s family said that Martin would periodically check into Eastern State Hospital for help. Eastern State’s downsizing likely contributed to Martin’s inability to get treatment. But we still must ask why Martin was not in a monitored outpatient treatment program designed to keep conditions like his from deteriorating.

Both DeAnna Dorsey and Ricky Martin lost their lives because Martin’s brain disease was not being consistently treated. Oklahomans are lucky state laws allow court-ordered outpatient treatment. Let’s hope the commission’s confidential report examined why those laws were not used to prevent this tragedy. And whether they are being used today to prevent another.