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Treatment Advocacy Center

STATEMENT

By Executive Director, Mary T. Zdanowicz, Esq.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 16, 1999

CONTACT:

703 294 6008 or [email protected]

New York Legislators Should Stand Tall:
Don't Fail the Mentally Ill by Letting the Clock Run Out on Kendra's Law

Albany, NY — Governor Pataki and state legislators should stand tall and protect all of New York’s citizens by swiftly passing Kendra’s Law before the legislative session ends. Allowing the clock to run out on this bold and compassionate proposal would be irresponsible and will only perpetuate the degradation of New York’s casualties of a failed deinstitutionalization policy, individuals with untreated severe mental illnesses.

Yet another violent attack by an individual with untreated mental illness occurred only days ago when Olga Maisonet, a woman with a history of mental illness and previous assaults, stabbed Guo-Xi Li, a retired factory worker to death. How high must the death toll climb before New York takes responsibility for those who are unable to recognize that they need treatment for their illness? The last several months have been filled with tragic stories involving New Yorkers and individuals with untreated mental illnesses. One would think that the death of Kendra Webdale, the severing of Edgar Rivera’s legs under a subway train, the shooting of Charles Stevens on the LIRR by police for wielding a sword under psychosis, and the death of Rodney Mason who was shot to death by police during one of his psychotic episodes would cause many to understand the dangers of untreated mental illness and reconsider treatment options.

For far too long, thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers have eked out a pitiful existence on city streets, under ground in subway tunnels, or in jails and prisons as a result of the misguided efforts of civil rights advocates to keep the severely ill out of treatment. The images of these gravely ill citizens on city landscapes have become bleak reminders of the failure of deinstitutionalization and success of transinstitutionalization. New Yorkers have grown accustomed to seeing these individuals huddling over steam grates in the cold, animatedly carrying on conversations with invisible companions, wearing filthy, tattered clothing, urinating and defecating on sidewalks or threatening passersby. Worse still, New Yorkers have seen the mentally ill being carried away on stretchers as victims of suicide or violent crime, or in handcuffs as perpetuators of violence against others. All of this occurs under the watchful eyes of fellow citizens and government officials who do nothing but shake their heads in blind tolerance.

The consequences of failing to treat these illnesses have been, and continue to be, devastating. While Americans with untreated severe mental illnesses represent less than one percent of the total U.S. population, they commit almost 1,000 homicides in the United States each year, or between four and five percent of all murders annually. At least one-third of the estimated 600,000 homeless individuals suffer from schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness, and 28 percent of these people forage for some of their food in garbage cans. At least 10 percent, or 170,000 individuals, of our jail and prison populations suffer from these illnesses, costing American taxpayers a staggering $8.5 billion per year. Moreover, studies suggest that delaying treatment results in permanent harm, including increased treatment resistance, worsening severity of symptoms, increased hospitalizations and delayed remission of symptoms. In addition, persons suffering from severe psychiatric illnesses are frequently victimized. Studies have shown that 22 percent of women with untreated schizophrenia have been raped. Suicide rates for individuals suffering from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness are 10 to 15 times higher than for the general population.

Denying the mentally ill access to psychiatric hospitals coupled with weak state treatment laws has only served to increase the rates of homelessness, violence, incarceration, suicide and victimization for this population. Nearly half of those suffering from these insidious illnesses do not realize they are sick and in need of treatment because their brain disease has affected their self-awareness. They do not recognize that the symptoms of their illness - hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, and withdrawal - are in fact, symptoms. Since they do not believe they are sick they refuse to take their medicine, which is perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the current law.

When individuals refuse medical intervention in New York, the State’s laws prevent them from receiving appropriate care until it is too late. These laws prohibit treating individuals over their objection, until they pose a danger to themselves or others. In other words, an individual must have a finger on the trigger of a gun or push someone into the path of an oncoming subway train before any medical care will be prescribed.

Many states have abandoned the dangerousness standard for treatment, which New York still maintains. These states consider factors such as decompensation, being unaware of a need for treatment, having a history of medication non-compliance or violence.

Approximately 40 states have laws that allow for the use of some form of assisted outpatient treatment to substantially improve the lives of those suffering from severe mental illness and enhance the communities in which they live. Studies have proven that statutes like Kendra’s Law, are effective in ensuring treatment compliance. The challenge remains in getting the states to utilize what is at their disposal rather tolerating the revolving-door syndrome of hospital admissions, readmissions, abandonment to the streets and incarceration that usually engulfs those not receiving treatment.

Kendra’s Law would prevent individuals like Andrew Goldstein, Charles Stevens, Julio Perez, and Olga Maisonet from spinning endlessly through the revolving door of hospital admissions and readmissions, only to be abandoned to the streets with no follow-up care. Kendra’s Law also would help eliminate random and senseless acts of violence such as that which tragically ended the lives of Kendra Webdale and Guo-Xi Li.

New York must not fail its citizens. If Kendra’s Law is not passed, New Yorkers will usher in the year 2000 in the same state of bedlam that their forebears did in the year 1900; the state’s real crime of the century.

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The Treatment Advocacy Center (www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illnesses. TAC promotes laws, policies, and practices for the delivery of psychiatric care and supports the development of innovative treatments for and research into the causes of severe and persistent psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

 

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