DOJ memo stokes fear among disability advocates

[GENERAL EYES]

DOJ memo stokes fear among disability advocates of a return to institutionalization.

 (from the article)

"As America prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, [this memo] threatens to drag our nation back to a dark and shameful era of ignorance and cruelty," said the American Association of People with Disabilities. "This interpretation will open the doors for states to revert to warehousing people with disabilities out of sight and out of mind in institutions."
 
"This opinion is a direct threat to decades of progress toward community living for people with disabilities," said Shira Wakschlag of The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit disability advocacy group. "People with disabilities shouldn't be forced into institutions because a state refuses to provide services in the community."

The courts and Congress decided institutionalization should be a last resort because people's personal liberty is at stake, says Jennifer Mathis of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law: "Who you can see, when you can go out, when you eat, what you eat. Who your roommate is, who you talk to, what your environment is. And for so many people who are institutionalized, their life is literally a hallway. I have been on those hallways with people. It is deadening."



(Personal commentary to follow : )


I read this article a few days ago, and couldn't get it out of my head.

It hasn't been mentioned here onsite so I thought I'd bring it to your attention and get feedback from the community on this issue.

One of the reason I decided to bring it up now is I just awoke from a nightmare in which I was institutionalized against my will, and pigeonholed into a lifetime of such because I was viewed as a "dash cow" for the intitutions funding.  In the dream the facility was understaffed by people who didn't want to be there, and filled to the brim with drug addicts and malcontents of all sorts, and it was futile to even concieve of seeing the Outside or one's family again.

As someone who has battled the challenges of Schizophrenia for well over 30 years (thank gods I'm high functioning) I've been in a multitude of inpatient care facilities when my condition got the better or me over the years, from first rate modern care to places that are barely able to keep the electicial wiring in the ceiling.

Some places were staffed with kind, compassionate health care professionals, and others, by folks who probably barely scraped by with a certificate for such work, who had little to no interest in the needs or well being of the afflicted in their care...those places were souless and psychologically damaging to experience from my perspective.

In general, I have found that within the current system there is a wide berth of competence and care available as is, and more often than not, they are inclined to hold you in their care for as long as legally possible to insure they get the maximum payout from the insurance companies, regardless of whether or not you are fit to be released sooner.

In light of these facts, I'd love to know what the community thinks about this memo proposal to literally rip people away from their families and communities in the name of rediverting finances towards "approved channels and institutions" to make a profit off of what I can only forsee as unnessesary human suffering and forced imprisionment in various facilities designed to house and "care" for them.

Personally, I think this is a slippery slope when it comes to the rights and inherent human dignity of a free citizen who may get caught up in a blind sweep of insuring as many bodies fill as many institutions as possible int he least amount of time....no system is perfect, an with the track record of the current administration and some of the states goals as they stand, I fear many innocent Americans will fall through the cracks on this one.


I look forward to your opinions and commentary, critiqu and conversation on this issue.

[KTemplar]

GENERAL EYES


my sweet dear, what I’m about to write does not include you, as you seem like you do well without being institutionalized.


The girl on the train who was stabbed to death for no reason would still be alive today had that maniac been in an institution.

I was personally grabbed by a crazy homeless guy (who shows everybody in town a picture of his dead looking girlfriend)?  That he keeps in his phone.  I was strong enough to block him and get him off me, but I really feel it’s only a matter of time before there is a serious altercation cause of this dude.  I know a man on who takes the train to Boston everyday for work who recently had to physically defend himself from a crazy person, luckily he’s fit too and held his own.

My ex sister in law, lost her mind a few years ago.  The cops found her driving her car on a walking path that women and children were walking on.  She had a stop sign sticking out of one side of her car, and a six ft tall plastic Santa hanging out the other window.  She fought them violently, she always does.   She takes her meds for awhile, but always goes off them and becomes a problem for everybody.  Especially the poor police who have to deal with her; she becomes demonic, even sounds possessed.

Some people are a DANGER to society.  We need institutions back, yes, we also need to vet and inspect routinely to make sure people are truly being cared for though.

Other side of the coin, it is well known from anyone who has met some of these fraudsters, that too many people are faking mental disabilities to get ssdi to avoid working.  My ex, who is a pos, who stole everything my son and I saved for.  He stole 5,000 I had saved for my do sons future from his savings account (tgry have the same name) to pay for his drug addiction, and more, and left us homeless.  Not before threatening to kill is with a shotgun (he threatened to kill his boss too).  He worked maybe 10 years of his life.  His nurse mommy told me she went out to dinner with his psych Dr and he told her my ex had NPD.  The Dr falsified documents said he was schizophrenic and that turd now gets more monthly from ssdi tgat my working taxes pay for.  He goes on vacations, out partying, two girls he dated have died suspiciousl.  He’s been collecting for I think about 16 years now.

I also learned from a girl I met in the homeless shelter that word of mouth travels about the mental loophole for ssdi.  Her cousin who was 19 got it by acting crazy, you only need a good lawyer, and she knew one who everybody knew to go to.

I also worked for 7 years at Walgreens.  I saw soooo many ssdi people under the age of 40, who walk better than me come in with their little emotional support poodles, shopping  all day.  Take vacations.  They got tattoos and went to concerts.  

Too many people are frauding the system and it affects people like you and people like me who have worked all My life!

It will also help the truly afflicted who live on the streets live a more humane life.

I guarantee if these fraudsters are faced with institutionalizations they’ll be automatically cured.

[GENERAL EYES]

...as you seem like you do well without being institutionalized.

I usually don't post when I'm having an episode or psychotic break, but it can get pretty bad.

To make matters worse, I apparently have dissociative fugue states during the heightened points of said episodes, because when I read the ER notes and clinicians reports, they have quoted me a number of times saying things I don't remember saying.  One young nurse ever claimed I tried to attack an elderly gentleman while I was waiting for a transfer to inpatient.

I remember the last incident, I wasn't trying to attack him (or anyone) I noticed him walk by my room and I went to see if he needed any assistance because the nurses were busy/ignoring him.  The young nurse took it upon herself to claim I tried to attack him.

The reason I'm worried is because, like I stated before int he OP, a lot of times the staff isn't really paying attention or tends to overinflate certain things so that, on paper at least, I look like a dangerous schizophrenic when nothing can be further from the truth, and a lot of these "unreliable witnesses" can really make you life a living nightmare with their "professional testimony".

That being said...

When it comes to dangerous homeless persons, I've had my fair share of run ins with those types over the years.  One guy threatened me over the fact that I didn't have a cigarette to give him when he demanded one, and he was a nusinsce in my old neighborhood for several years before he finally disappeared.  I had another schizophrenic follow me home one night and threaten me when I couldn't afford to buy him breakfast at the Waffle House down the street.  I know dangerous people shouldn't be left loose like that, and that the reality of homelessness can make symptoms worsen over time, what with exposure to the elements and the general public not wanting to interact with them, so in some cases involuntary commitment and institutionalization is not always a bad thing.

One of the main reasons I'm against this proposal is that the way it would take family out of the equation.

It specifically targets folks who are recieving in home assistance and nursing care, and removes them from their families to place them in these varied facilities instead of letting them live and recieve care at home.   That seems a step too far, in my opinion, especially considering the history of facilities full of people who aren't getting the one on one care they're used to, not to mention the fact they've been ripped away from their families and friends and communities in the meanwhile.

Placing someone who is mentally or physically dependant into a ward that co-houses drug cases and drama prone individuals just doesn't sit well with me.  Most of the facilities I've been to over the course of my battle have been filled with drug cases, and more often than not, the staff, doctors and nurses will lump in the mental health cases with the addicts, and write everyones concerns off as chemical dependancy issues as a result.  It's happened to frequently for me I've lost my temper with some caseworkers and let them know exactly how I felt about being written off as a "druggie".

You are correct that there are those out there who would benefit from institutionalization, and you're also right about the "fakers" and malingerers who fake their disabilities for easy money.  I've had, in the past, people ask me invasive questions about how my symptoms manifest, and I always keep silent or change the subject unless I know them well, because in that world, word travels like wildfire and the next thing you know, everyone has the exact same experiences and the system becomes even more of a nightmare than it was before due to the influx of disingenuine cases.

I don't know....it's a tricky subject because I've seen far too often firsthand how things can go wrong in the whole industry, and in my current locale, I don't have much faith in the practioners and "professionals" in the system, simply because they think they know everything and in reality, don't really give a damn.

It just smacks of another money grab to me...I see no reason why someone who is fine with a assisted living situation and living at home needs to be transfered against their and the families wishes to an institution.

In severe cases, yes.

But not across the board.

[KTemplar]

GENERAL EYES


I wasn’t aware that it would separate families, or disrupt in-home care.   IMO, if the family is good enough to appropriately care for the individual than they should remain there.

You are 100% correct about providers and money grabbers though.   That is why there should be constant consistent evaluations of these institutions. 

I see an older woman every other day who is homeless.  I can tell once she was a very pretty woman with manners. I’ve also seen her lose it on others.  I treat her with kindness and respect.  I pray for her often, and I wish so bad I could help her.  I worry what the other crazy homeless men will do to her.  I have a tent and sleeping bag I’m going to offer her.  I also know someone who runs a local campground and I’m going to ask about rates for her.  I think once this woman lived a normal life and the streets make you crazy.