Two guys from NAMI came to talk to our OTA class about
their on-going journey on the road back from mental illness. They were representatives from NAMI’s In Our
Own Voice, IOOV, program whose job it is to put a human face on mental illness.
These guys didn’t look mentally ill to
me. They were good looking, clean-cut, well-spoken,
nicely dressed gentlemen.
They started talking about their experiences with mental
illness. At first they didn’t seem to
have a lot in common. One guy was born
with a “self-professed” silver spoon in his mouth and had been afforded almost
every advantage imaginable. Most people
would give their eye teeth to have a life like his. The other guy was a country boy from a
blue-collar family who hadn’t been given much as a child but who had fought for
our country and had earned the respect of his family and fellow servicemen.
The upper class guy did fairly well until he went to college
when academic pressures kicked off a bipolar roller coaster. Then a series of life-altering family
tragedies dealt him a one-two punch that changed his life forever. As a result, he self-medicated to deal with
the pain and was later diagnosed with PTSD.
The working class guy worked hard and excelled in the
military environment. He, too, seemed
successful, but, as is common with many veterans, during the course of his duties
he witnessed some things “that no one should see.” As a result, he, too, developed PTSD.
These revelations on the surface might seem like the reason
these two guys teamed up together to make their presentation to our OTA class,
and that’s fine. Still I was a bit
puzzled why these guys referred to themselves as “brothers.” That’s
when they made their real disclosure.
As their stories unfolded, I learned that the upper class
guy had developed substance abuse issues and was subsequently incarcerated for five
years! And based on the stories he had
to tell, to say that he was inhumanely treated would be an understatement.
On the other hand, the working class guy coped rather
well with his mental illness after the war.
However, one day a medication-induced psychosis landed him in jail, not
a hospital, mind you, but jail!
Suddenly, these two good-looking, well-spoken gentlemen were in places
that were designed for society’s outcasts.
And if it could happen to them, it could happen to anyone!
Jail is a scary place where we send people who need to be
punished. It’s a place where people’s
rights are minimal and management sometimes turns a blind eye to the violations
of these rights. But that’s okay,
right? I mean after all jail is a place
for criminals. It shouldn’t be a country
club.
At the heart of the IOOV presentation, the thing that
blew me away was that jail is not only the place that criminals go. It also happens to be the place where we send
our mentally ill. We take some of the
most at-risk members of our society, and we confine them with people who have
already been found guilty of ignoring the law.
Does that seem right?
Therein, I learned the real reason that these two guys had
teamed up and were going from one speaking engagement to another. PTSD is bad.
Mental illness is bad. But when
you incarcerate a person for being mentally ill, that’s really bad. Society needs to take note when the rights of
the mentally ill are violated because they don’t have all the mental “tools”
with which to protect themselves.
To illustrate this problem, here are some statistics from
the NAMI website:
- “In 1998, 283,800 people with mental illnesses were incarcerated in American prisons and jails. This is four times the number of people in state mental hospitals throughout the country. xiv
- Sixteen percent (179,200) of state prison inmates, seven percent (7,900) of federal inmates, 16 percent (96,700) of people in local jails, and 16 percent (547,800) of probationers have reported a mental illness. xv
- § Mentally ill offenders are more likely than other offenders to have a history of substance abuse/dependency and a higher rate of homelessness and unemployment prior to incarceration.”
See http://www.namissw.org/mental_health/facts.htm
for more information.
The speakers talked about the stigma that a mental
illness diagnosis can confer. I wonder what
will I, as an OTA, do to stop this
discrimination? How will I advocate for
the mentally ill?
I hope in my practice that I do not judge my mentally ill
clients. I hope I give them the same
respect that I give to everyone else. I
hope that when I meet someone who has been in jail, that I consider the above statistics
and realize that they could be mentally ill and not just a “common criminal.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information about mental illness, incarceration,
and stigma see the following:
“The Criminalization of Mental Illness: Crisis and Opportunity for the Justice System”
by Risdon N. Slate, W. Wesley Johnson, 2008 • $45.00 •
432 pp • paper • ISBN: 978-1-59460-268-9
• LCCN 2008008281
The SAMHSA’s
Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental
Health (ADS Center)
NAMI’s policy on the criminalization of people with
mental illness:
Human Rights Watch article on US prisons and people with
mental illness:
To do something about the treatment of the mentally ill see the Treatment Advocacy Center’s website:
http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/solution/getting-involved
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