Mental Hygiene

In the wake of several highly publicized crimes committed by the mentally ill, Maryland officials are studying ways to force patients outside the hospital to take medication that can prevent psychotic episodes.A mental health task force is considering whether the state should permit courts to order patients to stay in treatment or face involuntary hospitalization. Similar measures have been adopted by 39 other states, often in the face of opposition from patients' rights advocates.But the case of Richard K. Geier, the 23-year-old man accused of chasing and shooting a lawyer on a busy downtown street Tuesday morning, illustrates the difficulty of designing laws that will prevent violent acts by the mentally ill.Bizarre and menacing talk is a common feature of schizophrenia, but few patients carry out their threats.

Is a contract valid only when The Sun thinks it's wise?Why doesn't The Sun give give readers the facts about the tobacco lawsuit, and how the state's case came to be pursued by Peter Angelos' law firm ("Tobacco no hazard to his wealth," editorial, Oct. 19)?When the state put the case out for bid, at least six law firms, including out-of-state firms, submitted bids.The state insisted that the firm taking the the case commit at least $5 million, which knocked one or two firms out of the bidding.

The Glendening administration's plan to keep all eight of Maryland's psychiatric hospitals open -- but with fewer patients and staff -- got a favorable reception from a legislative committee yesterday.Mental health advocates who have pushed to close some of the hospitals endorsed the proposal, which would shift resources to community-based programs as the hospitals are downsized.The General Assembly directed the state Mental Hygiene Administration last year to review its facilities and develop a plan for downsizing, consolidating or closing some of the state-run psychiatric hospitals.

Maryland is taking a prudent approach to psychiatric careI was dismayed reading your front-page article "Psychiatric hospitals stand almost empty" (March 14).Your assumptions that persistent and severely disabled mental patients can always be best served in the community shows a biased position in favor of shifting public money from psychiatric hospitals to community programs, regardless of patients' clinical needs.You don't comparethe costs in state hospitals with the ones for similar programs in private hospitals.

Deborah I. Chang, a federal health official from Silver Spring, has been named a deputy secretary at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She will oversee state Medicaid and other health care programs.Chang's appointment, which follows Dr. Georges C. Benjamin's recent promotion to department secretary, was announced yesterday by Gov. Parris N. Glendening. State officials said her appointment is part of an overall reorganization of the department.Chang works for the federal Health Care Financing Administration as director of benefits, coverage and payment for the HCFA's Medicaid and state operations section.

State licensing officials are taking the unusual step of moving to revoke the license of a residential care provider that treats troubled teen-agers at six homes in Baltimore County.The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene alleges that Residential Care Network of Pikesville altered records, did not properly report runaways, failed to give adequate dental care to one client and violated clients' rights by taking their shoes and coats and restricting access to the refrigerator and telephone.

Community mental health providers who deliver services to some of Maryland's poorest psychiatric patients say the state's new reimbursement rates are too low and could force some clinics to close.Providers say they've had to lay off employees and eliminate critical services that are not covered under the new public mental health system. The rates took effect July 1."The fees that have been set up for psychiatric clinics are absurdly low," said Spencer Gear, director of Granite House, a psychiatric rehabilitation center in Westminster.

Community mental health providers who deliver services to some of Maryland's poorest psychiatric patients say the state's new reimbursement rates are too low and could force some clinics to close.Providers say they have had to lay off employees and eliminate critical services that are not covered under the new public mental health system. The rates took effect July 1."The fees that have been set up for psychiatric clinics are absurdly low," said Spencer Gear, director of Granite House, a psychiatric rehabilitation center in Westminster.

Lyme disease cases in Maryland increased 17 percent last year, according to figures released recently by the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Officials believe the increase is because of better public awareness and reporting.There were 493 confirmed cases reported in 1997, compared with 423 in 1996, said Dr. Clifford Johnson, the state's public health veterinarian.The disease is transmitted by ticks and symptoms include a circular, expanding reddish rash.Pub Date: 5/12/98

The Baltimore League of Women Voters supports a proposal to push back the city's mayoral race to make it coincide with presidential elections beginning in 2004.The group has submitted its backing to a bill proposed by Northeast Councilman Robert Curran. The move would save the city more than $1 million and double voter turnout in municipal elections, the league said.The timing of the next municipal elections -- next year -- would not be affected by the proposal.Body of unidentified man found in Inner HarborThe body of an unidentified man was found floating in the Inner Harbor off Pier 5 near East Pratt Street yesterday, police said.

The father of a 24-year-old woman who was stabbed to death in a Catonsville liquor store nine months ago is furious that her killer has been declared not criminally responsible for his act - Maryland's equivalent of an insanity defense. Mike Ring, whose daughter, Aysha D. Ring, was killed in the attack, told a Baltimore Circuit Court judge last week that the assailant, David A. Briggs, pretended to be mentally ill after the killing, a "ruse of mental incapacitation" designed to deceive the criminal-justice system and avoid its worst penalties.

A review found hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of projects were awarded, without a competitive bid process, to four contractors to do maintenance work at Spring Grove Hospital Center, according to a special report released yesterday by the state's Department of Legislative Services. Spring Grove is the state's oldest and largest hospital, serving more than 1,000 patients a year on a 190-acre campus in Catonsville. The review, which spanned July 2005 to February 2008, found that projects were given to a particular contractor after Spring Grove officials had previously faxed the competing bids to the contractor.

Ruth B. Wiemer, former chief of the division of occupational therapy for Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, died in her sleep Oct. 14 at Heron Point retirement community in Chestertown. She was 92. Ruth Brunyate was born and raised in Orange, N.J., graduating from high school in 1934. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1938 from Hollins College in Roanoke, Va. After graduating from the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy in 1940, she was an occupational therapist at Seashore House in Atlantic City.

R. Charles Dannettel Jr., who worked for 22 years as the chief of engineering for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, died of pneumonia Thursday at Stella Maris Hospice. The White Hall resident was 79. A Baltimore native who was raised in Roland Park, he was a 1946 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. He earned an engineering degree at the Johns Hopkins University in 1950. Mr. Dannettel followed in the academic path of his father, who also graduated from Poly and earned an engineering degree from Johns Hopkins.

A caseworker at the North Baltimore Center last saw George T. Dyson on a Thursday morning in May. Dyson, a diabetic and convicted robber with a history of mental illness, took his medications there, and a nurse checked his blood sugar and blood pressure every day. When he didn't show up at the mental health treatment facility the next day, caseworkers tried to locate him at home and then twice at his job at Wendy's. On Sunday, they reported him missing to the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the agency responsible for him. It was too late for Karen Harris.

An employee of the William Donald Schaefer Tower downtown was stricken with Legionnaires' disease, and several others with respiratory illnesses are being examined, but state officials were cautioning yesterday that they don't believe the building is contaminated. "Right now, what we have is one case," Gov. Martin O'Malley told reporters yesterday at a news conference inside the building. "If there were a second case in this building, that would tell us we have to go into a much deeper level of forensic examination."

The director of a state-run institution for the developmentally disabled in Baltimore County, where investigators discovered alarming neglect of its residents, will retire next month, officials confirmed yesterday. The Rosewood Center's director, James Anzalone, had been a state employee for 32 years. "I just received information from our Office of Human Resources that Mr. Anzalone has filed paperwork to retire from State service, effective November 1 of this year," state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokesman John Hammond wrote in an e-mail yesterday.

Leonard E. Albert, retired supervising budget manager for the Maryland Department of Budget and Fiscal Planning, died of lymphoma March 10 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Pikesville resident was 78. Mr. Albert was born in Baltimore and raised on Park Heights Avenue. He graduated from City College in 1943 and served in the Navy as a pharmacist's mate from 1945 to 1946. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1948 and an accounting certificate from the Baltimore College of Commerce in 1962.

Just weeks before Muhammad Zahid Iqbal's 5-year-old daughter, Eelaaf, was scheduled to have surgery to repair two dislocated hips, the Glen Burnie family received a letter from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that Eelaaf's health insurance was being eliminated. The family could not afford the estimated $20,000 for the procedure, and when Eelaaf developed asthma, Iqbal was forced to pay for an emergency room visit and medication that had previously been covered by insurance.

For the fourth consecutive year, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will introduce a slots proposal, this time as part of his 20-point legislative package, which includes a military retirement tax credit, medical malpractice legislation and a witness-intimidation bill, aides said yesterday. Although another defeat of slot machines, the governor's solution to school construction needs, could prove a liability in November's elections, Ehrlich is pushing for a plan anyway, saying competition from neighboring states, notably Pennsylvania, that have legalized slots would cost the state money.