Mentally Ill

A lot of people think the mentally ill are crazy, Susan Kadis says.She wants everyone to know they're not. Nor are they incompetent or incapable of participating in decisions affecting their lives, she says.Ms. Kadis speaks from experience: without a careful balance of daily drugs, she'd be subject to mood shifts that can take her, for no apparent reason, to the depths of suicidal despair.In spite of her illness, or perhaps because of it, she is herself an active member of several advisory boards for agencies that serve the mentally ill. She's also the project director of a three-year effort to teach other mentally ill citizens how to function on boards, commissions and task forces, how to testify at legislative sessions, and generally how to be effective in improving services to the mentally ill.Known as LEAP -- the Leadership Empowerment Advocacy Program -- this program was originally proposed by Maryland's Mental Hygiene Administration and is jointly funded by the state and the National Institute of Mental Health, at an annual cost of $13,200.

I cannot write this the way I want. Doing so would invade the privacy of too many people. But I can't be silent, either. Last week, you see, President Barack Obama spoke before a conference of mental health advocates at the White House. It is necessary, he said, to remove the stigma of mental illness and make sure "people aren't suffering in silence," that they know they are not alone but are supported by the rest of us as they face this challenge. It would seem a plain vanilla thing to say. But in this endless era of smash-mouth politics, nothing is plain vanilla anymore.

PEG BRIDGE'S son is 46 years old, lives in Howard County and suffers from mental illness. Perhaps it's no surprise that she's reluctant to share his name and other details about his life. Despite years of effort, a stigma clings to mental illness. But Bridge and others like her are working to erase that perception. Bridge, 74, of Elkridge was honored recently by Howard County for her work with the Howard County chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, an advocacy and support group.

Regarding your recent editorial on making it easier for families to commit a mentally ill relative to a mental institution against their will, Maryland's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and some state delegates apparently are missing the urgent need to clarify the state's civil commitment standards ("The tricky question of involuntary commitment," April 6). Many relatives of individuals with serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, recently testified about the consequences of the denying timely treatment under the current law. Those consequences include homicide, suicide, homelessness, job loss and permanent brain damage.

When psychiatric hospitals began emptying their wards of patients in the 1970s, families suddenly were faced with the terrifying task of helping loved ones suffering from complex and at times unpredictable illnesses.Many families felt isolated, not knowing how to care for someone tormented by voices, delusions or other symptoms of severe mental illness. Agnes B. Hatfield, a professor of education at the University of Maryland, recognized the difficulties and did something about it.She helped to organize the Montgomery County Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1978 and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI)

WASHINGTON -- The Andrea Yates trial taught us that earlier identification and treatment of mental illness might have prevented a tragedy of unspeakable horror -- that of a mother murdering her own children. Many people might be surprised to learn, though, that many mentally ill youths walk in and out of our juvenile courts without ever being noticed or treated. The problem is that few states take mental illness seriously, and most do not assess the mental health needs of juvenile offenders.

An Annapolis-based company specializing in the treatment of the mentally ill has opened its first Anne Arundel County facility in a Pasadena shopping center.American Day Treatment Centers, which now runs five facilities in Maryland, started accepting patients March 28 for intensive, daylong therapy. The center's official opening is Friday.Executive Director Heidi Katz said the center will specialize in short-term care for patients experiencing crises with depression or other serious mental problems.

A prominent psychiatrist called yesterday for more stringent controls over seriously mentally ill patients to minimize the risks of violence.In a lecture before the American Psychiatric Association, which concluded five days of meetings in Baltimore yesterday, E. Fuller Torrey, a psychiatric researcher at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, acknowledged that his views were not "professionally or politically correct."For too long, he said, psychiatry has bowed to the "civil libertarians," opening the way to avoidable acts of violence committed by a small portion of the mentally ill."

Had George F. Berry III been a child, the police would have been looking for him within hours after he was reported missing. A search also would have been conducted had he been an Alzheimer's patient who wandered from a nursing home.But Mr. Berry was neither a child nor an elderly person. He was a mental patient. When the 30-year-old man escaped over a fence at the Crownsville Hospital Center on July 10 -- a day so searingly hot that a person with fragile health could not be expected to last long -- no one even bothered to look.

Douglas C. Lewis, a program director for services for the mentally ill, died Thursday of complications of adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare genetic disorder, at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Baltimore. He was 36. For seven years, he worked with mentally ill patients at Prologue, a day treatment program in Pikesville. He was the program director and left in 1995 when his illness prevented him from working and he had to start using a wheelchair. An avid bird watcher, he then served as a volunteer tour guide at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel.

Amid growing concerns about the relationship between substance abuse and mental illness in children and adolescents, the Harford County Office on Mental Health will hold an educational town hall meeting for Harford County families and service providers. A panel of local experts on drug abuse, mental illness and suicide prevention will present information about recent trends and local resources. The town hall meeting, "Resiliency: Building a Path to Recovery for Children and Adolescents," is scheduled on Thursday May 2 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the William N. McFaul Activities Center.

As a recent letter to the editor noted, studies have shown that a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide, murder and accidents ("Arming school employees only raises danger," April 7). As a footnote to all the media coverage about the massacre that occurred in Newtown, Conn., it should be noted that had Adam Lanza's mother taken the precautions needed and necessary to having guns in her home with an unstable individual having access to them, just maybe this terrible shooting would not have occurred.

Some years ago, I was called by one of my patients who had just suffered severe rejection in a love relationship. She told me that she was on her way to buy a gun but thought she might call me first. I suggested that she come see me before she purchased a gun so we could talk it over. In the intense debate on gun violence and mental illness, with a focus on the extremely rare event of mass murders such as in Newtown, Conn., or Aurora, Colo., what is lost in the conversation and debate is the serious suicide epidemic we experience in the United States every year due to gun violence.

Your recent article about the difficulty college students have at campus mental health centers should be mailed to Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Association ("Students struggle for mental health services," March 8). Mr. LaPierre contends that all gun-control laws are ineffective and that the problem of gun violence can be solved simply by helping those with mental health problems. Yet the young woman in your article who tried to get help at the counseling center at the University of Maryland were turned away because the center, like so many others across the country, is understaffed and underfunded.

As someone who has struggled with mental illness for over 20 years, I could closely relate to Kevin Rector's article about students having difficulty finding and getting mental health services at their colleges and universities ("Students struggle for mental health services," March 8). I applaud this article, as it brings to light the real need for mental health services for college students. I was in the same boat, but I struggled alone. I relate to what many of the students in the article mentioned - a lack of information on mental health, the limited education of the professionals involved, trouble getting an appointment.

In the debate over gun control, the National Rifle Association and supporters of the status quo are dictating a narrative that insists what is important is not limiting the number of guns in our country but targeting the mentally ill as potential perpetrators of gun violence ("Guns and mental illness," Feb. 21). Rather than suggest that identifying mentally unstable people will enable us to control gun violence, I would argue that anyone who owns an assault weapon is, by virtue of that very fact, likely to be mentally ill themselves.

A fledgling group, dedicated to raising awareness of mental health issues, has revived a chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Carroll County.Most members are parents of teen-agers or young adults diagnosed with mental illness, and they guard their identities."Our main focus is to create a better atmosphere and improve the facilities offered in Carroll County," said Pam, the mother of an adult coping with depression. "These people are challenged enough with illness. They don't need to be challenged finding the help they need."

Bowing to pressure from some fellow Democrats in the legislature, Gov. Martin O'Malley has signaled a willingness to compromise on at least one element in the package of new gun restrictions he proposed in the aftermath of last year's school shooting in Newtown, Conn. And in a surprise, given the massive lobbying effort against his bill, the change actually makes it better. Aides now say the governor will support a provision to keep guns out of the hands of mentally ill people that is even tougher than one presently on the books.

There is still much we do not know about Dayvon Green, the University of Maryland, College Park student who police say fatally shot one of his roommates, Stephen Alex Rane, and seriously wounded another outside their off-campus apartment before taking his own life on Tuesday. Mr. Green, a promising graduate engineering student from the Baltimore area, reportedly was under treatment for mental illness, and though the precise nature of his condition has not been confirmed, investigators believe it may have been a factor in this horrible crime.