Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 9:51 PM
Subject: a letter to the editors/ please forward


http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=637305&category=&BCCode=&newsdate=11/8/2007


  a.. The father of a 13-year-old boy killed in state care last winter 
demanded an overhaul of New York's mental health care system today, accusing 
state agencies of cover-ups and pushing for new laws.


Sueing  for wrongful death is the right path.

For far too long mental health has not been subjected to health laws, but to 
the same separate but equal justice African Americans were forced to endure. 
Believing in your son's life, in my son's life, in everyone's son's life, 
that it had worth, sue.

And while you are at it ask editors about their use of the term "care" 
above, custody it was, "care" it was decidedly not.

And your own, "Speaking to reporters, Carey blasted a system he says does 
far too little to help those living in mental health facilities," confined 
there they are, living there? Your son is dead. He is by far not the first, 
nor will he be the last.

More Ameircans have died in mental institutions than the combined total of 
deaths in every war we have ever fought, from the Revolutionary war to the 
present.
  a.. Consider:

  In the 14-year period between 1950 and 1963, more American deaths occurred 
in state and county mental institutions than in all of the nation's armed 
conflicts beginning with the Revolutionary War and ending with the Persian 
Gulf War.

  Between 1965 and 1990, the total number of mental-hospital inpatient 
deaths exceeded the number of battle deaths in the same wars by 70 percent.

  Inpatient deaths topped out at 1,103,000 during this 25-year period, 
compared with 650,563 recorded deaths in battles. (Forgotten Dead of St. 
Elizabeths Magazine article by Kelly Patricia O'Meara; Insight on the News, 
Vol. 17, Aug. 6, 2001)

"Christine Pritchard, a spokeswoman for Gov. Eliot Spitzer, had no immediate 
comment on Carey's allegations. She did note that staffers from the Office 
of Children and Family Services are specifically trained to handle hot line 
calls." Please define "handle."

Harold A. Maio
Advisory Board
American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Board Member
Partners in Crisis
Former Consulting Editor
Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal
Boston University
Language Consultant
UPENN Collaborative on Community Integration
of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities
Home:
8955 Forest St
Ft Myers FL 33907
[log in to unmask]
239-275-5798


Your chances of winning a lawsuit are directly related to portrayals in the 
media. When they reflect the indifference of the state, in even one 
metaphor, your chances are lessened. 

www.peoplewho.org