Going Crazy in Alaska: A History of Alaska's Treatment of Psychiatric Patients

By Faith J. Myers

A history of Alaska's treatment of psychiatric patients and my journey to become a mental health advocate. With this book I am working towards improving the rights for psychiatric patients in Alaska.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098337049

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Faith J. Myers All Rights Reserved

Faith J. Myers, Anchorage, Alaska, USA

Print ISBN: 978-1-09833-703-2

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09833-704-9

Contents

Acknowledgments and Thanks

Preface

Becoming Disabled in Alaska Without Protection

First Rule of Medicine Do No Harm

Disabled psychiatric patients are not protected by Alaska’s current grievance procedure law

API: Hospital or Jail?

Out of the Norm

Advocacy Goals to help Patients

Advocacy Goals (Continued)

Becoming a mental health advocate; Part two

Acute Care Psychiatric Patients Vulnerable to Mistreatment

Acute Care Psychiatric Patients in Alaska are Mistreated

Incomplete Patient Rights

Inadequate Psychiatric Patient Rights

The Question no Government Agency in Alaska has wanted to ask:

Alaska’s Incomplete Plan to care for Disabled Psychiatric Patients

Under-reporting of Psychiatric Patient Mistreatment

Poster Child to illustrate mistreatment and vulnerability

Vulnerability of Psychiatric Patients

Mental Illness: A Shared Burden

Reference Information:

The Alaska Mental Health Court

Handcuffs, Transportation and Trauma

Homelessness, Mental Illness, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Connection

Myers v. Alaska Psychiatric Institute

PsychRights

Statistics are important to psychiatric patients but not to the state

Statistics are Important Continued

Shades of 1950

Psychiatric patient grievance rights Are controlled by the institutions

Laws that are putting disabled Psychiatric patients in harm’s way

Managers of Psychiatric Institutions left to Interpret AS47.30.840

Gender Choice for Intimate Care

Alaska Trauma Survivors Receive Inadequate Mental Health Services

Institution Re-traumatization; Underfunded Alaska Research

Trauma within the Psychiatric Setting

Limitations of hospital certification organizations to protect patients

Reference Information:

Design and Oversight Flaws at the New 120,000 Sq. Ft. API

Reference Information:

Privatization of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute

Privatization Continued

Psychiatric Hospitalizations and Alternatives

The Disability Law Center of Alaska

Reference Information:

The Alaska Mental Health Trust

History of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute

Excerpts from: A 10-Year History of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute 1962—1972

API—Then 1962 and Now 2020

The New Concept in mental health care As put forth by staff at API in 1962

The Alaska Mental Health Board

Suicide Prevention Council

Reference Information:

National Alliance on Mental Illness and NAMI Alaska

Reference Information:

Disabled Psychiatric Patients not informed of their Rights

Thirty Psychiatric Emergency Service Agencies approved by DHSS

If only life could be this simple

Do the Women Pine for Home?

Patient Mistreatment in Alaska

A version of this commentary appeared in the Anchorage Press May 18, 2016.

Alaska’s long-term plan to care for the Disabled is broken

Reference Information:

Public Service Announcement

Conclusion:

Acknowledgments and Thanks

My partner and friend, Dorrance Collins

Attorney, James Gottstein, President and CEO of Law Project for

Psychiatric Rights (PsychRights)

Aron Wolf, M.D.

Ann F. Jennings, Ph.D.

Disability Law Center,

David Fleurant

The Alaska Chapter of the National Alliance on the Mentally Ill

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority

The Alaska Mental Health Board

Former state Senator, Bettye Davis

The Department of Health and Social Services

My opinions and commentaries that appear in this book are not necessarily endorsed by everyone—Faith J. Myers.

Preface

Becoming a mental health advocate

My formative years from age 2 to 8 were spent in Thailand, 3 years in a Thai boarding school.

In 1999, as a 48-year-old grandmother, with an Associate’s Degree in Early Childhood Education, everything seemed fine. I did not smoke cigarettes, rarely drank alcohol, and I did not do illegal drugs. It was the luck of the draw I developed a severe mental illness.

For approximately 5 years, from 1999 to 2003, I was in and out of acute care psychiatric facilities or units and at times, homeless.

On seven occasions I ended up in a psychiatric facility, four times in a psychiatric evaluation unit and six times I was escorted to those facilities by the police in handcuffs. I was in crisis treatment centers three times. It was the indifference of my treatment and mistreatment that led me to become a mental health advocate.

Millions of dollars are spent by the Department of Health and Social Services and the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority to care for acute care psychiatric patients. But the clients are not being asked what they need for protection and recovery. For all intents and purposes, psychiatric patients in Alaska are without a voice.

The voice of disabled psychiatric patients can often only be found in statistics: number of injuries, complaints, the type of complaints, and the number of traumatic events. It will take dedicated organizations and individuals to give psychiatric patients that voice.

Becoming Disabled in Alaska Without Protection

A severe psychotic break, because of wild changes in a person’s behavior, often separates an individual from society, family and friends. That was my situation and eventually I ended up in a locked psychiatric institution.

I spent a Christmas, Easter and Valentine’s Day locked in a psychiatric facility. For most of the patients, there were no visitors. A highlight of one Easter, a Nurse brought in little bags of candy for each patient.

Psychiatric patients locked in an institution generally do not vote and do not contribute money to the local politicians and go mostly unnoticed. On the other hand, hospitals and hospital employee unions are well-known to politicians and too many of those organizations view psychiatric patients as a commodity.

Acute care psychiatric patients are one of the most vulnerable groups in Alaska, often alone and afraid. It would be in Alaska’s best interest to provide coping skills and proper care for psychiatric patients, free from unnecessary trauma and mistreatment.

Without Protection--It is my estimation that there are 10,000 psychiatric patients in Alaska each year that could be classified as acute care. In 2017 there were 754 patient complaints combined from 1 psychiatric hospital and 1 unit in Anchorage.

Psychiatric patients are told they have a right to file a grievance. But psychiatric patients are not told: the due process, the appeal process; not told they have a right to bring their grievance to an impartial body within a facility according to state law AS47.30.847. It is obvious why patients are not explained all their rights in a comprehensive way, because then they might actually use them.

First Rule of Medicine Do No Harm

As a mental health advocate, I believe well run locked psychiatric facilities are necessary. My struggle has always been to make psychiatric facilities in Alaska provide humane treatment, do no harm, and give individuals with a mental illness the best