Current

 2009- 2010 Efforts 

New Strategy to Expose Violations at Public Town Hall

 The best strategy was to talk publicly about MH civil commitment violations at Olympia’s Healthcare Reform Town Hall in August ’09 with Congressman, House RepresentativeBrian Baird.  With 300 flyers passed out, CCC exposed violations which challenged the mental health establishment’s claims.

Later, Carole requested Rep. Baird’s staff to join her along with four other MH advocates / activists to meet with members of Governor Gregoire’s staff. On September 30, 2009 the seven of us met after the CCC’s Kick-Off Rally.  At the meeting, Kari Burrell, Washington State Governor’s Executive Policy Advisor, agreed to ‘look into’ what DSHS-Department of Social and Human Services was doing to correct these violation problems. She requested that Carole provide her with her MH Recommendations from 1999 at their next appointment.  Unfortunately, Kari did not return calls or emails for months.

In the following four months Kari would not return phone calls or emails and it was not until mid-legislative session that Kari gave a presentation on the Legislative budget at ARC of Washington’s Disability Advocacy Day. Following Kari’s presentation, Carole and two disability leaders spoke with her and Kari finally decided to meet with CCC stakeholders.

In the next few months, the secondary objective of CCC’s campaign was to create a mechanism for MH system change and promote a re-vision of Carole’s old 2007 MH bill in order to introduce a new bill in 2010. It looks like there will not be a 2011 version of the bill without further coalition building efforts.

For information on a 2009/2010 bill on protection of rights for civil commitments Senate Bill SB 6807, go to:

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bills/Senate%20Bills/6807.pdf

2010 Efforts – Coalition Building Efforts

On June 9, 2010 seven MH activists met with Kari Burrell. Jim Gottstein, an Alaskan attorney with PsychRights, phoned in for an excellent discussion over due process violations and forced medication.  Gottstein mainly spoke from his published article:  Involuntary Commitment and Forced Psychiatric Drugging in the Trail Courts:  Rights Violations as a Matter of Course 2008.

June’s new participants were Toby Olson, Jim Morris, Tom Nogler, and Daniel Williams. The next step was to gather data on current violations, conduct fact finding efforts, and create a report. This report would then be presented to public officials, state legislators, the media, and to the general public.

Interestingly enough, Carole’s foresight to gain Kari’s approval for a Governor’s official conference call on mental health issues with Jim Gottstein, Alaska attorney with PsychRights, was an achievement in and ofitself considering new founded interest in Gottstein’s work as the group gladly listened to his many viewpoints on forced medications and due process violations.

For more information on the PsychRights website, go to:  www.PsychRights.org

‘Crossroad to Change Campaign’s YouTube Independent Media’

 ‘Crossroad to Change Campaign’s You Tube independent media filmed CCC’s stakeholders & current group’s participants immediately after our June 9,2010 appointment with the Washington State Governor’s Executive Policy Advisor for DSHS/MHD—Kari Burrell.

Since Kari had not allowed media coverage, Carole hired two independent media advocates from a local activist group to record statements following the meeting.  CCC’s 2010 – You Tube independent media taping of CCC seven stakeholders & participants from our June 2010 meeting includes:

  1. Toby Olson & Jim Morris (both with the Governor’s Committee on Disability Issues & Employment)
  2. Steve Pearce (Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights – WA)
  3. Anne Sunrise &  Carole Willey (healthcare advocates/activists)
  4. Tom Nogler & Daniel Williams (both from Media Island International)

An unexpected participant was Brian Sonntag, Administrator of the WA State Auditor’s Office, who spoke about auditing state contracts for mental health services.

2010 – CCC generates 2nd ‘You Tube Independent Media’ –  footage of the above most of the CCC stakeholders/ partners/ participants, go to:

Steve Pearce

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYzOTFF79mg

Ann Sunrise

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb39hXnFn8s

Brian Sontagg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul1va7TxLKw

Tom Nogler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYzOTFF79mg

Dan from the Lion’s Den

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3fpyZ0R3U

Carole Willey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0Eg0-0SXcE

(You Tube links above by Bethel Prescott)

Our historic meeting with Kari Burrell included leaders of our Disability Community, supporters of a statewide union of mental health workers union, and several mental health activists. This meeting was held to discuss civil commitment violations and created an opportunity for changing how our state officials and society views the following topics:

1.    fundamental rights of all Americans

2.    due process violations

3.    forced medication issues

Along with our featured guest Jim Gottstein, an Alaskan attorney, this group and the dynamic opportunity for state action had finally arrived.  Then, a golden opportunity appeared without warning, allowing for more gathering of facts.  The waiting game had finally ended.

Waiting Game begins in 2010

Two adults at Western State Hospital. She knew this would be the documentation she needed to finish her mental health advocacy work and end her 17-year legacy of bringing light to state inaction.

Last summer, Carole advised and educated two Vancouver families, both mothers of adult children who are in their late ‘20s.  Cindi and Eyta, the mothers of Sid and Emily respectively, wanted help advocating for the mental health rights of their children who had repeatedly been hospitalized at Western State Hospital.  After supporting and educating Cindi and Eyta, Carole knew that their cases would benefit the CCC and mutually benefit both Sid and Emily.

Quest for Fact Findings & Gathering of Current Data

Earlier in 2010, Jim Gottstein, an Alaskan Attorney who won forced medication cases in Alaska’s Supreme Court, contacted Carole Willey about two patients in Vancouver, WA.  Cindi Fisher’s son and Eyta Darguzhene’s daughter were at Western State Hospital (WSH) at different times and needed aid.   They did not get it from Disability Rights Washington and the Clarks County mental health ombudsperson and were desperate to find help.

Carole’s CC campaign offered the following assistance; emotional support, sharing MH system’s practice and procedure knowledge, helping develop advocacy / activism skills with Cindi & Sid Fisher, and trying to do coalition building for several months.  Carole called Cindi and suggested that she instruct both Sid and Emily to tell their Treatment Teams and their Psychiatrists daily that they want to be discharged and go home.

Out of all the active participants in the CCC over time, the most progressive and proactive were James Gottstein, attorney, and Robert Whitaker, author and journalist throughout 2010. Their efforts created the possibility for a favorable outcome for CCC.  In June, with both James Gottstein’s and Robert Whitaker’s support, CCC was hopefully ending the 17-year legacy with their assistance.

Summer 2010 Facts

On June 29, 2010, a Mind Freedom International (MFI) Alert Call for Action identified Emily Darguzhyte as being detained for nearly a year at Western State Hospital in Lakewood, WA near Olympia.

For more information on MindFreedom International, go to:   http://www.mindfreedom.org/

Cindi Fisher, author of the MFI Alert, mentioned that Eyta Darguzhene, Emily’s mother, needed help in Western Washington.  Crossroads to Change answered that call—Carole called Cindi to continue our campaign’s objective to prove these violations still occur by obtaining documentation.

To foster the Crossroads Campaign, Carole’s direct communication with Eyta was essential and helped CCC  prove to Governor Gregoire that these violations should be corrected with constructive action plan steps starting immediately.

For months, Olympia’s Medial Island International gave their full support to Carole for her campaign and its efforts to expose illegal violations of patient’s rights within the metal health system.

For viewing of CCC’s 3rd You Tube Independent Media footage by Cindi Fisher and Eyta Darguzhene, go to Media Island International’s link:

Video: of Carole’s Crossroads to Change Campaign education of Eyta & Cindi of the violations of civil rights violations in Washington State:

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/28/2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyvM0K1z-BI

“The Crossroads to Change campaign posted a video documenting the continuing detention of a young woman for so-called mental illness, which was approaching almost one year. Her mother and some support people are shown in the video approaching Western State Hospital to obtain the documents of her continuance, signed the very day her mother sat awaiting a hearing in vain (they lied and told her mother that her daughter had signed a voluntary commitment on herself, but that is not what the documents showed!).

You Tube link was provided by Drew Hendricks.

Hosted by Media Island International (MII), for more information about this Independent Media Center , go to: http://www.mediaisland.org/

Strategic Planning for CCC Paid Off:

This civil right violations campaign documenting proof of violations occurring in Washington since 1991 demonstrates that over time violations are only getting worse, with patients receiving no protection under both the US and WA ST Constitutions. With June and July’s action, Eyta Darguzhene & Cindi Fisher efforts to expose Emily’s violations led them to create mentalhealthrightsyes.org. In addition to the website, Cindi has begun speaking out about her son’s story, working mainly in the Vancouver area. Cindi and others are currently envisioning a reformed mental health system, inspired by an article written by Marsha Myers.

CCC’s two-year planning strategy has succeeded in compiling instances of the continuing violation of the civil rights of mental health (MH) patients within Washington State.

MH officials are impeding the protection of civil and human rights afforded to all Americans. Citizens continue to be inappropriately diagnosed with mental illness while receiving only allopathic medicine (western medicine using pharmaceutical drugs). The end result is that more people in crisis, with additional medical conditions, will end up in our psychiatric wards in unwarranted civil commitments and physical, chemical or nutritional restraints, sometimes experiencing unwarranted seclusion which creates or further exacerbates existing conditions.

In addition, on both the state and national levels, returning veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars will end up in either military or civilian psychiatric wards with grossly inadequate protection of their rights. They will also endure years of stigma due to PTSD and other mental traumas in the national mental health system.

For more information on civil commitment due process violations from James Gottstein published works, visit these active links on PsychRights website:

July  2010 – Two Events

Eyta Darguzhene & Cindi Fisher Efforts to Expose Current Violations

July 20, 2010

Eyta Darguzhene, Cindi Fisher, & I went to Western State Hospital (WSH) to film a review of Emily’s WSH’s Court Papers entitled: Petition for the Initial Detention (PID). The PID holds the Notice of Rights, which is very important for the inpatients to know some of their rights. The footage shows that WSH officials and court officials lied to Eyta & Emily on December 7, 2009 at the end of a 90-day detention. (Any updates here?)

With Carole’s assistance, Eyta and Cindi decided to form the Mental Health Rights YES! organization based in Vancouver, WA. Its goal is to provide families with MH advocacy help. For more information on their services and stories, go to:  http://www.MentalHealthRightsYES.org

Video: of Carole’s Crossroads to Change Campaign education of Eyta & Cindi of the violations of civil rights violations in Washington State:

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/28/2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyvM0K1z-BI

July 28, 2010

Eyta Darguzhene, Steve Pearce, and I met with Richard Kellogg, Administrator of four MH institutions, in which he told us he would look into Emily release and that he had planned to go WSH the next day and would talk to Jess Jamison, WSH Administrator.  It is important to note that Richard Kellogg granted another appointment.  Carole realized on this date that in the past twelve years state agency staff and administrators have in fact intentionally and purposely produced obstacles and barriers that hindered them from give rise to solutions of their bureaucratic-based tribulations.

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