Publishers….
In Dallas, that is, work out of some pretty serious digs.
Home after a bit of formal negotiation, will be back in AZ within one week to begin the dirty work.
paoloreed@gmail.com
Monday, October 29, 2012
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Faces of Deceit
This material draws in part on an article of the same title that was published on September 01, 2012.
"It's alright, as long as you get away with it."
SEE THESE FACES? THESE ARE TWO FACES OF DECEIT THAT HAVE BEEN LYING TO THE PUBLIC IN SOME OF THE MOST PROMINENTLY PUBLISHED NEWS STORIES IN THE WORLD OF LATE. IN MY OPINION, ANY FACE OF CORRUPTION AND UNTRUTH IS A HELL OF LOT MORE CLEAR TO THE OBSERVER THAN IT IS TO THE CRIMINAL'S SELF AWARENESS OF SUCH.
paoloreed@gmail.com
This material draws in part on an article of the same title that was published on September 01, 2012.
I saw it the eyes of the senior clinicians at The Arizona State Hospital, namely the two psychiatrist who were my primary care physicians during my thirteen full months of hospitalization there, Dr. Laxman Patel, and Dr. Pervaiz Ahkter, as well ASH's former Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Stephen Dingle (who has since been promoted!!!) and the Hospitals primary legal defender, Arizona Office of the Attorney General, Joel "the mortician" Rudd:
Clear and undeniable guilt, and blatantly obvious lack of ethical character that I have seen in the eyes and faces of wrongdoers since I was suffering abuse as a preadolescent. A skill, I reckon, learned by those of us who somehow managed to survive the trauma and psychological damage(s) done by people who have no concern whatsoever about the welfare of their own kin.
That said, I am now willing to remind my readers of this aspect of an article that I wrote and published on September 01, 2012, under the same title as I have used today: Faces of Deceit. I am willing, as such, because the intuitive sense that I have discussed above turned out to be 100% accurate in terms of the biggest sports scandal in today's popular press, and in reading the ongoing exposure of corruption in professional cyclings' heights ranking authoritative officials, I keep finding myself saying:
"This is literally, indescribably, and sickeningly on point with the shit that the rat bastards at ASH have been pulling off!"
"This is literally, indescribably, and sickeningly on point with the shit that the rat bastards at ASH have been pulling off!"
"It's alright, as long as you get away with it."
(David Walsh, LA Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong [2006])
Those exhibiting psychopathic behavior. "At the core of the psychopath is always a profoundly malignant narcissism," says Brian Russell, a clinical psychologist and attorney from Lawrence, Kansas. "They focus on what they need, and feel an entitlement to get what they need at the cost of anything to anyone else."
SEE THESE FACES? THESE ARE TWO FACES OF DECEIT THAT HAVE BEEN LYING TO THE PUBLIC IN SOME OF THE MOST PROMINENTLY PUBLISHED NEWS STORIES IN THE WORLD OF LATE. IN MY OPINION, ANY FACE OF CORRUPTION AND UNTRUTH IS A HELL OF LOT MORE CLEAR TO THE OBSERVER THAN IT IS TO THE CRIMINAL'S SELF AWARENESS OF SUCH.
IN CLOSING: My writing (for the most part) is now in pre-publication mode. Or, more succinctly, my work is now in the pre-editing phase of production (it is all pre-publication to me), and as per my associates in this process (as in, my sexy as hell but maddeningly stubborn agent, and the contact who hooked me up with her- my on again off again editor, "Dancing Bob"), who have directed me to keep a tight lock on anything that I may happen to produce in any fashion whatsoever until they get a look at it. (I'm all like "Even poetry? Damn!", and they're all like "Hell, yes! At least if it has anything to do with that goddamn hospital….") But that's how things are rolling for now, and I am ok with it.
In the meantime, please- in your own right- take action today in defense of the well being and care needs of each, every, any, and all of the patients still being subjected to the substandard mental-medical conditions to The Arizona State Hospital. Patient abuse is patently wrong as it is, but when you are talking about the seriously mentally disabled and highly vulnerable individuals hospitalized in Arizona's only long term public mental hospital, it becomes a matter of the most graphically inhumane misbehavior in modern American history. The administrators and senior clinicians at ASH are willfully engaging in ongoing violations of the protections afforded by state and federal law applicable to the patients at ASH, and they are getting away with it lock-stack-and barrel.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Dark Rainbow: Gotta' Love The Sound Of That For An FBI Investigation.
I have been providing all data and information relevant to my concerns about the extensive corruption in Arizona's public administration to each, every, any and all federal agency in the book for over six full months now, with a focus on material relating to those agencies or offices specifically assigned to overseeing the affairs of The Arizona State Hospital, such as The Department of Health Services Office of Grievances and Appeals, and the Office of the Arizona Attorney General. As the people across the nation are increasingly learning
more and more about Arizona's most scandalous decade in years via the popular press and even through the presence of relatively uncommon informational resources such as my blog, (and Arizona has a markedly dirty history in general, as all Americans know, so that's some mighty serious scandal to have to live up to), it is only a matter of time before the proverbial shit hits the fan, and I intend to be right there when it flies in the faces of the various individuals whom I have thus far identified in terms of my central concerns about ASH.
The only long term public mental health facility in the entire state of Arizona (ASH) has been operating a level of graphically substandard mental and medical health care for a very, very long time, which is nothing unique in terms of other like state managed (American) mental health facilities. From one state hospital to the next, across the board for the most part, federal authorities have always had to directly intervene- from time to time, throughout modern history- with any given state's authority over facilities such as ASH, and order the administrators of these facilities to get up to speed with established federal codes of patient care as these standards have evolved over the years. (To my knowledge, the last time that ASH was subject to federal intervention in this context was in the mid to late 1990s.)
And consistent with how state's oh-so typically react to such intervention, hospital administrators in mental facilities generally do nothing more than they absolutely have to, inching no more than they determine they absolutely must in order get out from under the applied federal oversight at that point in time (determinations established behind close doors and with the advice and consult of attorneys, e.g. state attorney generals, etc.). This pattern is no more brightly evident than in the case of state mental hospitals.
Why? I will tell you why: It is due to the simple fact that seriously mentally ill and disabled persons have little to no voice, particularly when they are hidden behind the fences and walls of a place like ASH- and the staff at ASH know it. They know this- that their actual clients are next to helpless in terms of meaningfully expressing themselves- and they feed on it. And in the case of the majority of ASH staff at this time, these basic features of character and professional immorality does- in fact- illustrate the exact sort of doctors and administrators who choose to work in places like ASH. I attest to this, as per my observations and experiences during thirteen full months of hospitalization at ASH.
Meanwhile, via the input of the goddamned attorneys, (men like Joel "the mortician" Rudd), and directly related exploitations of the bureaucratic entanglements by which the federal government involves itself in state affairs of this sort, hospital administrators far too typically fall immediately back into preserving the status quo and related substandard conditions that led to the federal governments intervention in the first place. This, again, is not unique in terms of the drawn out history of state mental hospitals, but in Arizona, it is standard practice. Absolute dereliction of duty and clear breaches of the public trust. All at the expense of Arizona's collective taxpaying citizens.
That said, in terms of the care needs and fundamental rights of the seriously mentally ill and disabled patients at ASH, I strongly feel that it is high time to stir up the pot again in the state of Arizona, and nothing short of federal intervention initiated and applied to the direct and immediate benefit of ASH' patients and their families will suffice at this time.
Dark Rainbow, by the way, was the file name created by and utilized in the FBI's recent investigation of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, who has by now fallen into a pattern of patently denying increasingly obvious wrongdoing on his part, which is just one more confirmation of how distorted the management of Arizona is today. Only in Arizona.
I am in the midst of balancing act of sorts right now, for there are several new developments in relation to my activities specific to this journal that need to be kept under wraps for a moment or two, but I will have new updates specific to the work that I and my associates have been engaged in of late. I can, however, confirm that I have established a reasonably firm working relationship with an editor, publishing house, and writing agent, and as of late last week, I am directly collaborating with a nationally syndicated reporting agency/staff (press). A manuscript, herein, is in formation.
IN CLOSING: The wheels are spinning, as such, but the patients at The Arizona State Hospital are still being subjected to the graphically illustrated ineptitude of every high ranking state employee directly involved with their care, which effectively means that the abuse is ongoing and that my work is far from done. I am no less compelled at this time to carry whatever momentum I have thus far generated to the virtual ends of the earth in this context than I was from that point in my experiences at ASH that I came realize- like a seven ton elephant squatting on my foot- that the clinicians and administrators at ASH are operating that facility at a level of grossly substandard mental-medical health care and practices- and they are getting away with it, day in and day out. With this fact in mind, and as one of my best friends put it the other day (an attorney whom I have been close to for over 30 years): Take no prisoners.
The Arizona State Hospital is the only long term public mental health facility in the entire state, and the administrators and senior clinicians there are engaged in ongoing violations of their obligations to the citizens of Arizona as a matter of standard practice. And as with any situation where you have an organization or agency directly responsible for the care of vulnerable persons, the worst consequences of this reality lands square on the heads of the seriously mentally disabled patients at ASH. Patient abuse is sickening to the conscience, highly illegal, and patently unacceptable to any moral person in America today. Please see my April 30, 2012 "Resource Ideas" article and do whatever you can today to support the rights and protect the care needs of ASH's patients today.
paoloreed@gmail.com
I have been providing all data and information relevant to my concerns about the extensive corruption in Arizona's public administration to each, every, any and all federal agency in the book for over six full months now, with a focus on material relating to those agencies or offices specifically assigned to overseeing the affairs of The Arizona State Hospital, such as The Department of Health Services Office of Grievances and Appeals, and the Office of the Arizona Attorney General. As the people across the nation are increasingly learning
more and more about Arizona's most scandalous decade in years via the popular press and even through the presence of relatively uncommon informational resources such as my blog, (and Arizona has a markedly dirty history in general, as all Americans know, so that's some mighty serious scandal to have to live up to), it is only a matter of time before the proverbial shit hits the fan, and I intend to be right there when it flies in the faces of the various individuals whom I have thus far identified in terms of my central concerns about ASH.
The only long term public mental health facility in the entire state of Arizona (ASH) has been operating a level of graphically substandard mental and medical health care for a very, very long time, which is nothing unique in terms of other like state managed (American) mental health facilities. From one state hospital to the next, across the board for the most part, federal authorities have always had to directly intervene- from time to time, throughout modern history- with any given state's authority over facilities such as ASH, and order the administrators of these facilities to get up to speed with established federal codes of patient care as these standards have evolved over the years. (To my knowledge, the last time that ASH was subject to federal intervention in this context was in the mid to late 1990s.)
And consistent with how state's oh-so typically react to such intervention, hospital administrators in mental facilities generally do nothing more than they absolutely have to, inching no more than they determine they absolutely must in order get out from under the applied federal oversight at that point in time (determinations established behind close doors and with the advice and consult of attorneys, e.g. state attorney generals, etc.). This pattern is no more brightly evident than in the case of state mental hospitals.
Why? I will tell you why: It is due to the simple fact that seriously mentally ill and disabled persons have little to no voice, particularly when they are hidden behind the fences and walls of a place like ASH- and the staff at ASH know it. They know this- that their actual clients are next to helpless in terms of meaningfully expressing themselves- and they feed on it. And in the case of the majority of ASH staff at this time, these basic features of character and professional immorality does- in fact- illustrate the exact sort of doctors and administrators who choose to work in places like ASH. I attest to this, as per my observations and experiences during thirteen full months of hospitalization at ASH.
Meanwhile, via the input of the goddamned attorneys, (men like Joel "the mortician" Rudd), and directly related exploitations of the bureaucratic entanglements by which the federal government involves itself in state affairs of this sort, hospital administrators far too typically fall immediately back into preserving the status quo and related substandard conditions that led to the federal governments intervention in the first place. This, again, is not unique in terms of the drawn out history of state mental hospitals, but in Arizona, it is standard practice. Absolute dereliction of duty and clear breaches of the public trust. All at the expense of Arizona's collective taxpaying citizens.
That said, in terms of the care needs and fundamental rights of the seriously mentally ill and disabled patients at ASH, I strongly feel that it is high time to stir up the pot again in the state of Arizona, and nothing short of federal intervention initiated and applied to the direct and immediate benefit of ASH' patients and their families will suffice at this time.
Dark Rainbow, by the way, was the file name created by and utilized in the FBI's recent investigation of Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, who has by now fallen into a pattern of patently denying increasingly obvious wrongdoing on his part, which is just one more confirmation of how distorted the management of Arizona is today. Only in Arizona.
I am in the midst of balancing act of sorts right now, for there are several new developments in relation to my activities specific to this journal that need to be kept under wraps for a moment or two, but I will have new updates specific to the work that I and my associates have been engaged in of late. I can, however, confirm that I have established a reasonably firm working relationship with an editor, publishing house, and writing agent, and as of late last week, I am directly collaborating with a nationally syndicated reporting agency/staff (press). A manuscript, herein, is in formation.
IN CLOSING: The wheels are spinning, as such, but the patients at The Arizona State Hospital are still being subjected to the graphically illustrated ineptitude of every high ranking state employee directly involved with their care, which effectively means that the abuse is ongoing and that my work is far from done. I am no less compelled at this time to carry whatever momentum I have thus far generated to the virtual ends of the earth in this context than I was from that point in my experiences at ASH that I came realize- like a seven ton elephant squatting on my foot- that the clinicians and administrators at ASH are operating that facility at a level of grossly substandard mental-medical health care and practices- and they are getting away with it, day in and day out. With this fact in mind, and as one of my best friends put it the other day (an attorney whom I have been close to for over 30 years): Take no prisoners.
The Arizona State Hospital is the only long term public mental health facility in the entire state, and the administrators and senior clinicians there are engaged in ongoing violations of their obligations to the citizens of Arizona as a matter of standard practice. And as with any situation where you have an organization or agency directly responsible for the care of vulnerable persons, the worst consequences of this reality lands square on the heads of the seriously mentally disabled patients at ASH. Patient abuse is sickening to the conscience, highly illegal, and patently unacceptable to any moral person in America today. Please see my April 30, 2012 "Resource Ideas" article and do whatever you can today to support the rights and protect the care needs of ASH's patients today.
paoloreed@gmail.com
Thursday, October 11, 2012
RERUN Brutal Discrimination: No Electric Wheel Chair For You, Audrey Peterson! Herein, only one more prime example of cold hearted cruelty and abuse at the Arizona State Hospital.
In the context of this issue being meaningfully addressed, I am willing to state my express desire that Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas be stripped of her medical license, for never have I witnessed so graphically inhumane treatment of a medical patient; and in the context of so unconscionable an action, nothing short of such a penalty will protect Arizona's citizens as whole. I have already pointed in out in other articles my concern about the fact that some of ASH's senior psychiatric staff acquired training in foreign nations where human rights and the most basic precepts of America's democratic values are literally non-existent, and no one psychiatrist at ASH more falls under this concern then Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas. She was both raised as well as educated in the Philippines, which as any reasonably aware person knows is a cultural setting where some of the most horrific abuses of human rights occurs, even today. I feel safe in assuming that this individual emerged out of a distinctly brutal ruling class during the Marcos era and martial law (1965-1986), and only relocated to the United States in order to avoid being held accountable under her now native society; which only furthers my worry about the safety of all/any persons forced to undergo treatment from her. And as this story proves, my concerns are legitimate to the nth degree.
BACKGROUND: For a period of no less than 9 years, the senior clinical staff at the Arizona State Hospital have denied a woman with no lower legs and only one arm access to an electric wheel chair. I contend that this grossly inhumane case has everything to do with the fact that at ASH, foreign trained psychiatrists form some of the most corrupt third world nations in existence today, and therein subject ASH's seriously mentally ill and disabled and patients to blatantly unlawful standards of care and treatment that fly in the face of common understandings of American democracy and international human rights.
Audrey Peterson's rights as a human being supersede the authority of any one person or representative staff at ASH or anywhere else in this nation. Bottom line.
ACTING ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
I first met Audrey Peterson at one of the outdoor patio tables on the patient mall within 5-7 days of my early January, 2011, arrival to the civil section of The Arizona State Hospital. It was an astounding introduction, in no small part due the the sickeningly pitiful sight of a woman with only one arm and no laser legs in a wheelchair that requires two arms to operate. Audrey is very polite and lucid patient, in my experience, and after basic niceties, we got around to asking each other somewhat inevitable questions regarding what led us to be hospitalized at ASH, and as it turned out, we both had a history of depression and potentially lethal attempts at suicide. I will just note that in this sense, Audrey and I were able to find solace in coming to know one another, and that is something I still appreciate today. Audrey then went on to the describe the fact that she had lain her body down on top of a major railroad track on the NW outskirts of Tucson after drinking an excess of alcohol, where she fell into a deep sleep, and that a train had come along at some point and run over both of her legs and one of her arms. A narrative possessing drama of this sort is bound to catch anyone's attention, and somewhat begs the question of how in the heck anyone could possibly survive an accident of this magnitude; and for this very reason, as we continued talking, it occurred to me that I actually recalled Audrey's story when it was reported in Tucson area newspapers. I was deeply moved by coming to meet this woman at the time (2011), whose near death had very much caught my attention at the time it occurred (2003-05 or so), both due to the drama of the tale, as well in the context of my own experiences in terms of attempted suicide and related behavioral characteristics.
I believe that it was in our initial conversation that I went on to ask Audrey Peterson how in the hell it could be that she didn't have an electric wheel chair, and she told me:
"My doctor won't allow me to have one."
I was so shocked to hear this addendum to her already tragic tale, that I found the claim audacious, and it is still somewhat beyond my sensibility and relative comprehension; it so shocked my sense of humanity at the time that I was initially unable to respond, in part because I simply could not believe what I was hearing. In order to clarify, I will just say that there are bound to be any number of goof-ball stories floating around a place like ASH (and I did hear my fair share of such), so I initially took Audrey's statements with an inevitable grain of salt.
I then asked Audrey if she had, in her own right, ever looked into getting an electric wheel chair, and she told she hadn't. This compelled me enough I decided to see what I could come up with, despite my relative skepticism at the time. I shared my intent with Audrey, including my knowledge of the fact that there are any number of resources in the public service arena dedicated to providing persons affected as Audrey is by extreme physical disability.
Under these terms, I also began asking patients and staff alike what they could tell me about Audrey Peterson's primary care physician Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas (a native Filipino woman who acquired her medical training in an unaccredited college there, her home country), because I most definitely sensed that something very unusual was going on in this given situation; and I realized, as well, that if I were to come to the conclusion that there was any merit to the allegation of this doctor's brutality, I was going to have to look into addressing that aspect of the issue at some point in time. Such is my nature, and I know that I am not unique, at least not in the greater American environment. But at ASH, such nuances of recognized civility simply do exist, and as I later came to learn, clinical wrongdoing of this nature is imparted on ASH patients as a matter of standard practice.
IN CLOSING: Audrey Peterson's rights as a physically disabled human being supersede the authority of any one person at ASH, bottom line. So here again, a clear cause for you to get involved. Please visit my April 30, 2012 "Resources Ideas" article and consider how to take action today. I also encourage you to contact the Arizona State Hospital at (602) 244-1331 in order to advocate for Audrey Peterson at this time. Defy the Arizona Department of Health's willingness to ignore this matter, and speak out against any statement(s) to the effect that granting this woman a powered wheelchair is against her welfare and interests as a patient there at ASH.
THIS IS A THIRD REPUBLICATION OF THE DETAILS UNDERLYING THE ABOVE ISSUE. WHEREIN, A PHYSICALLY DISABLED PATIENT AT THE ARIZONA STATE HOSPITAL HAS BEEN DENIED HER FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO ACQUIRE DEVICES THAT WOULD GREATLY IMPROVE HER QUALITY OF LIFE IN THAT SPECIFIC CONTEXT. AS ILLUSTRATED BELOW, THIS PATIENT'S PRIMARY ATTENDING PHYSICIAN, DR. RUBY RAMOS-ROXAS, WILLFULLY BLOCKED HER- A WOMAN WITH NO LOWER LEGS AND ONLY ONE ARM- ACCESS TO AN ELECTRONICALLY POWERED WHEELCHAIR, IN BRAZEN DEFIANCE OF THE FACT THAT SUCH A DEVICE HAD BEEN OFFERED TO THE PATIENT BY ONE OR MORE PUBLIC INTEREST RESOURCES DEDICATED TO PROVIDING SUCH PERSONS WITH TECHNOLOGY OF THIS KIND. TO DATE, I HAVE NO REASON TO BELIVE THAT THIS SITUATION HAS CHANGED, AND NOW THAT HEIGHTENED DIRECT ATTENTION IS BEING DIRECTED TO MY WRITING, I AM AGAIN GOING TO DO WHAT I CAN TO SEE THAT THIS ATROCIOUSLY INHUMANE ISSUE IS MEANINGFULLY ADDRESSED.
In the context of this issue being meaningfully addressed, I am willing to state my express desire that Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas be stripped of her medical license, for never have I witnessed so graphically inhumane treatment of a medical patient; and in the context of so unconscionable an action, nothing short of such a penalty will protect Arizona's citizens as whole. I have already pointed in out in other articles my concern about the fact that some of ASH's senior psychiatric staff acquired training in foreign nations where human rights and the most basic precepts of America's democratic values are literally non-existent, and no one psychiatrist at ASH more falls under this concern then Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas. She was both raised as well as educated in the Philippines, which as any reasonably aware person knows is a cultural setting where some of the most horrific abuses of human rights occurs, even today. I feel safe in assuming that this individual emerged out of a distinctly brutal ruling class during the Marcos era and martial law (1965-1986), and only relocated to the United States in order to avoid being held accountable under her now native society; which only furthers my worry about the safety of all/any persons forced to undergo treatment from her. And as this story proves, my concerns are legitimate to the nth degree.
BACKGROUND: For a period of no less than 9 years, the senior clinical staff at the Arizona State Hospital have denied a woman with no lower legs and only one arm access to an electric wheel chair. I contend that this grossly inhumane case has everything to do with the fact that at ASH, foreign trained psychiatrists form some of the most corrupt third world nations in existence today, and therein subject ASH's seriously mentally ill and disabled and patients to blatantly unlawful standards of care and treatment that fly in the face of common understandings of American democracy and international human rights.
Audrey Peterson's rights as a human being supersede the authority of any one person or representative staff at ASH or anywhere else in this nation. Bottom line.
Call ASH today (602)244-1331 and demand that Audrey Peterson be granted her full rights as a human being. Or better yet, share you awareness of this story with these guys. And be sure to mention the Americans Disabilities Act.
U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Main
Washington, DC 20530
ACTING ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
Jocelyn Samuels
Civil Rights Division (202) 514-4609
CENTRALLY INVOLVED ASH STAFF INCLUDE: DR. RUBY RAMOS-ROXAS, FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER DR. STEVEN DINGLE, AND SENIOR SOCIAL SERVICES REPRESENTATIVES.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discussion
So, here is a quick tale about one of the most horrifically disturbing things I experienced at the Arizona State Hospital (ASH), with added consideration that may very well relate to my sociological theories in this context. I had been hospitalized at ASH for maybe 2-3 weeks, when in early February, 2011, I met a very nice young woman named Audrey Peterson, who has been wheelchair bound since losing both of her legs and one arm in a near fatal train accident just NW of Tucson maybe 8-9 years ago. Audrey can be seen pretty regularly outside on the patient mall, struggling to push herself around with her one arm in a mechanical wheel chair. Without doubt, in terms of how unkindly some people treat others, this is one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in my entire life; and the given fact that I encountered this display of cruelty and neglect in a hospital setting, of all places, exceeds my capacities as a moral being. Such is the reality at The Arizona State Hospital, where anyone of reasonable conscience will notice a one armed woman (that's it, the one limb out of four)laboring away in a mechanical wheelchair, literally inching her way up and down the 1/4 mile long outside mall area- which is only partially paved- while able bodied staff and patients virtually blow by her at a full walking pace as though the woman doesn't even exist. In this undeniably shocking context, and on the basis of the fact that Ms. Peterson's mobility has been willfully restricted in defiance of applicable state and federal law, I attest to the fact that Audrey Peterson has, and until I hear otherwise, is still being criminally denied reasonable access to the vast majority of therapeutic and recreational resources available to other patients at ASH, subject as such to gross humiliation that cuts to the core of her fundamental human right to dignity, comfort, and well being.
Discussion
Full title
|
An Act to establish a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability
|
|---|---|
So, here is a quick tale about one of the most horrifically disturbing things I experienced at the Arizona State Hospital (ASH), with added consideration that may very well relate to my sociological theories in this context. I had been hospitalized at ASH for maybe 2-3 weeks, when in early February, 2011, I met a very nice young woman named Audrey Peterson, who has been wheelchair bound since losing both of her legs and one arm in a near fatal train accident just NW of Tucson maybe 8-9 years ago. Audrey can be seen pretty regularly outside on the patient mall, struggling to push herself around with her one arm in a mechanical wheel chair. Without doubt, in terms of how unkindly some people treat others, this is one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed in my entire life; and the given fact that I encountered this display of cruelty and neglect in a hospital setting, of all places, exceeds my capacities as a moral being. Such is the reality at The Arizona State Hospital, where anyone of reasonable conscience will notice a one armed woman (that's it, the one limb out of four)laboring away in a mechanical wheelchair, literally inching her way up and down the 1/4 mile long outside mall area- which is only partially paved- while able bodied staff and patients virtually blow by her at a full walking pace as though the woman doesn't even exist. In this undeniably shocking context, and on the basis of the fact that Ms. Peterson's mobility has been willfully restricted in defiance of applicable state and federal law, I attest to the fact that Audrey Peterson has, and until I hear otherwise, is still being criminally denied reasonable access to the vast majority of therapeutic and recreational resources available to other patients at ASH, subject as such to gross humiliation that cuts to the core of her fundamental human right to dignity, comfort, and well being.
(Note: this is not a photo of Audrey P.)
I first met Audrey Peterson at one of the outdoor patio tables on the patient mall within 5-7 days of my early January, 2011, arrival to the civil section of The Arizona State Hospital. It was an astounding introduction, in no small part due the the sickeningly pitiful sight of a woman with only one arm and no laser legs in a wheelchair that requires two arms to operate. Audrey is very polite and lucid patient, in my experience, and after basic niceties, we got around to asking each other somewhat inevitable questions regarding what led us to be hospitalized at ASH, and as it turned out, we both had a history of depression and potentially lethal attempts at suicide. I will just note that in this sense, Audrey and I were able to find solace in coming to know one another, and that is something I still appreciate today. Audrey then went on to the describe the fact that she had lain her body down on top of a major railroad track on the NW outskirts of Tucson after drinking an excess of alcohol, where she fell into a deep sleep, and that a train had come along at some point and run over both of her legs and one of her arms. A narrative possessing drama of this sort is bound to catch anyone's attention, and somewhat begs the question of how in the heck anyone could possibly survive an accident of this magnitude; and for this very reason, as we continued talking, it occurred to me that I actually recalled Audrey's story when it was reported in Tucson area newspapers. I was deeply moved by coming to meet this woman at the time (2011), whose near death had very much caught my attention at the time it occurred (2003-05 or so), both due to the drama of the tale, as well in the context of my own experiences in terms of attempted suicide and related behavioral characteristics.
I recall thinking: "Oh my god... She survived something like that, this person, who had chosen death over life, only to find herself left permanently maimed, yet still alive…"
I believe that it was in our initial conversation that I went on to ask Audrey Peterson how in the hell it could be that she didn't have an electric wheel chair, and she told me:"My doctor won't allow me to have one."
I was so shocked to hear this addendum to her already tragic tale, that I found the claim audacious, and it is still somewhat beyond my sensibility and relative comprehension; it so shocked my sense of humanity at the time that I was initially unable to respond, in part because I simply could not believe what I was hearing. In order to clarify, I will just say that there are bound to be any number of goof-ball stories floating around a place like ASH (and I did hear my fair share of such), so I initially took Audrey's statements with an inevitable grain of salt.
I then asked Audrey if she had, in her own right, ever looked into getting an electric wheel chair, and she told she hadn't. This compelled me enough I decided to see what I could come up with, despite my relative skepticism at the time. I shared my intent with Audrey, including my knowledge of the fact that there are any number of resources in the public service arena dedicated to providing persons affected as Audrey is by extreme physical disability.
Under these terms, I also began asking patients and staff alike what they could tell me about Audrey Peterson's primary care physician Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas (a native Filipino woman who acquired her medical training in an unaccredited college there, her home country), because I most definitely sensed that something very unusual was going on in this given situation; and I realized, as well, that if I were to come to the conclusion that there was any merit to the allegation of this doctor's brutality, I was going to have to look into addressing that aspect of the issue at some point in time. Such is my nature, and I know that I am not unique, at least not in the greater American environment. But at ASH, such nuances of recognized civility simply do exist, and as I later came to learn, clinical wrongdoing of this nature is imparted on ASH patients as a matter of standard practice.
I also had no grand visions of charitably saving the day Audrey- it simply seemed to be the least I could do under the circumstances, given Audrey's obvious hardship, and the fact that I had more than an ample amount of free time; I mean, it's not as though ASH patients are steeped in therapy, and on average, I had anywhere from 5-7 hours of free waking time on any given day to pretty much do whatever I wanted, in context. I thus took this unsettling body of concern with me into the patient library, where I came upon a public directory of resources for persons affected by disability in all contexts, and in that directory I came upon a section dedicated to the topic of wheel chairs. Within one hour I had drafted a straight forward cover letter (of inquiry) wherein I described the fact that I had a friend in the Arizona State Hospital who had a very real need for a electronic wheel chair, detailing Audrey's basic situation and the fact that she was limited to a mechanical wheelchair. As a matter of understanding patient confidentially and related hospital policy, I also made clear that I was not a doctor, and that I could have nothing more to do with the matter (beyond my initial letter of inquiry); and simply asked that anybody willing and able to help Audrey should feel free to to contact her treatment team there at the Hospital, including the name of Audrey's primary attending physician, Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas. I printed up copies of this simple one page inquiry and on April 8, 2011, mailed it to the following seven organizations:
1) Arizona Community Foundation, Phoenix, AZ
2) Margaret T. Morris Foundation, Prescott, AZ
3) Disability Funding News, Silver Springs, MD
4) Arizona Department of Economic Security, Phoenix
5) AZ Center for Disability Law, Phoenix
6) Friends of Disabled Adults and Children, Stone Mt. GA
7) Mobility International, USA, Eugene, OR
Audrey's
Current A Powered Chair
Current A Powered Chair
Chair
I fully explained to Audrey P. that I had put the letters into the mail, and I further explained to her that I was not going to be able to do anything beyond that, telling her to be sure and talk to her primary attending physician about it (Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas), and I expressed my relative confidence that her clinical treatment team would very possibly would be hearing from one or another of the seven resources that I sent the letter to. Audrey, in turn, was clearly appreciative of my action, but I explained to her that I had taken me less than 90 minutes of my time, and that the action should have been taken long before this. It was a very positive interaction at the time, and I knew that it boosted Audrey's spirit simply in the sense of friendship.
It was, indeed, a simple act of faith and decent courtesy. I recall being bothered by the attendant fact that somebody else hadn't already gone about dong this, chocking the situation up to the basic bizarreness ASH, which I had already struck me in a small variety of ways. I had little idea, however, of how out of touch with reality the caregivers at ASH are, in fact, or of what I was getting into via this arguable simple act of kindness.
On April 22, 2011, I asked Audrey if there had been any developments, and she told me that her primary attending physician, Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas, was angry at her, for a reason that Audrey could not grasp; and angry at me, too, for "interfering" with Audrey's treatment. Needless to say, this shocked me (yet again), so I asked a member of ASH staff who I knew for a fact held a position on Audrey's treatment team there at ASH about the matter, and she told me that Audrey's claim was true! This staff person further informed me that several of the contacts I had made had been in touch with Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas as a matter of offering to help Audrey P. acquire an electronic wheel chair of her own, but Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas had literally discarded these good faith responses into the nearest trash can, stating to Audrey in full presence of Audrey's entire treatment team, that my attempts to contact the involved resources on Audrey's behalf was in violation of hospital policy. I attest to this conversation, and can and will identify the staff member when the time comes, as she had already agreed to cooperate with any investigations into this matter. This same staff person also informed me that Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas' position on the issue was that ASH had provided Audrey P. with two prosthetic legs and one prosthetic arm, and that if Audrey was not willing to take the initiative to learn how to use the prosthetic devices, she has no right to an electric wheel chair.
"Why not just take her mechanical wheelchair away while you are at it, Dr. Ruby Ramos-Roxas?!! We don't want Audrey getting away with anything, do we?"
It is common knowledge that psychiatric care and related treatment relies on sound communication. In this context, many people refer to the field of psychiatry as somewhat of an art, and I have come to wholeheartedly agree with that idea, because the fundamental elements of trust and reliability necessary to carry on a healthy psychiatric relationship flow from the critical one on one patient to doctor interactions that underlie such treatment. At ASH, however, it was apparent to me rather quickly that my primary attending physician(s) did not give a rat's ass whether I trusted them or not, because to most of the clinical staff at ASH, the relationship is purely about power, and the doctors wield a peculiar authority that's only granted to them through their relatively unique positions at the Arizona State Hospital.
Anybody familiar with the history of state operated mental hospitals knows how graphically inhumane such facilities are known to be, this as per established history, as well as in terms of the fact that seriously mentally ill persons across the board are still today subject to gross discrimination and mistreatment. So it is no surprise to many contemporary Americans that the conditions at ASH fall short of standard care and treatment, including in terms of my own attempts in recent years to advocate on behalf of the ASH patent community. I contend via my very real experiences at ASH, that such facilities are breeding grounds for abuse and related substandard care providers, for I witnessed and was subjected to it on a regular basis.
Abuse and malpractice as a matter of standard practice.
I further attest that it is terrifying to experience this sort of mistreatment, particularly if you are a person affected by childhood trauma and other like characteristics specific to the issue of mental and emotional instability, as I am. What's most shocking to me, even today, is knowing as I do that the senior ASH psychiatrists I interacted with, from the four primary attending psyche docs assigned to me during my 13 full months at ASH- Laxman Patel, Pervaiz Akhter, Lynn Lydon, Slvia Dy- to ASH's chief medical officer at the time, Dr. Stephen Dingle- posses little to no evident awareness of how grossly egregious their given misconduct is, in fact.
Anybody familiar with the history of state operated mental hospitals knows how graphically inhumane such facilities are known to be, this as per established history, as well as in terms of the fact that seriously mentally ill persons across the board are still today subject to gross discrimination and mistreatment. So it is no surprise to many contemporary Americans that the conditions at ASH fall short of standard care and treatment, including in terms of my own attempts in recent years to advocate on behalf of the ASH patent community. I contend via my very real experiences at ASH, that such facilities are breeding grounds for abuse and related substandard care providers, for I witnessed and was subjected to it on a regular basis.
Abuse and malpractice as a matter of standard practice.
I further attest that it is terrifying to experience this sort of mistreatment, particularly if you are a person affected by childhood trauma and other like characteristics specific to the issue of mental and emotional instability, as I am. What's most shocking to me, even today, is knowing as I do that the senior ASH psychiatrists I interacted with, from the four primary attending psyche docs assigned to me during my 13 full months at ASH- Laxman Patel, Pervaiz Akhter, Lynn Lydon, Slvia Dy- to ASH's chief medical officer at the time, Dr. Stephen Dingle- posses little to no evident awareness of how grossly egregious their given misconduct is, in fact.
In this specific context, I contend the senior psychiatric clinicians at ASH are due serious oversight and related accountability as licensed medical doctors, public health care employees, and persons granted authority over persons affected my serious mental illness and disability. I know that I am risking my own sense of decency when I declare that at least some of these doctors reflect behavioral shortcomings that have everything to with where they come from, but in truth, I see little other option in terms of seeking a basic understanding of how and why persons in these positions could be so radically out of touch with their obligations and responsibilities. I do in fact cite the lack of relationship with common human rights because even today, the nations of Pakistan (Akhter), the Philippines (Ramos-Roxas, Dy), and India (Laxman Patel- who is now ASH's chief medical officer) are known as being dismally effected by human rights abuse in all senses; and I cite a similar disconnect from common precepts of democracy on the basis of the fact that those same countries are anything but democratic. I attest to having been subjected to clear exhibitions of these dynamics- fundamental human rights abuses, rejections of applicable/required democratic protocol, at various points in my time at ASH, in a range of circumstances- and I can prove it.
 | |
Full title
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An Act to establish a clear and comprehensive prohibition of discrimination on the basis of disability
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I don't know quite else to say about this horrific story. But I am of the opinion that any man or woman willing to deny Audrey Peterson the fullest comforts available to her as a physically disabled person is a criminal. As always, I will attest to the validity of my experiences in this case, in support of my current sentiments as they stand, and I do so in good faith, on behalf of each and every patient still being subjected these conditions there at ASH.
And as stated, anybody who has spent much time at ASH has seen my friend Audrey Peterson trying to push herself with only her one arm, moving slower than cold maple syrup in her mechanical wheelchair, while ASH staff as a group turn a blind eye to the issue. It as shocking a display of inhumane treatment as I have ever witnessed, and know that many of my readers would agree. Depravedly substandard medical-mental health care, and they are getting away with it every day. This is occurring at the expense of Arizona's taxpayers, and to the deep detriment of ASH's seriously mentally ill and disabled patients.
IN CLOSING: Audrey Peterson's rights as a physically disabled human being supersede the authority of any one person at ASH, bottom line. So here again, a clear cause for you to get involved. Please visit my April 30, 2012 "Resources Ideas" article and consider how to take action today. I also encourage you to contact the Arizona State Hospital at (602) 244-1331 in order to advocate for Audrey Peterson at this time. Defy the Arizona Department of Health's willingness to ignore this matter, and speak out against any statement(s) to the effect that granting this woman a powered wheelchair is against her welfare and interests as a patient there at ASH.
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Saturday, October 6, 2012 RE: OAH Case #2012c-BHS-0338-DHS The Evolution Of A Grievance.
This a rerun of an article written almost four months ago. I am adding it to this weeks articles because I just got done reading through administrative law Judge Kay Abramsohn's ruling and recommendation specific to when the issues underlying the above case #2012c-BHS-0338-DHS were presented to her at hearing on July 16, 2012. In sum, the judge chose to dismiss my concerns as unsubstantiated, this despite a substantial body of evidence that included lengthy testimony from a very experienced and highly reputable human rights advocate and expert witness, John Gallagher (now a doctoral candidate in ASU's social work program), and a reasonable amount of well founded documentation in support of my central allegations in the case. Hardly a surprise and only somewhat disappointing, this dismissal (for it only further confirms the unbalanced and grossly inequitable state of affairs specific to the grievance process that I am dedicated to reforming), but it is not over yet. I have at least three immediate options, and in the next few days, I will counsel the matter with my associates, and make a decision as to what comes next within a week or two.
THIS IS AN ONGOING ARTICLE THAT BEGAN LESS THAN 24 HOURS AGO (SEE "RE: ADHS ADHS/DBHS OGA Docket #H090611S0009), AND RELATES TO AN APRIL 09, 2012, ARTICLE ("FACTS OF LIFE #1-4"), AND EVENTS THAT OCCURRED BEGINNING ON MAY 25, 2011, AND EFFECTIVELY CONCLUDING ON MAY 29, 2011.
Long term chronic depression is a bitch no matter who you are. I skated along on the peripheral aspects of its worst impacts for well over 30 years, which doesn't say much about the given severity of the condition, as much as it does about my ability to dodge bullets, as it were. While still a preadolescent member of my family, which effectively went from being that- a family- to a residue of sorts in less then 2 years (for myself, between the age of 11-13), I began experiencing a sense of isolation even when in the thick of school and/or in other like social settings; a sense of isolation, or "otherness" (for lack of a better word), so intense that I began seriously pondering the meaning of existence when I was 13, or so. I had lost an older brother to accidental overdose by then, and my father had also died in unexpected fashion when I was ten; and I distinctly recall a sort of knowing, in the next couple of years, that all I had to do to reunite with them was direct myself to death on my own terms. As such, the fundamental reality that suicide is an option set in while I was pretty young, and I even came close to attempting suicide on at least one occasion, when I was 14 years old and experiencing severe psychological abuse imposed upon me by my alcoholic mother, who went through very tough patch of life in own right during those years. I never really concerned myself with the ramifications of these matters at the time, as I had no one to turn to, and had to rely instead on a developing resilience that eventually carried me on and well into my adult life with little to no critically alarming life events. Or so I thought, and it took my first psychiatrist, in May, 2010, to alert me to the simple fact that anytime a 14 year old child seriously considers suicide, something is critically amiss in the emotional and psychological realm of that kids' mind and body.
So far as my vivid recollections of childhood go, particularly with respect for suicidal thinking, I have determined by now, after years (literally!) of formal hospitalization in certified insane asylums, that I possess a keen sense of self awareness, and that in direct combination with related observational skills, I recall these things as if not more clearly than most people do their own respective childhood years; this fact was affirmed and reaffirmed by several of my therapists between 2010-2012, and these residual memories have long fostered my deepest sense of identity as it stands even today.
Later in life, when I was a full on teenager, my bouts of depression occurred almost subtly; I was also an active user of marijuana by the time I was 17, which definitely served to lessen the impact of my lows; and straight out of high school I pursued such goals as dedicated ski bumming and long distance trail running in the northern Rockies (which is basically a really fun lifestyle); while all through my twenties, I was a committed high level bicycle racer, which also immersed me in so pleasurable a day to day existence that my depression was almost like a relative sleeping in the guest room of my mind. Again, I recall these periods of my life quite clearly, and through it all, I always knew that the time would come in my life when I would be faced with the "hunger" that I had first experienced at the age of 12 or so. For depression is something akin to hunger, in my opinion today, a wanting of sorts that exists on the basis of unavoidable interests in things not defined by commonly understood lines of self awareness.
My most seriously debilitating encounters with major
depression began kicking in when I was in my mid-thirties, married, attending college on a full time basis, and addicted to alcohol for the first time in my life. I was married to a very nice woman, and throughout all of it, I managed to do exceptionally well in school, which I basically attribute to my given maturity and related experiences in the blue collar working world. But I was also falling into marked patterns of withdrawal from my immediate surroundings, and at least on of my ASH psychotherapists, a very nice young man named Dr. Holmes, concluded that I may have experienced minor to moderate schizoidism (which is characterized by emotional aloofness and solitary habits). It was a strange period in my life (1995-2006), at times intense and satisfying, at times very difficult and almost crippling, but I tried to hang in there, and was far too proud to ask for help. The marriage crumbled and finally imploded entirely in 1999, and by the time I was in the second year of my scholarship funded legal education at The James Rogers College of Law in 2003 (University of Arizona, Tucson), I had lost the bulk of whatever tenacity I'd once had in terms of managing my emotional/mental well being in the face of chronic depression. It was seemingly rapid, my eventual collapse into madness, but I know now that all I was really up to for all those years was dancing around and away from my inevitable return to suicidal ideation. And I did, finally, give up avoiding the depths of my inner self in 2006 (during the spring of which I seriously attempted suicide for the first time), finally arriving at the terminus of a long, slow burning process of coming home, as it were, to my preadolescent desire to go, go, go away, and never look back.
Hence, my arrival in the shit hole known as ASH. When I had first settled into my new "life" as a possibly long term mental patient in Tucson, May, 2010, I was both cynical to a point of feeling that no man would ever be able to convince me of why I should choose life over death, as well as vastly departed from the sentient realities of my professional training and other life experiences. But these specific traits of my disorder subsided somewhat over the course of my first six months in-hospital (an acquired state of balance that I attribute to the good doctors and and staff at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, as well as to my therapist as St. Mary's Hospital, Shari Healey); and when I arrived at ASH on January 11, 2011, I was feeling relatively centered, at least in terms of what I felt I needed to do as a patient, with both my own treatment goals in mind as well as what I fairly felt I could expect from my caregivers.
These aspects of my progress as a patient to that date evaporated just about as soon as I arrived at ASH, however, in part due to the theft of my personal property as soon (literally) as I got there (see May 02, 2012 "Summary"), but more significantly due to the meanness of Ash staff, including a really nasty old white haired nasally voiced bitch of a charge nurse named Peggy, who tried to sink her psychologically abusive talons into my sense of peace and mind as a new patient on the Paolo Verde East unit on my third night there. It was as though all of the earlier assurances of the mental health community had been pissed on, and the hand offered to me through months of good faith therapeutic interaction had been jerked way, encouraging me to fall back into the despair of my mental illness' worst manifestations. Therein, my experiences at ASH from the get go were pretty much downhill; over my first 2-4 months in that accursed facility I increasingly found myself in conflict with abusive staff technicians and nurses and the related incompetence of my first primary attending physician, Dr. Laxman Patel, (who chastised me for voicing concern over the patient abuse that I was witnessing and experiencing first hand), and I also began to learn about the extent of administrative shortcomings at ASH. It was disturbing and unsettling to such an extent that my relative stability obviously deteriorated as a direct consequence of the substandard practices at ASH.
By the time I met the human rights advocate, John Gallagher, in late spring, 2011, I was neck deep in an unexpected recurrence of a seemingly permanent state of despair that had settled in when I first entered the psyche wards in 2010, (a "recurrence", or backward plunge, that I fully attribute to the close mindedness and related incompetence of administrative staff at ASH, such as the patient advocate, Sonya Serda), a phase of time wherein I actively compromised my absolute willingness to allow suicide to settle my affairs by opting, instead, for a dedicated and good faith exploration of whatever the mental health professionals in the psychiatric hospitals could offer someone like me. At ASH, my sense of choice (vs. my appreciation for my treatment) began to dictate the situation, and to someone like me, suicide is always an option; I was thus led into reconsidering my initial commitment to remain honest with my caregivers at all costs. There is a thing in the psyche wards known known as "contracting for safety", wherein a patient such as me is asked to promise the staff that I won't commit suicide (or otherwise hurt myself) on the basis of good faith trust. But at ASH, I encountered staff who made it very clear to me that my diagnosis as a chronically suicidal patient was not something they gave a rat's ass about, individuals who overtly suggested through their actions that I would do them all a favor if I were to crawl into a hidden corner and die. So the merits of contracting for safety sort of petered out on the basis of me learning the hard way that ASH staff can't be trusted in any sense of the word.
I felt duped, for I had clearly been lied to more than once by staff, and I had been demeaned, graphically insulted, and verbally abused; and in seeing brutal forms of psychological abuse imparted on some of my most vulnerable peers, my cynicism about my own species flared up so strongly that I began developing the first signs of deep distrust for the ones assigned to care for me. Why would any reasonably sound mind want to "contract" with people like them? This, the gist of ASH' most depraved staff members, people who quite clearly don't value the primary objectives of standardized mental health care and treatment.
Below are several key pages from the grievance document that John Gallagherof the ADHS Office of Human Rights assembled on my behalf, pages that represent the sorts of training I had been involved with as a legal professional, and which, as such, served to point me in the direction I am in today, fighting as I am for the rights and needs of ASH patients as they stand today. Note, if you will, that there are at least six specific violations of law cited, statutory law relating to my fundamental rights as a client and human being that directly flows from the text and and language of theArizona Administrative Code, Article 9, Chapter 21, sections 201 and 202. The incidents of wrongdoing evidenced by these violations are broad, and yet well detailed, for as I said at the outset of this article, there is an easily accessible body of comprehensible rules and regulations applicable to this matter. Unless you are a patient at ASH, that is, are they easily accessible.
Note, as well, that details included below in the Conclusion clearly identify Cindy Froelich, an employee of the Arizona Attorney General's Office (at least to the extent that in her capacity as a secretary in the ASH' legal office, Cindy Froelich works directly under the authority of assistant AZ Attorney General Joel "the mortician" Rudd.), as an immediate party to the grievance's central elements of allegation. Therein, the basis of my firm rejection of having Joel Rudd and the Office of Arizona Attorney General in any way involved as the representative counsel for the appellee in this case; for indeed, Joel Rudd and Cindy Froelich engaged in some of the most critically unlawful actions taken against me in this matter, between the dates of May 25-29, 2011. They willfully abused their given authority and manipulated public resources in terms of creating a frailly long and technical court document, which was a blatant waste of taxpayer money as well as a severe threat of to my status as a patient-client status at that time.
Finally, on the last page below, please see the suggested Solution that John Gallagher carefully crafted in order to bring about a reasonable resolution to the matter at hand. This is an especially important aspect of the document, for therein one sees nothing more complex than a straightforward and good faith request for reasonable oversight of the issues raised in this matter. Especially important today, because of the basic fact that ASH' and ADHS's blatant refusal(s) to cooperate in this matter graphically represents the endemic problems underlying the administrative abuses that I have worked to make clear in my writing. These people have no interest whatsoever in meaningfully responding to patient concerns, particularly not if and when those concerns directly involve allegations of patient abuse and staff misconduct. As follows:
This a rerun of an article written almost four months ago. I am adding it to this weeks articles because I just got done reading through administrative law Judge Kay Abramsohn's ruling and recommendation specific to when the issues underlying the above case #2012c-BHS-0338-DHS were presented to her at hearing on July 16, 2012. In sum, the judge chose to dismiss my concerns as unsubstantiated, this despite a substantial body of evidence that included lengthy testimony from a very experienced and highly reputable human rights advocate and expert witness, John Gallagher (now a doctoral candidate in ASU's social work program), and a reasonable amount of well founded documentation in support of my central allegations in the case. Hardly a surprise and only somewhat disappointing, this dismissal (for it only further confirms the unbalanced and grossly inequitable state of affairs specific to the grievance process that I am dedicated to reforming), but it is not over yet. I have at least three immediate options, and in the next few days, I will counsel the matter with my associates, and make a decision as to what comes next within a week or two.
SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 2012 (RERUn)
Wherein, following over one full year of systematic suppression of my right to due process in relation to a criminally imposed sequence of administrative abuse of authority at The Arizona State Hospital, I prepare to go to hearing.
THIS IS AN ONGOING ARTICLE THAT BEGAN LESS THAN 24 HOURS AGO (SEE "RE: ADHS ADHS/DBHS OGA Docket #H090611S0009), AND RELATES TO AN APRIL 09, 2012, ARTICLE ("FACTS OF LIFE #1-4"), AND EVENTS THAT OCCURRED BEGINNING ON MAY 25, 2011, AND EFFECTIVELY CONCLUDING ON MAY 29, 2011.
I owe John Gallagher of the Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Human of Rights (ADHS OHR) an enormous amount of gratitude. His compilation of directly applicable statutory facts in terms of the numerous unlawful actions imposed on me in specific relation to this matter opened my eyes to the reality that The Arizona State Hospital is highly regulated by a fairly comprehensible body of easily accessible rules and regulations. Er, law and policy, that is, and given my background in law,John Gallagher inadvertently, yet directly, contributed to putting me back on track with my deepest convictions as a man in such a manner as to furthermore revive my familiarity with something that I put a fair amount of time and energy into, albeit in what seems to me as another life.
Long term chronic depression is a bitch no matter who you are. I skated along on the peripheral aspects of its worst impacts for well over 30 years, which doesn't say much about the given severity of the condition, as much as it does about my ability to dodge bullets, as it were. While still a preadolescent member of my family, which effectively went from being that- a family- to a residue of sorts in less then 2 years (for myself, between the age of 11-13), I began experiencing a sense of isolation even when in the thick of school and/or in other like social settings; a sense of isolation, or "otherness" (for lack of a better word), so intense that I began seriously pondering the meaning of existence when I was 13, or so. I had lost an older brother to accidental overdose by then, and my father had also died in unexpected fashion when I was ten; and I distinctly recall a sort of knowing, in the next couple of years, that all I had to do to reunite with them was direct myself to death on my own terms. As such, the fundamental reality that suicide is an option set in while I was pretty young, and I even came close to attempting suicide on at least one occasion, when I was 14 years old and experiencing severe psychological abuse imposed upon me by my alcoholic mother, who went through very tough patch of life in own right during those years. I never really concerned myself with the ramifications of these matters at the time, as I had no one to turn to, and had to rely instead on a developing resilience that eventually carried me on and well into my adult life with little to no critically alarming life events. Or so I thought, and it took my first psychiatrist, in May, 2010, to alert me to the simple fact that anytime a 14 year old child seriously considers suicide, something is critically amiss in the emotional and psychological realm of that kids' mind and body. So far as my vivid recollections of childhood go, particularly with respect for suicidal thinking, I have determined by now, after years (literally!) of formal hospitalization in certified insane asylums, that I possess a keen sense of self awareness, and that in direct combination with related observational skills, I recall these things as if not more clearly than most people do their own respective childhood years; this fact was affirmed and reaffirmed by several of my therapists between 2010-2012, and these residual memories have long fostered my deepest sense of identity as it stands even today.
Later in life, when I was a full on teenager, my bouts of depression occurred almost subtly; I was also an active user of marijuana by the time I was 17, which definitely served to lessen the impact of my lows; and straight out of high school I pursued such goals as dedicated ski bumming and long distance trail running in the northern Rockies (which is basically a really fun lifestyle); while all through my twenties, I was a committed high level bicycle racer, which also immersed me in so pleasurable a day to day existence that my depression was almost like a relative sleeping in the guest room of my mind. Again, I recall these periods of my life quite clearly, and through it all, I always knew that the time would come in my life when I would be faced with the "hunger" that I had first experienced at the age of 12 or so. For depression is something akin to hunger, in my opinion today, a wanting of sorts that exists on the basis of unavoidable interests in things not defined by commonly understood lines of self awareness.My most seriously debilitating encounters with major
depression began kicking in when I was in my mid-thirties, married, attending college on a full time basis, and addicted to alcohol for the first time in my life. I was married to a very nice woman, and throughout all of it, I managed to do exceptionally well in school, which I basically attribute to my given maturity and related experiences in the blue collar working world. But I was also falling into marked patterns of withdrawal from my immediate surroundings, and at least on of my ASH psychotherapists, a very nice young man named Dr. Holmes, concluded that I may have experienced minor to moderate schizoidism (which is characterized by emotional aloofness and solitary habits). It was a strange period in my life (1995-2006), at times intense and satisfying, at times very difficult and almost crippling, but I tried to hang in there, and was far too proud to ask for help. The marriage crumbled and finally imploded entirely in 1999, and by the time I was in the second year of my scholarship funded legal education at The James Rogers College of Law in 2003 (University of Arizona, Tucson), I had lost the bulk of whatever tenacity I'd once had in terms of managing my emotional/mental well being in the face of chronic depression. It was seemingly rapid, my eventual collapse into madness, but I know now that all I was really up to for all those years was dancing around and away from my inevitable return to suicidal ideation. And I did, finally, give up avoiding the depths of my inner self in 2006 (during the spring of which I seriously attempted suicide for the first time), finally arriving at the terminus of a long, slow burning process of coming home, as it were, to my preadolescent desire to go, go, go away, and never look back.Hence, my arrival in the shit hole known as ASH. When I had first settled into my new "life" as a possibly long term mental patient in Tucson, May, 2010, I was both cynical to a point of feeling that no man would ever be able to convince me of why I should choose life over death, as well as vastly departed from the sentient realities of my professional training and other life experiences. But these specific traits of my disorder subsided somewhat over the course of my first six months in-hospital (an acquired state of balance that I attribute to the good doctors and and staff at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, as well as to my therapist as St. Mary's Hospital, Shari Healey); and when I arrived at ASH on January 11, 2011, I was feeling relatively centered, at least in terms of what I felt I needed to do as a patient, with both my own treatment goals in mind as well as what I fairly felt I could expect from my caregivers.
These aspects of my progress as a patient to that date evaporated just about as soon as I arrived at ASH, however, in part due to the theft of my personal property as soon (literally) as I got there (see May 02, 2012 "Summary"), but more significantly due to the meanness of Ash staff, including a really nasty old white haired nasally voiced bitch of a charge nurse named Peggy, who tried to sink her psychologically abusive talons into my sense of peace and mind as a new patient on the Paolo Verde East unit on my third night there. It was as though all of the earlier assurances of the mental health community had been pissed on, and the hand offered to me through months of good faith therapeutic interaction had been jerked way, encouraging me to fall back into the despair of my mental illness' worst manifestations. Therein, my experiences at ASH from the get go were pretty much downhill; over my first 2-4 months in that accursed facility I increasingly found myself in conflict with abusive staff technicians and nurses and the related incompetence of my first primary attending physician, Dr. Laxman Patel, (who chastised me for voicing concern over the patient abuse that I was witnessing and experiencing first hand), and I also began to learn about the extent of administrative shortcomings at ASH. It was disturbing and unsettling to such an extent that my relative stability obviously deteriorated as a direct consequence of the substandard practices at ASH. By the time I met the human rights advocate, John Gallagher, in late spring, 2011, I was neck deep in an unexpected recurrence of a seemingly permanent state of despair that had settled in when I first entered the psyche wards in 2010, (a "recurrence", or backward plunge, that I fully attribute to the close mindedness and related incompetence of administrative staff at ASH, such as the patient advocate, Sonya Serda), a phase of time wherein I actively compromised my absolute willingness to allow suicide to settle my affairs by opting, instead, for a dedicated and good faith exploration of whatever the mental health professionals in the psychiatric hospitals could offer someone like me. At ASH, my sense of choice (vs. my appreciation for my treatment) began to dictate the situation, and to someone like me, suicide is always an option; I was thus led into reconsidering my initial commitment to remain honest with my caregivers at all costs. There is a thing in the psyche wards known known as "contracting for safety", wherein a patient such as me is asked to promise the staff that I won't commit suicide (or otherwise hurt myself) on the basis of good faith trust. But at ASH, I encountered staff who made it very clear to me that my diagnosis as a chronically suicidal patient was not something they gave a rat's ass about, individuals who overtly suggested through their actions that I would do them all a favor if I were to crawl into a hidden corner and die. So the merits of contracting for safety sort of petered out on the basis of me learning the hard way that ASH staff can't be trusted in any sense of the word. I felt duped, for I had clearly been lied to more than once by staff, and I had been demeaned, graphically insulted, and verbally abused; and in seeing brutal forms of psychological abuse imparted on some of my most vulnerable peers, my cynicism about my own species flared up so strongly that I began developing the first signs of deep distrust for the ones assigned to care for me. Why would any reasonably sound mind want to "contract" with people like them? This, the gist of ASH' most depraved staff members, people who quite clearly don't value the primary objectives of standardized mental health care and treatment.Below are several key pages from the grievance document that John Gallagherof the ADHS Office of Human Rights assembled on my behalf, pages that represent the sorts of training I had been involved with as a legal professional, and which, as such, served to point me in the direction I am in today, fighting as I am for the rights and needs of ASH patients as they stand today. Note, if you will, that there are at least six specific violations of law cited, statutory law relating to my fundamental rights as a client and human being that directly flows from the text and and language of theArizona Administrative Code, Article 9, Chapter 21, sections 201 and 202. The incidents of wrongdoing evidenced by these violations are broad, and yet well detailed, for as I said at the outset of this article, there is an easily accessible body of comprehensible rules and regulations applicable to this matter. Unless you are a patient at ASH, that is, are they easily accessible.
Finally, on the last page below, please see the suggested Solution that John Gallagher carefully crafted in order to bring about a reasonable resolution to the matter at hand. This is an especially important aspect of the document, for therein one sees nothing more complex than a straightforward and good faith request for reasonable oversight of the issues raised in this matter. Especially important today, because of the basic fact that ASH' and ADHS's blatant refusal(s) to cooperate in this matter graphically represents the endemic problems underlying the administrative abuses that I have worked to make clear in my writing. These people have no interest whatsoever in meaningfully responding to patient concerns, particularly not if and when those concerns directly involve allegations of patient abuse and staff misconduct. As follows:
IN CLOSING: I hope that tomorrow I will see a response from the administrative law judge in this case about my motion to have Joel Rudd formally removed as representative counsel in these proceedings, which I submitted to the court on Friday (see June 15, 2012, "RE:"). This is increasingly becoming a search and destroy sort of campaign, in the sense that as my acquisition of more and more evidence in terms of the ongoing abuse of patients and related abuses of clinical and administrative abuse of authority at The Arizona State Hospital, I am increasingly willing to target the specific representatives who do, at this time, need to be held fully accountable under the law. At this time. Not tomorrow, not in three or six months. Now.
What a great time this is to get on board with this cause. A moderately deep increase in cash flow to the needs of Arizona's mental heath clients in the outpatient community came about in recent months, and the attorney generals' office is taking quite a bit of heat in relation to their own lawlessness right now. A great time, indeed, for anyone with a sense of conscience to do their part in fighting the abuse of patients at The Arizona State Hospital, and beyond. Please, get involved, take action, help make a difference today.
(NOTE: This is an October 6, 2012, rerun of an article published in June, 2012)
paoloreed@gmail.com
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