Dear Will Humble: Herein, I again seek an opportunity to openly communicate with the Director of the Arizona Department of Health Services about the out of control conditions and substandard care practices at The Arizona State Hospital.

     Below is my latest submitted comment(s) to Will Humble's official blog site, written in response to an article that he published in his blog just yesterday, September 11, 2012. The article, which I have also included below, is entitled Arizona's New Chronic Disease Strategic Plan, and specifically emphasizes the creation of  a "new guiding document for chronic disease prevention and health promotion…. (that) will be used by ADHS, county health departments, and community partners to advance chronic disease policies, systems and environmental change in the areas of where we work, live, learn, and get care…. and (which) identifies ways in which our partners can maximize the impact in the areas of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and tobacco."  
     I think that Mr. Humble has a lot of nerve espousing his commitment to prevention of chronic diseases, particularly with respect for heart disease and tobacco related disease, given the very real fact that at The Arizona State Hospital, staff brazenly smuggle and traffic in tobacco and other illicit substances, which they sell to the highly vulnerable patents there at ASH at  exorbitantly high profit. Please see my June 9, 2012, article, Highly Illegal Tobacco Sales by Staff, for a more thorough description of this issue as it stands at this time, to the best of my knowledge. 
     "To the best of my knowledge" is important in this context, because I am hopeful that someone has, by now, gone about formally addressing this problem; be it the department of health themselves, of any other like internal action, or even the intervention of an outside agency, etc., I do not really care. All I know and care about is the fact that the willingness of ASH staff to illegally provide the most singularly deadly form of substance to the patients at ASH is sickening to the core. In any case, I do know from my records that the article(s) I have thus far written about the issue of highly tobacco sales by ASH staff have garnered as much if not more attention than any other(s), so I am willing to both hope as well as suspect that steps may have been to address this matter and bring the activity to a halt. 

(These are my comments to WILL HUMBLE'S September 10, 2012, article)
Dear Mr. Humble: I am curious about whether your office has taken any steps to address the insidious problem of illegal tobacco smuggling and trafficking at the Arizona State Hospital, a problem that begins with ASH staff's willingness to illegally provide tobacco and other illicit substances to patients, and the final consequences of which fall directly on the heads (in the lungs) of ASH patients. ASH is a hospital. ADHS is "proud" of its' smoke free policies. Nicotine related deaths rate among the highest form of preventable chronic illness in history. The patients at ASH are highly vulnerable to abuse, and the staff endorsement of patients' addiction(s) to tobacco and other illicit substances is abominable, to say the least. I look forward to seeing your response soon. Thank you.    

(This is the article itself, written and published by WILL HUMBLE on Sept. 10, 2012. The article can be viewed at http:// directorsblog.health.azadhs.gov)

Arizona’s New Chronic Disease Strategic Plan

September 10th, 2012 by Will HumbleLeave a reply »

I’m happy to share our new Arizona Chronic Disease Strategic Plan.  This past year, our team from the Bureau of Tobacco & Chronic Disease worked with community partners from across the state on a new guiding document for chronic disease prevention and health promotion.  This strategic plan will be used by ADHS, county health departments, and community partners to advance chronic disease policies, systems and environmental change in the areas of where we work, live, learn, and get care.  At the same time, this plan will also help align activities around the CDC’s Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Four Domains.  

Funded through the CDC Coordinated Chronic Disease Program- the new plan identifies ways in which our partners can maximize the impact in the areas of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and tobacco.  The strategic plan includes a matrix of evidence-based strategies which can be used by the public health community..  and it provides clear direction for advancing nationally recognized recommended or promising evidence-based practices.  Congratulations and thank you to the many community partners and health department staff who contributed to the development of new plan.

     In several very recent articles, I have made clear the fact that Will Humble, Director of the Arizona Department of Heath Services, has refused to take notice of any of my good faith requests for input from his office in terms of clearly established problems at The Arizona State Hospital. I have also made clear, to Mr. Humble himself, that his unwillingness to establish transparency when it comes to such communications from a person such as myself, who is a tax paying citizen as well as a former patient at ASH, is illustrative of undue censorship that somewhat clearly proves my contention(s) that the highest ranking officials directly responsible for protecting the needs and interests of Arizona's most vulnerable institutionalized adults citizens are maintaining substandard care and practices with no worry whatsoever of accountability or consumer based oversight. But Humble refuses to relent and cease with this blatant exercise of ill conceived misconduct. It is atrocious. 

IN CLOSING: Herein, I again attest to the basic fact that this entire situation is 100% unacceptable to me and any number of reasonably intelligent persons that I have yet to speak to since my discharge from ASH, including at least two state representatives, and one former chief justice of the AZ Supreme Court (amongst others). As such, these matters are beyond my comprehension in terms of the privileges granted to individuals such as Mr. Humble in the context of this situation as it stands today. But I am content with the realization that these matters are "incomprehensible" to me in this context, for therein, I feel I can rest assured that my ethical awareness of fundamental American principles are intact. 

     Patient abuse at public mental hospitals is arguably the most graphically sickening dirty secret in the entire world of behavioral health care and treatment. In fact, at least one very active and experienced legal professional in the state of Arizona has made this statement to me, in no uncertain terms: "The bullshit that goes on at The Arizona State Hospital is our state's deepest, dirtiest secret. Beyond that, you do not even want to get me started on ASH! I know what you are doing and why, and I support you wholeheartedly, and I agree entirely with your approach." I attest to the fact that this was stated to me while I was still hospitalized at ASH.  Things at ASH really are this bad. The Arizona State Hospital is operating at a level of dismally substandard mental-medical health care and practice and they are getting away with it lock-stock- and barrel. Please visit my April 30, 2012, Resources Ideas article, and determine how you can best become involved in defending the rights of ASH patients today. 

paoloreed@gmail.com