#2 Of Patient Safety. And/or, the lack thereof in terms of the substandard care practices and conditions at The Arizona State Hospital.

As I have stated in updating the retaliatory action taken against me one business day following the submittal of a very well grounded grievance report, a report that was researched and produced by a highly qualified human rights advocate who did in fact work at the time for the state of Arizona itself, I was unjustly transferred from the ASH treatment unit that my referring Tucson doctor(s) had specifically recommended as per my established behavioral traits and known health care needs, to one of the most violent settings on the civil side of The Arizona State Hospital. In the subsequent 5-6 months following that highly questionable September 06, 2011, transfer, I did experience ongoing threats and actual physical assaults that I attest were condoned and in fact instrumented by ASH staff on more than one occasion. As far out as this claim may appear, I further attest to the fact that this method of patient abuse (retaliation, intimidation, physical assault, etc.) is one of ASH administration's  most common ways of forcing ASH patients into submission, if in fact any given patient in any way challenges the presence of graphic patient abuse and related clinical/administrative misconduct at ASH. I learned this even before I was subjected to it myself, from at least one reasonably lucid ASH patient who did in fact warn me to not "make any waves", this based on his own experiences in this very context.

With this very disturbing topic in mind, I offer the following account:

In early 2012, while I was attending dinner with my peers from the very violent unit that I was unlawfully transferred to, a 50 or so year old male named James Medina did physically approach and shove me in direct view of attending ASH staff, while also threatening to cause me severe physical harm. This man is known to be very aggressive and potentially dangerous/violent, and he had previously threatened me as such; the initial incident itself (there in the dinner hall) did not escalate beyond this basic level at that moment in time. However, less than 20 minutes later (after dinner), as I sat by myself at one of the outdoor patio tables writing a a letter to a friend, Medina did approach me where I sat, and proceeded to physically assault me in an incident that lasted at least 45 seconds. I was able to passively defend myself, but that is not the point as it stands. The fact is, given Medina's very threatening behavior in the dinner hall, ASH staff had no excuse for granting this man unfettered grounds privileges, whereby he had direct and immediate access to me in order to attempt and follow through with said threats. I fully believe that by this point in my time at ASH, various ASH staff had come to resent me simply because I am willing to openly speak out against patient abuse, for that is essentially how it goes at ASH, across the board.

This incident was documented at the time, including in the record of the Maricopa County Attorney's office, for I did file a report to police, and the relevant video evidence, etc., fully confirmed the fact that at no point during this cycle of violence did I engage in unlawful conduct in any sense of the term, and that Medina was in fact 100% guilty of attacking me precisely as I have described herein. A later in time arraignment hearing was convened in the Maricopa criminal court, but Medina failed to appear- this is all on record. But even though the details underlying  this incident were clear to ASH security immediately after it occurred (they too reviewed the video at that time), ASH administrators attempted to direct the allegations of assault to me, and this too is all part of the record, as it stands. Involved staff include but is not limited to then ASH Chief Medical Officer Steven Dingle , who immediately signed off an order to restrict me to the unit on the basis of Medina's untruthful allegations that I had assaulted him, in spite of video evidence readily available to Dingle that most definitely supported the factual details of the incident as it had played out. Medina, meanwhile, was not redirected or subject to any accountability, be it in the immediately subesequent hours, nor over the next few days, etc.  Not only was the action of restricting me to the unit an exhibited violation of my rights specific to due process at the time, by forcing me to remain on the unit itself, I was directly exposed to more of Medina's threats and the clear possibility of further attack.

Dr. Steven Dingle, meanwhile, has since been promoted within the ADHS/BHS construct. This, a licensed physician who during his stint as the Chief Medical Officer at ASH did participate in a range of very wide range of criminal misconduct that I have documented in my own right, including the horribly outrageous cover-up of violent escape of ASH patient Jesus Murietta, which did in fact directly contribute the murder of an innocent young Phoenix woman, the full details of which were exposed in a full four page feature news article written by JJ Hensley of the Arizona Republic newspaper (see "Victim's Family Questions Why Man Was Free", September 29, 2011). Such undeserved rewards (promotion) granted to individuals in the ADHS/BHS system who are known to have engaged in unlawful conduct are standard as per the course, and in fact underscores my contention that the first and most assured way to advance in that system comes about through furthering and/or participating in the forms of wrongdoing at ASH that are increasingly becoming common knowledge in the public's eye, as per media reports, and my own work to date.

IN CLOSING: This is only one more of the myriad examples I have in my records specific to the egregious misconduct of the senior clinicians at The Arizona State Hospital, who willfully manipulate the factual realities at ASH in order to subject their clients to grossly malfeasant abuse and outright harm, always in order to preserve the substandard conditions at ASH, always as a matter of standard practice. I could not make this sort of shit up, in all honestly, and in the period of time that I was being subject to it all, I was literally in state of virtual disbelief at times, having to grasp the fact that in a place such as ASH, where we the people have every reason to expect that our seriously mentally ill and at risk citizen peers would be provided with relatively optimum care and protection, the conditions and care practices are in fact as bad as it gets. This reality is occurring at ASH in utter defiance of the findings and purpose of all/any directly applicable laws and policy, including very critical treatises (such as The Americans With Disabilities Act etc.) that were established in direct relation to our common American knowledge, which through history has proven that such seriously mentally ill and disabled persons are highly vulnerable to discrimination, negligence, exploitation, and abuse in all forms. This matter represents horrifically unconscionable misconduct that is occurring in gross violation of the public trust, at both the state as well the national level. In the sense that this nature of wrongdoing in only consistent with established history, I contend that these issues should not be a great surprise to anyone with a modicum of familiarity with public health care facilities such as ASH- herein the need for immediate action that, as a matter of deterrence, will hold all involved parties (ASH staff, as well as associated staff in ADHS/BHS, the Arizona Office of the Attorney General, etc.) fully accountable as per said law and policy. Anything less would be equally unconscionable, and I do implore those individuals and agencies currently seeking to address these issues to take full action on behalf of the ASH patient community, on the basis that for any number of years, all such involved parties have been complicit in allowing for this wrongdoing to occur. 

paoloreed@gmail.com