Of Dr. Cara Christ. And whether she has what it takes in terms of doing the right thing.

INTRODUCTION

As I made clear well over 3 years ago, the primary causation of how Arizona's sole long term public mental hospital could fall into so graphically dismal a state of dysfunction has everything to do with the failure of persons employed at the top rung of the given food chain to respond to the evidence I provided them with specific to ASH's substandard conditions, beginning as early as summer, 2011. Specifically, of course, I am speaking of the Arizona Department of Health. In fact, I did directly correspond with former ADHS Director Will Humble on no less then half a dozen occasions, via land mail as well as his own official ADHS blog site; regrettably, he patently refused to acknowledged me communications at that time, circa 2012-2014. Likewise, it was Humble who opted to reject my good faith appeals when judges with Arizona Administrative Court failed in their own right to address the merits of evidence I provided to that venue, also circa 2012-2014. In those hearings- and this is just one example of what I am discussing- persons such as Donna Noriega and Joel Rudd willfully misrepresented the validity of this evidence while publicly speaking under the authority of this Court, which today stands as one reason for why Noriega is facing criminal charges specific to perjury. Again, as I conducted these relatively early phases of formal investigation into the systematic shortfalls that ultimately play into the abuses of ASH patients, it occurred to me that it was the ones running the Hospital itself, namely Noriega and Cory Nelson  and their given legal counsel Joel Rudd, who were fundamentally responsible for the largely ignored substandard conditions at ASH, including but not limited to physical, psychological, and emotional abuse of the ASH patient community across the board. I came to understand that it was a trickle down effect in all senses, wherein the worst impacts of the abject dereliction of duty by persons with the most authority over the operation of ASH ultimately landed squarely on the shoulders of ASH's most vulnerable patients; much as it did in my own case when Cory Nelson and Dr. Steven Dingle willfully engaged in administrative retaliation on the basis of my openly reporting such abuses. As I have reported in this blog, and as I presented to the Administrative court in one particularly critical hearing (see "A" below), Dingle and Nelson blatantly ignored Hospital protocol, state law, and federal law, in order to unlawfully have me summarily transferred from the most peaceful patient unit at ASH to the one of the most dangerous; putting me- and I attest to this- at grave risk of harm to my very life and limb. Fortunately, for me, I survived (albeit, not without greatly causing me undue duress and associated anxiety, which also- and I also attest to this today- emotionally and psychologically compelled  me to seriously reconsider the option of suicide while I was still hospitalized at ASH, direct effects imposed upon me by these people that even today cause me to suffer from associated post-traumatic stress), but I only wish this was the case when it comes to my friend's Chris Blackwell and Mary "Frankie" Adams, both of whom died, as did April Mott, and now most recently, Barbara West, as a direct consequence of the radically subordinate misconduct of ASH's overall supervisory staff. Without a doubt, had any element of the authoritative entities most responsible for overseeing the operation of ASH heeded my original submitted reports of how dangerous ASH was because of these administrators, all of us would have fared far, far much better as members of the ASH patient community. Following Rudd's display of egregious abuse of authority in this hearing ("A", wherein he actively manipulated the merits of my claims and succeeded in convincing the Court to not take my allegations seriously, despite the body of well documented evidence specific to this matter that I provided to the court at that very time), I did- as per protocol- immediately appeal the findings of the Administrative Court to Will Humble, the one remaining source of remedy in this context. And yet he too refused to meet his obligations in terms of granting the same body of evidence validity, rejecting all aspects of the implications related to my concerns. Standard practice in all senses, and they were all in on it.     

DISCUSSION

Will Humble unexpectedly  vacated his position as ADHS Director in early 2015, not long at all after the newly elected governor, Doug Ducey, took office. One of Ducey's first actions as governor led to the firing of Arizona's Director of Child Protective Services, one of ADHS sister agencies, and one that shares an equally sordid history with the scandal specific to ASH, representing a grossly egregious breach of the public trust. The governor's action is one that I fully believe led to Humble's unexpected resignation. He was spooked, in other words, and opted to run while the running was good. That's precisely how I see it, and as my work has established to date, my feeling in this case is well justified.

Enter, thus, Dr. Cara Christ, who took over the helm at ADHS about 6 weeks following Humble's departure. Sadly, one very tragic event has already occurred since Dr. Christ's appointment, specifically, the highly suspicious death of 55 year old Barbara West in May of this year. But I am not willing to hold this against Dr. Christ at this point in time. Not yet. 

Here is Dr. Christ's official commentary about the state of affairs at ASH following Ms. West's untimely passing, as published in ABC Ch15's recent report about a $6 million law suit being on Ms. West's behalf.

"Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ, whose department oversees the Arizona State Hospital, sent ABC15 the following statement: While we are advised to let the legal process proceed without our comment, I am proud of the work being done at the state hospital under new leadership. Our new hospital administration is taking steps to address quality assurance and performance improvement. Our team of doctors, nurses, social workers, psychology and rehabilitation staff along with security and administration serve a critical need in our community as they work to treat and rehabilitate patients in our care.' "

At this point in time, I will only state that I find much of Dr. Christ's language to be frighteningly akin to that used by Will "Yea, team!" Humble at those points in time when he engaged in furthering the propaganda that for years allowed the administrators of ASH to engage in their egregiously criminal misconduct. Indeed, during the period 2012-2015, Humble repeatedly drew upon references to "the team" as he tirelessly worked to sell to the public the baseline mistruth that things at ASH were great, therein maintaining the status quo at ASH (rather then doing the right when he had the chance), via simultaneously omitting any soundly useful statements about the presence of evidence in any/all reports about the grossly substandard conditions at ASH; be that evidence included in this Blog (which has recently broken the 100,000 mark in terms of dedicated visits since March 2012), or ABC Ch15's increasingly scathing news reports (over 15 in total at this point time, aired to millions of viewers since 2013). This is how it went in terms of my work for over four years to date. Absolutely insulting abuses of language that I saw to be 100% designed as one means by which to deflect the significance of my knowledge and associated evidence. The fact is, Humble was really no better at this then his underlings at the executive level of ASH's overall operation; all of them, as I saw in a heartbeat, were about as good at lying as any other psychopathically challenged liars. It was that bad, and all aspects of my earliest allegations have now been affirmed.

That said, given that I have no just cause to believe that Dr. Cara Christ will engage in the same systematic dereliction of  duty that her predecessor is now famous for, I am willing to reach out to her in the hope that she is made of different stuff, as it were. Capable and willing in other words to do the right thing. I have, thus, reached out to Dr. Christ in the same tone of voice that I did each and every time I attempted to draw the attention of persons responsible for ensuring that the ASH patient community receives nothing short of reasonably optimum health care services, be it Hospital staff, persons in ADHS Office of Appeals and Grievances, or Will Humble himself. This tone being one of good faith.

I directed this contact via Dr. Christ's official blog.

           (see http://directorsblog.health.azdhs.gov)

This is the same online site that I chose, at times, to reach out to Will Humble. And as I have reported over the years, that particular Rat Bastard patently refused to so much as include my good faith and well intentioned comments in the blog itself, much less to directly respond to me in any shape or form. Cementing in my mind the fact that he was no better in terms of character then the miscreants responsible for overseeing and providing to the needs of the ASH patient community. Herein let us consider the following.

"Dear Dr. Christ. This is not a comment directly related to your 'blog." This seems to be the only way I can reach you without going through the phone system, and I simply haven't the time or energy for that. I presume you know who I am. But I am in no position to predict what your attitude about me, and my work since leaving ASH in early 2012, may happen to be. I am contacting you now in the precise vein of spirit that I did so towards Will Humble, as well as with respect for the very first of numerous grievance documents I submitted while an ASH patient, of good faith and in no way desiring conflict. As the current process over oversight plays out, be advised that I have a close eye on you, and harbor nothing other then sincere hope that you are made of different stuff then the various representatives who are now in the spotlight. I encourage and in fact invite you to contact me, for I would love to share any data that I have specific to what you are claiming to be your intent: To ensure that ASH patients across the board are no longer subjected to grossly substandard health care. I promise that any/all such contact will be kept in absolute confidence. On the flip side, if I do not hear from you, I will take it upon myself to include your role in whatever comes out. I promise you that much, as well." (Posted November 03, 2015, by PJ Reed, author, Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse.)

The onus is now on Dr. Christ. If she should so happen to accept my place in this process as it still stands, then I am more then happy to keep all communications with her confidential. Outside if this one, that is. Should she fall into anything resembling what I experienced when her predecessor was running the show, however, I will do just as I have promised above. 

Meanwhile, as to Will Humble.  I have said it before. 

You can run, old man, but you can't hide. 

Your time is coming.

 I will update this specific article in 5-7 days.

paoloreed@gmail.com