-Bright Line Violations Of The Americans With Disabilities Act: Wherein, Arizona State Hospital Chief Executive Officer/Supervisor Corey Nelson Engages In  Graphically Unconstitutional Retaliation And Forcible Coercion and Intimidation, Putting Patients At Grave Risk Of Personal Harm And Fear For Their Lives In Order to Suppress Good Faith Self Advocacy.

NOTE: The following article was originally published in late April, 2012, slightly over 8 weeks after I discharged from ASH.

Pervaiz Akhter
Primary attending
ASH psychiatrist
1996-2015

(2016 Update: I will keep it simple. Each and every ASH patient is disabled under state and federal law. I contend that this is precisely why ASH staff across the board (most but not all) are willing in their own right to abuse, neglect, or otherwise engage in unlawful misconduct specific to their state contracted employment position(s), in graphic defiance of the public trust; which also serves- in essence- as the basis upon which they get away with it (although, to date, at least a few of them have been brought to some level of justice). "They", as in all of them: From some marked proportion of staff technicians, charge nurses, and psychiatrists, to Hospital administrators, legal representatives at ASH and in ADHS, and on up the food chain as it goes, to the highest offices in the greater ADHS construct. I recognized this on a very basic level immediately upon my arrival to ASH, when my property (meds) was stolen even before I had access to it; and over the next few days, when ASH nurses and technicians exhibited misbehavior that basically rocked my sense of conscience to the core. And then, when I turned to my first (of 4 total in thirteen months) primary attending physician in order to try and address these issues, I learned that this person (Dr. Laxman Patel) was also willing to engage in such misconduct, with respect for his obligations as they stand. And even later, when I turned- in good faith and as per protocol- to persons in the ADHS Office of Grievances and Appeals, I ran into nothing short of brick walls that only furthered the present of ongoing substandard conditions at ASH across the board. Proving, as I see it, the fact that the Americans With Disabilities Act is the appropriate mechanism needed in order to see that the operation of ASH is brought up to standard. And if I have my way- which I fully believe I will in time- this will occur.) 

In my April 9, 2012, article (see this blog: 04/09/12 "Fact #3) I described details relating to my having been unlawfully transferred from a markedly peaceful patient unit at the Arizona State Hospital (ASH) to a very violent one immediately following the submission of a formal  grievance report (dated September 2, 2011, but relating to events that occurred in late May, 2011) that was produced on my behalf by a former representative of the Arizona Department of Health Services Office of Human Rights advocate named John Gallagher. As such, it is clear to me that the unit transfer was imposed on me as matter of criminal retaliation that was imparted on me by my then attending physician, Dr. Pervaiz Akkter, in complicity with former ASH Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Steven Dingle, Dr. Lynn Lydon,  the acting CEO Cory Neson, as well as ASH' legal representative, Mr. Joel Rudd (who is an assistant with the Office of the Arizona Attorney General), solely because I had exercised my fundamental right to voice dissent and good faith concern over abuse of authority and related administrative misconduct at ASH.

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 1990 (INC. 2008 AMENDMENTS)

     -TITLE 42- THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE

     -CHAPTER 126) EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Section 12203 Prohibition Against Retaliation and Coercion

       a) Retaliation. No person shall discriminate against any individual because such individual has opposed any act or practice made unlawful by this chapter or because such individual made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this chapter.

       b) Interference, coercion, or intimidation. It shall be unlawful to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any individual in the exercise or enjoyment of, or on account of his or her having exercised or enjoyed, or on account of his or her having aided or encouraged any other individual in the exercise or enjoyment of, any right granted or protected by this chapter.

       c) Remedies and procedures. The remedies and procedures available under sections 12117, 12133, 12188 of this title shall be available to aggrieved persons for violations of subsections (a) and (b) of this section, with respect to subchapter I, subchapter II and subchapter III of this chapter, respectively.

The original September 02, 2011, grievance report (for which I was retaliated against) has to date survived a number of administratively corrupt attempts by ASH and The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) Office of Grievances and Appeals (OGA) to effectively squash it without merit, and the matter is still today in the process of legal oversight. I am still, close to one year after the original May, 2011, events that were presented in the grievance report submitted on my behalf by human rights advocate, John Gallagher, on September 04, 2011, awaiting word as to the scheduling date for an affirmed, pending administrative hearing in a state court specific to this matter. The delay of due process in this matter is in graphic violation of constitutional law that all Americans are deserved of being protected by, but nobody at the state seems to care. Thus, it is matter of time before federal intervention will be required as matter of removing the criminal elements of ASH administrators and clinicians, as well as related departmental corruption and administrative negligence.

As to the retaliative transfer,  one business day after the Sept. 2011 grievance report arrived in the administrative offices at ASH, I was advised in a September 06, 2012, letter drafted and signed by ASH Supervisor Cory "crazycorycorner.weebly.com" Nelson and former ASH Chief Medical officer, Dr. Steven Dingle, that I was being transferred from the notably peaceful Palo Verde East unit to the very violent unit, Desert Sage East. I have attached this letter and a handful of other related documents further below; therein, a sequence of administrative actions designed to punish me for having participated in a lawful, good faith report of gross administrative abuse of authority that discriminated against me and abridged a number of my constitutional rights to dignity, freedom from undue restriction and restraint, fair treatment, and several other very serious liberties and protections afforded me and all patients at ASH under the provisions of the congressionally created ADA statute, and the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.

However, and in addition to the technical features of ASH unlawful administrative actions laid out later in this article, I am including the following Arizona Republic newspaper article about a man named Joe Saucedo Gallegos, who bludgeoned two little boys to death with a baseball bat in 2008, because Mr. Gallegos and his story as it stands today has direct bearing on the validity of my concerns. It is my not my desire to worsen Mr. Gallegos personal life at this date, for he is also a victim of the mental health system, in my humble opinion, this despite my feelings about the heinousness of the crime that he was recently prosecuted for; but the fac tof the matter is, Mr. Gallegos presence at ASH directly relates to my allegations concerning the retaliation that I was subjected to....  

       

.... For, as though to add insult to injury, it was not until I learned about this man's history and violent nature in the above newspaper article (a good 5-6 weeks after I discharged form ASH in late February, 2012) that I realized the graphic extent to which ASH administrative and clinical staff had gone in order to criminally attempt to suppress my voice as a patient and human being. But I came into direct contact with Joe Saucedo Gallegos on a daily basis as soon as I was subjected to the retaliative unit transfer that I describe above, because I became his new bathroom-mate (for lack of a better term), making us virtual roommates. Initially unbeknownest to me, too, Mr Gallegos was aware of my efforts to address ASH' staff involvement with illicit tobacco and other substances sales and use at ASH, and he harbored a very real resentment towards me for this reason, because he was a very active dealer, and loan shark, of sorts. Due to these circumstances, I was subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation by this man (and other patients on Desert Sage East) for the entirety of my final six months at ASH. Staff was fully aware of these facts, and the ongoing threats of violence directed at me by this man were documented on numerous occasions after I reported it, but I was never aware of how radically dangerous my situation was. 

      

Above is my copy of the formal advisement that I received from ASH Supervisor Cory Nelson and former ASH Chief medical Officer, Dr. Steven Dingle, on September 06, 2011, one business day after ASH had received submission of the September 02, 1011, advising me that I was to be transferred from the peaceful Palo Verde East unit to the notoriously violent Desert Sage East unit. The letter is absolutely barren of the required information when it comes to unit transfers, and I find it insulting, at best, to have to believe that these people believe they can pull this sort of egregious misconduct on disabled persons such as myself; but as I have also made clear, these sorts of practices are par for the course at ASH, and they impose these sorts of criminal actions on all the patients at ASH, as a matter of standard practice. 

Not only was the transfer clearly imposed upon me as a matter of 

retaliation, it was in violation of very straight forward ADHS rules and procedure, too;  for, as shown below, there is a specific protocol whereby the patient and the patients entire inpatient treatment and discharge planning team is to be provided with a reasonable explanation of the expectant therapeutic benefits of a unit transfer, which the letter above clearly does not include. In fact, the entire sequence of events specific to the transfer process in this case were void of any of the required terms described below, in terms relating to the planning of a unit transfer, as well as in terms of immediate follow up procedures. In short, I was blatantly denied every benefit in the book as a patient of ASH and client department of health, which again, I contend would never be allowed to occur in a  hospital not designed to exclusively treat mentally disabled persons, or a private hospital for that matter.

ASH such, public entities and facilities such as the Arizona State Hospital and its staff, and the staff of the affiliated Department of Health Services, as well as the representatives of the state attorney generals office such as Joel Rudd,(who I contend for good reason has more familiarity with directly applicable law in this context than any other involved party- he's a freaking lawyer who has represented ASH since the early 1990s, for crying out loud!), are all subject to  the scrutiny of federal oversight flowing from the provisions of the ADA and other like law and policy standards, as shown below:

THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT OF 1990 (INC. 2008 AMENDMENTS)

     -TITLE 42- THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE

     -CHAPTER 126) EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

SUBCHAPTER II- PUBLIC SERVICES
       Part A- Prohibition Against Discrimination and Other Generally Applicable Provisions
Section 12131. Definitions
      As used in this subchapter:
  1) Public entity. The term "public entity" means
(A) any state or local government;
(B) any department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a State or States or local government.
  2) Qualified individual with a disability. The term "qualified individual with a disability" means an individual who, with or without reasonable modifications to rules, policies, or practices, the removal of architectural, communication, or transportation barriers, or the provision of auxiliary aids and services, meets the essential eligibility requirements for the receipt of services or the participation in programs or activities provided by a public entity.

Section 12132. Discrimination
Subject to the provisions of this subchapter, no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.

I immediately recognized that required procedures had been disregarded to an extreme that definitely extended to the realm of federal protections and so on, but as always, I began a process of fundamentally good faith dissent that relied upon the willingness of the patient advocate at ASH, Sonya Serda, to do her part in terms of at least addressing the fact that hospital and ADHS procedure hadn't been followed, as expressed in a September 12, 2011, grievance report that I submitted to Ms. Serda, shown below:   

CORY "CRAZYCORYCORNER" NELSON'S SEPTEMBER 30, 2011, LETTER TO ME:

I also drafted a letter to Cory Nelson himself concerning this matter, and about two full weeks later, I received his personal interpretation of his given authority, as shown here. In his letter to me, Mr. Nelson patently denies any obligation to the most centrally involved patients (in this case, me), justifying his authority in this matter as supercedent to every applicable regulation and requirement of unit transfers. Despite my pointing out to him that there are numerous- and very clear- provisions of Arizona Administrative Code, as well as ASH/ADHS own rules, relating to unit transfers, Mr. Nelson flatly disregarded these fundamental merits of my concerns, and instead, instead issuing the above letter wherein he exploits the possibility that mentally ill persons have little or no access to such documents and related provisions, basically telling me that he can do whatever he wants. Mr. Nelson also expressed himself as being rather out of touch with the concept of voluntarily cooperative patients such as myself, when he points out my right to "request discharge" if I am not satisfied with "the treatement" that I was receiving. The Arizona state Hospital is not a Motel Six, and my very clear dissatisfactions with my treatment at ASH were always founded upon equally clear reports of staff misconduct and related unlawfulness.   Mr. Nelson's position on these matters, as stated in this letter, reeks of administrative disregard for patient, and is very akin to the discriminative tendency of ASH physicians in terms of how they so often abuse their respective authority, doing whatever they want to with no concern whatsoever for the wellbeing of their patients, and then chalk it off in the context of treatment needs. In both contexts, it is criminally extreme abuse of the "powers" and directly related responsibilites that people like Mr. Nelson are granted and assigned via the public trust, and in my humble opion, misconduct that absolutely pollutes and disqualifies them from the privileges that society grants such individuals in society today.  

As evidenced in Nelson's langauge in the above letter, these specific matters offer an outstanding example of the severity of administrative negligence that I experienced while hospitalized at ASH, and very clearly represents the substandard conditions that the patients at the Arizona State Hospital are subjected to on a daily basis. My "treatment" at ASH was not unusual, in this sense, and it goes to show that ASH operates in direct defiance of the ADA and other highly valued mandates of common deciency and protocol on a daily basis.  

At this time, I have prevailed in fighting ASH' and ADHS' attempts to cover up the highly egregious retaliation that I was subjected to by the September 06, 2011, unit transfer from what is possibly the most peaceful unit at ASH to the arguably most violent one; and I have yet to hear, but as with the original September 06, 2011, grievance report that led to ASH Supervisor and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Dingle's  decision to punish me for my self advocacy efforts, there is a pending (yet to be scheduled) hearing that will be conducted in the Arizona Office of Administrative a hearings in downtown Phoenix in specific relation to my allegations concerning retaliation, and the high degree of risk that was posed to me for the last 6 months of my so called "treatment" at the Arizona State Hospital.

I cannot easily describe the extent of violence that I was exposed to after my transfer to Desert Sage East unit, but suffice it to say, it is a unit specifically staffed and designed to house the most problematic, and potentially violent,  patients on the civil side of ASH . As such, the atmoshpere on Desert Sage East contradicts my personality characteristics and the very heart of my given diagnosis. The impacts of this action led to myriad experiences on that unit were deeply disturbing and very detrimental to my overall well being. In sum, I was assaulted by mentally disturbed patients on nine occasions during the whole of my nearly two year period of hospitalization in mental health facilities, ASH and elsewhere circa 2010-2012, and in none of those occasions did I so much as strike back in my own defense or otherwise engage in violent acts. I am a nonviolent person dedicated to civil interactions with others at all times, I have no history of violence or related criminal record, and to quote a rather well known Kinks song: "I'm not the world's most physical guy...", either. It is my express contention that ASH administrators and clinicians knew this about me (how could they not?) when they opted to subject me to the highly volatile and clearly dangerous environment of Desert Sage East. I am still bothered by very real anxiety and fear that stems directly from the months I spent on that unit, and I am uncomfortably distrustful of medical authorities now, too, in direct relation to the radically criminally malfeasant abuse of power that was subjected on me in this matter. It is a bottom line fact that any number of nonviolent mentally ill adults at ASH are subjected to retaliation and related undue exposure to harm on a day to day basis.          

Hopefully, these documents will give readers an idea of the systematic manner in which ASH administrators and department of health representatives flaunt their ill conceived sense of power and authority over persons effected by serious mental illness and related disability as matter of standard practice. It is criminal and inhumane to the nth degree. Let's stop it today.

(2016-18 Update: Cory Nelson was fired in spring 2015 on the basis of being identified as  a corn fed, law breaking son of a bitch who had little to no regard for the rights and care needs of the ASH patient community. He, and six other Rat Bastards, that is, were summarily fired following several years of emergent evidence- including data compiled by federal oversight and investigation- that Nelson and his superior, Will Humble (are you listening Cara Christ?), outlandishly  denied to a point of absolute repugnance.  

So again, please Read My Lips, People. 

Each and every ASH patient is seriously disabled 

under state and federal law. 

It's like, duh! They're being treated on a long term, in-patient basis in a state operated hospital, for crying out loud. Regardless of the motives of persons willing to abuse ASH patients, and so on, the bare fact is, these highly at-risk and disabled citizens of the United States are being subjected to grossly substandard medical care, and it occurs on the basis of there given disability, by which these entrusted state employees get away with defying the provisions and protections afforded to the ASH patients via the Americans With Disability Act, and host of other like federal and state level laws. 

On the basis of their disability.

It's that bad, it needs to be stopped once and for all.

paoloreed@gmail.com

Pervaiz Akhter.
ASH primary attending
psychiatrist 1996-2015.

Shocking Irony Personified (2016 Update). A discussion of the relationship between the underlying causation of major depressive disorder and the grossly abusive and substandard conditions at The Arizona State Hospital. 

(2016 NOTE: Again, it is the attention now drawn to this article, originally published in 2013, that has compelled the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse to rerun a slightly revised version of the original at this time. In the last 8-10 days, this article has been visited no less then 75 times. And indeed, as described in the following content, I found it ironic (to put it nicely), and still today am perplexed by the fact that a facility obligated by law to provide optimum mental health care, safe conditions, and reasonably humane staff- ASH- was (and is) in fact far more dangerous then any other realm I have ever experienced, in each area of concern mentioned at the outset of this sentence. And as I have stated before now, the danger posed upon me at ASH had little to nothing to do with the ASH patients in themselves. The danger arose due to the abusive nature of a marked proportion of ASH staff, namely but not limited to staff technicians and charge nurses, who have the most extensive 1:1 contact/interaction with ASH patients on a daily basis;  the grossly negligent character of ASH psychiatrists, including the Hospital's Chief Medical Officer, upon whom each and every ASH patient rely on in terms of ensuring that the flow of care is consistent with established medical standards and fundamental health care as well civil and human rights law; and the abject corruption present in the Hospital's administrative offices, corruption which we all know is also omnipresent in the highest level offices of the Arizona Department of Health Services, right on up to the Director of ADHS in him or herself. It was that bad when I was an ASH patient, circa 2011-12, as personified by the 2015 firing of former and current ASH CEOs, and no less then 6 other administrative state employees associated with the operation of ASH. And as emerging evidence now emerging in Phoenix area media has indicated, ABC Ch15 specifically speaking, the issues most at stake are still ongoing despite the hiring of new Hospital and ADHS administrators, all of whom have promised to clear these matters up once and for all. Which is to say: It is that bad.)    

--------------------------------------------------------

Wherein, I illustrate the fact that the psychological, emotional, and in at least two events, physical abuse that I experienced  while hospitalized in the state of Arizona's sole long term public mental heath facility not only triggered my most deep set memories of abuse that I suffered as a child (and did in fact trigger/worsen acute suicidal ideation that had effectively begun ebbing somewhat- until that point in time that I was admitted to ASH); but went even further in terms of me recalling my most heartfelt concerns for any person(s) affected by clear and potentially harmful disadvantage. As in the "weak", or otherwise at-risk human beings, who I- as an abused child- realized the hard way are  perpetually in need of protection from individuals capable of abusive behavior, as described herein. Concerns that I came to understand well before adulthood, in relation to my learned recognition of how damaging such abuse is, in fact. It took licensed medical practitioners working at The Arizona State Hospital who are willing to flaunt their disregard of civility and established heath care standards, in language that was tantamount to "This is how it is, and there it nothing you can do about it", all of it 100% on point with how I was treated as an abused child. Ironic, to say that least, that being reminded of these things serves as the basis of my work today, specific to doing all that I can to show those wrongdoers that there is, in fact, quite a bit I can do in order to bring about the due oversight and accountability in this context.  

I spent the first five months of my total time at The Arizona State Hospital on the Palo Verde (east) unit, as per the direction of my referring psychiatrist in Tucson, Dr. Stoker (University of Arizona Medical Center), who specifically requested that I be placed and treated in the most peaceful and reasonably safe setting at ASH, this as per my personal history, related diagnosis and behavioral characteristics; including the simple fact that I was physically and psychologically abused as a child, and the attendant fact that I have no history of engaging in violent are aberrant behavior (outside of suicidal ideation). In the eight months that I spent in Tucson areas mental health facilities (pre-ASH), these aspects of my history and related behavioral characteristics had been clearly established, and included as such in my various pre-ASH hospital records. While on the Palo Verde unit, I experienced an immediate form of psychological abuse (ridicule in relation to reasonable worry that I about other ASH patients), imparted by a virtually ancient charge nurse named Peggy (you know, the white haired war horse with the east coast accent who literally never gets up from her chair), that was on point with the abuse I suffered as a boy (ridicule, neglect, and related abuse imparted on me by a parent). This particular incident included me being ridiculed (by her) because I was basically spooked by the atmosphere at ASH, again, in my first few days in a full on insane asylum, for the first time in my then 49 year old life. I had requested the option to remain on the Palo Verde unit for dinner, rather than having ot go into the outside grounds of ASH where a common cafeteria exists, simply because I was not yet familiar with ASH and had very real worry about the possible hazards; and this craggy old white haired nurse, Peggy, literally expressed sarcastic comments that I know were designed to antagonize, shame, and/or otherwise make me feel as though my concerns were not deserving of basic respect. At the time, I was downright shocked by this woman's attitude, for it was clear to me that she intended to harm whatever sense of safety I actually had at the time, presuming as I did that should I be afraid of venturing out into the wider patient community at ASH, staff would respect me, and grant me the simple request to remain on the unit at that time. ASH patients do as a matter of fact have the option and right to eat either on their assigned unit, or in the common cafeteria setting. But as I learned, this nurse shared the some willingness to psychologically abuse her patients that many of the nursing and technician staff at ASH possess. I attest to witnessing and experiencing her ineptitude and arguable cruelty on regular basis. It is that bad. 

Not long after that, another Palo Verde (east) charge nurse named Mary Ann literally screamed at me because I sought to be given a sleeping medication immediately before actually going to bed, which is precisely when the medication in this case is designed to be taken. This nurse was anxious to get out the door, and my request to take this medication arose about 10-15 minutes before her shift end (10:45 p.m.). Rather than calmly state her wishes in that context, this particular charge nurse exploded in a fit of rage, screaming at the top of her lungs "You have too too much nerve! How dare you make me do this right before I get off! You are going to learn to take direction!" This exhibition of violent behavior basically freaked me out, and in the ensuing hour or so, as I went to bed, I experienced the same physiological responses that I experienced when, as a young boy, one of my parents fell into a pattern psychological (screaming, threatening), emotional (ridiculing, threatening), and at times physical abuse. This may sound a bit dramatic in terms of the effects of such experience, but the simple fact is, these types of psychological abuse underlie the causations of depression, PTSD, and other like forms of mental disorder and illness.

Along with one incident of sexual abuse when I was 6 year old, these elements of my personal history have everything to do with the manifestation of major depressive disorder in my psychological condition, including my deeply embedded suicidal ideation. This was not the only time that the nurse Mary Ann blew her lid in this manner (but to memory, it was the first such event in her specific case); and as time passed, she was actually reprimanded at one point (in tandem with the aforementioned Peggy) in direct relation to a violation of my fundamental civil rights (to contact a state patient rights' advocacy office via telephone at anytime, versus arguably unreasonable rules and restrictions on phone use); following my having reported this violation of my civil rights, ASH staff were ordered to post signs above the patient telephones that state the legally based fact that any ASH patient has the unalienable right to contact legal or advocacy based agencies/individuals at any point in time they so wish. I attest to this, and I have the data to prove it.  

IRONY PERSONIFIED.

I mention these two simple examples (above) of staff misconduct at ASH for the following reason: 

My motivation to take on the task of addressing and exposing the substandard conditions at ASH arose at the virtual outset of my admission to ASH in January, 20122, directly out of my being triggered by this abuse, as it relates to abuse in my childhood which is known today as underlying my symptoms specific to major depressive disorder, and associated traits, including mild to moderate PTSD, and acute/chronic suicidal ideation. The irony herein is clear, for it took me being abused again- just as I was as a young child- for me to attain a basic understanding of this very detail of my state of mind and emotions, in the context of my very real diagnosis and related mental health treatment needs today. And much as I recognized as a boy, the deeply unjust and harmful impacts of these forms of grossly unjust such abuse (which did in fact lead me to seriously consider suicide at the age of thirteen), I again sensed this while at ASH, where the abuse I experienced in these sorts of instances triggered the same neurological disturbances that arose when my older family members abused me well over 40 years ago. This realization taught me the hard way how damaging such mistreatment is, but it took being subjected to such abuse as an adult patient in Arizona's sole long term public mental health hospital to see this, in fact. Ironically indeed, unexpectedly and undesirably (quite frankly), as I struggled to understand my own personal needs in the context of my mental health, these patterns of abuse at ASH led me straight into my work today, as it stands. For I know today that the highest ranking clinical staff at ASH willfully abuse the emotional and psychological challenges that all ASH patients have to live with day in and day out, and this abuse occurs with direct complicity of ASH's administrative staff. In my own case, during my time at ASH, I did consider a means to take my life on the basis of my feeling as though the greater world around me has no interest in whether I live or die, and there is no more clear evidence specific to my thinking then, than the grossly depraved misconduct of ASH staff, as it arises on a daily level, and as illustrated in these 2 basic examples. Suffice it to say, my records and overall writing to date is rife with such examples, including names and dates. Herein the identifiable crisis that I am seeking to resolve.

IN CLOSING: There are many good people working at The Arizona State Hospital (and you know who you are- Jewels in the Desert!). But due to the presence of senior clinical staff who have virtual control/power over the majority of lower ranking staff, and who as exemplified above, are basically accustomed to treating ASH patients like dirt, such "good people" are the minority. I am convinced that the only way to advance in staff hierarchy at ASH is by cooperating with the highly unlawful misconduct of ASH administrators and senior clinical staff. This particular dynamic was exposed by the dishonesty of Hospital administrators such as former ASH supervisor Cory "crazycorycorner" Nelson, exhibited/proven in recent Phoenix ABC Ch15 news reports), wherein it was shown that ASH staff as a whole are threatened by the possibility of being fired, should they raise their voice in terms of speaking out against the deplorable conditions at ASH, whether or not specific to patient needs, of those of ASH staff. In my case, I was initially faced with the illegitimate recommendation of Laxman Patel that I be discharged, in spite of still being acutely suicidal ("This is not the right hospital for you..."; and later, very clear retaliation that was imparted on me by former ASH Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Dingle, and Cory Nelson (yet another example of tandem participation in these practices, as illustrated above by the shockingly abusive nature above of two ASH charge nurses). To date,  I think of the better staff at ASH everyday, as I work to maintain a dedication to seeing that the one's most responsible in for these issues be brought to justice, via direct oversight and accountability, as per the letter of law in any modern society. 

In with the good, out with the bad, in other words. 

The fact is, I hold the good people in a state of sincere esteem, appreciation, and at times, outright awe. I could not do what they do. Jewels in the Desert, each and every one of them.   

For, if not for the better staff at ASH (and they know who they are), I might still be mired in the substandard care practices and conditions at ASH. Or, as a matter of fact, dead today. I will never forget that, or them. 

(2016 Update: As I have made clear in recent days, including in the introduction to this 2016 update, there is no evidence to the effect that the most abusive charge nurses, their given supervisors- the psychiatrists- and/or persons such as Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Dingle, assistant attorney general Joel Rudd , etc., have been held accountable in terms of their given misconduct. Which only supports the likelihood that substandard health care and practices are still ongoing with respect for persons who have extensive 1:1 contact/interaction  with ASH patients and a day in day out basis.  To the direct detriment of said patients, as described in this article. Likewise, in the administrative offices of ADHS, particularly the ADHS Office of Grievances and Appeals and beyond, persons such as Kara Burke and Margery Ault, etc., are also getting away with the fact that they were 100% complicit in furthering the now proven corruption in the operation of ASH across the board. Each one of the above named individuals were fully involved in allowing for incidents such as the cover of the escape of ASH patient Jesus Murietta, and a far wider presence of grossly unlawful misconduct that I have thus far included in my articles in this BLOG. Whether on the floors of the patient units, in the administrative offices of ASH itself, in the office the assistant attorney general, or farther up the food chain in ADHS/BHS, there are any number of obviously inept and outright malicious individuals who most certainly need to be removed from the picture altogether. I contend that nothing short of such action will serve to bring the operation of ASH up to par with established health care standards, state and federal law, and policy in general. It's that bad, and it has to happen.)

paoloreed@gmail.com