02/15/18. Arizona State Hospital Human Rights Committee. 

Dateline: February 15, 2018.

See: To All/Any ADHS and ASH Staff Attacking the Function of ASH's Human Rights Committee Right Now: You are picking for a world of trouble.  I mean this sincerely. Very, very sincerely. (February 14, 2018).

These people are using fear and intimidation to get their way. I am hardly surprised. (See below.)

INTRODUCTION:

A February 13, 2018, letter of notice was sent to the members of the Arizona State Hospital Human Rights Committee, informing members that drastic action will be taken to dismiss the presence and activities of the Committee on the grounds of the Hospital itself. This letter was drafted and signed by director of Arizona's Department of Health (ADHS), Dr. Cara Christ, and included statements to the effect that ADHS's legal office had initiated this action following a review and evaluation of the function of ASH-HRC. This letter of notice is, of course, public record, and is now known in its full content to myself and major media resources.

I will state right off that my words last evening (February 14, see above) were a trite strong (perhaps). But I will not apologize. The need for ASH-HRC to be present there on the grounds of the Hospital is imperative to the care needs and rights of all ASH patients. This includes forensics patients at ASH, until that is, I am advised that a advocacy panel of some sort be established on their immediate behalf, as we have in... most prisons. (No hospital is a prison!)

I have joined forces in recent days in contacting CMS about emergent information specific to issues at ASH that I fully believe  need attention today. Inadequate staffing, for example, an issue that has recently been raised by ASH patients, and at least one very recent member of the ASH work force. And the role of state health care officials in suppressing information about such issues. 

As such, the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse does not fight, and I/we apologize for this arguable presence violence in my language. 

We don't fight, in fact. We write, instead. 

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On its face, the effort of the state of Arizona, represented most specifically at this time by the of Arizona's Department of Health (ADHS), Dr. Cara Christ, to diminish the presence of the Arizona State Hospital's Human Rights Committee (ASH-HRC) appears to be based on alleged misconduct of at least one member of HRC. And while our research into it all has suggested that to some degree there may be some of merit to this allegation, the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse is compelled to state the following:

- Arizona Revised Statute R9-21-105 requires that an HRC be active on behalf the citizens of Arizona at Arizona State Hospital. This requirement has been in effect for over fifteen years (since no later then 2003). And yet, for no explainable reason, it was not until I formally demanded the establishment of ASH's HRC in a memorandum to former ADHS director Will Humble  in 2012 that this crucially needed body of patient advocacy was, in fact, established.

- In May, 1997, Dr. Steven Dingle was identified and held accountable by the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners (BOMEX) as sexual abuser of women working under his authority in a private Phoenix, AZ, hospital. Immediately subsequent to the findings of BOMEX in this matter, Dingle resigned his then current position, and acquired employment in ADHS, specifically as a primary care psychiatrist at ASH.  

- During a November 16, 2017, meeting of ASH-HRC, a current ASH patient expressed concern about Dingle's history. At that time, ASH's chief executive officer, Dr. Aaron Bowen, bluntly interrupted the patient's statement, and stated "I can't have folks calling my CMO a sexual predator in public!" 

- On or about November 17, 2018, attorneys working within the ADHS construct, including but not limited to lawyer Greg Honig, sent several e-mails to members of AHS-HRC demanding that the statement of the involved patient be stricken from the recorded minutes of that meeting.

- Subsequent to that ASH-HRC meeting, a Phoenix area news agency, KVNX ABC Ch15, reported this matter in a prime time broadcast. This report had an emphasis on Bowen's intent to silence the concern of the involved ASH patient, and the demand of ADHS attorneys to remove the patient's statement from the recorded minutes of the meeting. 

- DHS then issued a formal response, ostensibly under the direction of ADHS director Dr. Cara Christ. In that response, the involved patient's concern about Dingle's history was characterized as "highly defamotory" and "harassment." 

NOTE: The legal definition (1) of  defamation is "Any intentional false communication, either written or spoken, that harms a person's reputation.", (2) of harassment is "The act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions, including threats and demands. The purposes for harassment may include racial prejudice, personal malice, an attempt to force someone to quit a job of grant sexual favors, apply illegal pressure to collect a bill, or gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.

- In a February 13, 2018, letter of notice to ASH-HRC (to be further discussed in the near future), Christ went so far as to characterize the concern expressed by the involved patient as a verbal attack.

DISCUSSION:

1) The crux of the February 13, 2018, aforementioned letter of notice relies upon alleged violations of state and federal law and policy. Given that the required establishment of the ASH-HRC was violated until that time when I contacted Will Humble, years after that requirement was enacted in state law, I would ask that Christ and her legal minions in ADHS construct offer the public why in the hell ADHS did not, as a matter plain fact, abide by that standard of law in the first place.

It is an equally plain fact that ASH-HRC played a central role in attempting  to bring ASH up to speed with state and federal law circa 2012-2015, leading in part to critically needed federal intervention on behalf of the ASH patient community. Which is to say, if not for the dedication of the Committee in that time frame to meet its obligations as a body of patient advocacy there at ASH, a host of individuals identified via that federal intervention would have continued to operate ASH in gross violation of medical standards of care and practice. No member of ASH's administration during that time frame, including Dr. Steven Dingle, contributed to bringing this critically needed reform at ASH about, as did no members of the greater ADHS construct.

This begs attention to the possibility that ASH's current administrators have unlawful intent to thwart the function of ASH-HRC, not entirely on the basis of alleged violations by Committee members, but rather as yet one more means to suppress reasonably available information about what exactly goes on at ASH. This also bears overwhelmingly necessary attention to the welfare of the ASH patient community, and I could care less if said patients are at ASH today via a civil commitment or, covertly, sentencing guidelines in a criminal court.

2) I have made it clear already that, in my opinion, and as per my learned experience as a victim of sexual abuse, and as reasonably consistent with relevant literature:

Steven Dingle is a sexual predator.

It is fine and dandy for Cara Christ to declare that Dingle's history as a known sexual abuser has no relevance today, and that his depraved misbehavior has been reasonably resolved. The core question specific to his working at ASH is why in the hell was he employed in the first place? I contend that no person affected by mental and/or emotional illness and disorder would be willing to be treated by a psychiatrist with this record and history. And yet according to Christ, at ASH, and in the ADHS construct, this reality simply has no significance to the care needs of the ASH patients.

I also find it shocking if not shameful that any woman would seek to defend a man like Dingle, especially in this period of time, when the issue of sexual abuse is central to the national interest, on behalf- for the most part- of women in general. And as to this issue being resolved, who is she to state what the impacts of Dingle's misbehavior on his victims look like today. In this context, it has nothing at all do with the fact that a BOMEX investigation found this highly entrusted, state employed physician guilty of sexual abuse in 1997. It does, rather, have everything to do with both Dingle's actual conduct itself and the fact that sexual abusers have been getting away with their shit for far, far too long, in large part due to societally systemic patterns of abject denial about just how harmful such misbehavior is, in fact.

3) The ASH patient who expressed reasonable concern about Dingle's known history is very likely suffering from harmful impacts specific to the intent of Dr. Aaron Bowen to treat them as anything less then a good faith and civically responsible person. Cutting them off as they spoke, effectively telling them to shut up and remain in check. Harmful,  just as it is to victims of sexual abuse who report such issues, when they are subject to unjust efforts to silence them. As they are anything less then due attention and respect.  

I attest that I, too, was harmfully impacted by the willingness of ASH's clinical staff and administrators to characterize me as anything less or other then a person unwilling to stand by while I and my peers are subjected to staff misconduct including abuse, when I was hospitalized there. Cory Nelson, for one example, sneering down his nose as he stated "You have your prerogatives, Patrick, and I have mine...", and Dr. Pervaiz Akhter  sharing his twisted opinion of me as "Only a patient... who do you think you are? There is nothing you can do about it...."

I contend that Bowen has effectively identified himself of yet another American male willing to condone sexual abuses of women, and that Care Christ is effectively ignoring the significance of sexual abuses of women in graphic defiance of contemporary public sentiment. No matter how far they go right now in seeking to complicate the presence of on-site patient advocacy at ASH, these facts will remain in state. They are who they are, and nothing will change that.

4) There is also nothing defamatory or libelous about the patient's having expressed concern about Dingle's BOMEX record. There is nothing false, misleading or selfish about this patient's statement. I mean, for crying out loud! We are talking about a doctor here, who plays a direct role in the care needs of this specific patient, and not to mention that of the entire patient community at ASH. And it also only a matter of opinion- at best- to state that  Dingle is a sexual predator. To attack this patient in this manner is outrageous. Period.

Is it only because he or she happens to be an ASH patient, affected and disabled as are all ASH patients, by mental illness that these people would go so far in seeking to diminish the significance of this issue? If not that... What then? 

5) This is far from the first time the ABC Ch15 has taken it upon themselves to challenge arguably unlawful misconduct of ASH-ADHS employees. I have known and collaborated with that station's investigative team, most notably journalist David Biscobing, since fall, 2013. It was away back then that he contacted me via this blog publication, respectfully stating that he found my writing about ASH heartfelt and obviously in the interest of the patients, and requesting an opportunity to draw from the materials and information included to that time so that he and his staff could initiate their own investigation of ASH. I welcomed and greatly appreciated Biscobing's willingness to work on behalf of the ASH patient community, and I still do today. The fact is, ABC Ch15 is a legitimate media resource, and it was in part due that fact, that the scandalous reality at ASH circa 2010-2015 erupted as it finally did.

6) Even if ADHS' employed legal authorities do have a right to intervene with the actual function of ASH-HRC, I contend that it is a patent violation of the involved patient's right to freedom of speech for them to not be heard, respected, and included in the flow of speech based information that arose during that fateful November 16, 2017, ASH-HRC meeting. Bad enough that Aaron Bowen would interfere with the patient's rights. Because beyond merely characterizing the involved patient as an attacker, an harasser, and/or a  libeler, these highly entrusted, state employed lawyers have engaged in willfully denying the patient's constitutional rights.

As defined by Blacks Law Dictionary, no aspect of the involved patients attempt to state concern about Dingle’s depraved history is consistent with the attempt of ADHS to characterize that attempt as an attack on this physicians formalized record, a harassment, or a libelous angle in expressing his or her opinion.  And yet, various state employed health department representatives have made it a continuing point to characterize this patient as the wrongdoer; when, in fact, it is Bowen and company who have in very recent weeks engaged in… breaking the law, in fact.

Is this, too, on the basis of mental illness? Knowing as any reasonably conscientious American does by now, that state managed mental health care facilities have a proven history of operating far short of established medial standards, I am willing to state that, yes, it is purely due to overt discrimination, that these people have opted to put all elements of this matter on the shoulders and head of the involved patient. Far easier, and something they are well accustomed to, to direct attention away from Dingle, and instead upon the good faith reporter of this concern.

7) I contend that the timing of this attack on ASH-HRC is very, very suspect. The February 13, 2018, letter of notice, that is. Coming as it has after Bowen openly engaged in the same misconduct that former-since fired administrators did (documented), the challenge to documenting patient generated concerns during ASH-HRC meetings (documented), the unwillingness of ASH-HRC to act like sheep in context (documented); and this most recent Ch15 reporting of Bowen's misconduct, the related report of ADHS' formal defenses and justifications,  and the role of state employed lawyers in it all (available on-line).

And after- for what it worth- the thirty revisions of articles that were originally published during the first twelve months of  this blog, revised and republished as such in January, 2018. My re-emergence in directly  advocating for the rights and care needs of the ASH patient community has most necessarily impacted the sensibilities of these people. I am no kind of egoist, either- the plain fact is, all I have had ever had to do is speak to the truth in these matters. I attest, as such, that it takes little more then a sense of compassion and civic duty, the ability to write reasonably well, and actual experience in relation to the realties in places like ASH; and that it can occur despite the impacts of mental illness. All to the benefit of my patient-peers, at ASH, and elsewhere.

It is also known by these people that I was on the verge of becoming an active and voting member of ASH-HRC. I have over the last three months sat in on ASH-HRC meetings as a non-voting member of the public, I have by now completed my ASH-HRC application, and I have mentioned in recent articles that I am listening to each and every element of the activities that go down during ASH-HRC meetings. The fact is, tonight's originally scheduled ASH-HRC meeting would have been my first as an actual member. Until, that is, Christ nixed it all less then fifty six hours ago.

Coincidence?

I hardly think so.

Why the need to summarily remove ASH-HRC from the grounds of ASH, for instance? The details included in the letter of notice go back several  years, so why the wait? Why not, conversely, a sound discussion with Committee members, even today (if not by now), off the regular schedule of ASH-HRC's monthly meetings? Would it not have been prudent to afford a civil approach to getting the matter resolved? Rather then compelling a team of lawyers to get involved?

I, or we, whatever you might want to call this, the blog, have never begun this nature of process on a basis of malice, or the desire to get anyone in trouble... Per se'. Beginning with the first time I spoke to my first ASH psychiatrist, Laxman Patel, about things I witnessed in my first days as ASH patient, and on through my various grievance filings. I always maintained a firm (although paradoxically coincident diminishing) hope that the ones responsible for ensuring that ASH be operated in accordance with established standards of care would do the right thing.  Right up until that point that I published my first articles in this blog, that is, after it had become so disconcertedly obvious to me that nobody at ASH or in the ADHS construct was up to this rudimentary task.

IN CLOSING:

This is an attack on ASH-HRC, the one and only actual on-site hope in terms of protecting ASH patients from abuse, and it is being imparted via the grossly disproportionate distribution of power dynamic that ADHS relies upon in order to maintain status quo, and the standard:

What happens at ASH stays at ASH.

As described herein and more then once in previous articles, for years ADHS officials worked in tandem with the administrators at ASH in denying the ASH patient community any form of access to the legally required ASH-HRC. This would still be the case, I am convinced of this, had I not been alerted to this fact by a state employed human rights advocate named John Gallagher, and had I not then contacted former ADHS director Will Humble. If they had their way....

Today, then, it is the wish of Cara Christ to reverse this simple aspect of legitimate progress in relation to the rights and care needs of the ASH patient community. She has repeatedly made claims about improvements at ASH, and yet, had never been able of willing to provide any evidence to that effect. Beyond, of course, utilizing propaganda, and the language Center of Psychiatric Excellence. Only to, today, take drastic action in seeking to oust ASH-HRC from the actual Hospital.   

This is not about simple violations of confidentiality. While I very well recognize the significance of patient confidentiality, for example, I have yet to learn about any patients who actually share the concerns dictated in Cara Christ's letter of notice. Or that the activities of ASH-HRC have in been harmful to the actual welfare of ASH patients, in fact. 

I could be wrong,  of course.... But a whole freaking office of state employed attorneys, for crying out loud (!), and the related threat of criminal charges on the basis of alleged violations of policy and rules (!).  And a highly positioned state official, who has a nice enough smile, perhaps, but who has never been willing to provide one shred of actual evidence in support of her repeated claims that the conditions and care practices at ASH have markedly improved.

ASH-HRC has done more good in terms of underreported issues about staff misconduct, administrative and clinical ineptitude, and other like issues, then any other aspect of state sanctioned protocol. This is a plain fact, and I've the evidence to prove it.

Way to go, Dr. Christ. Way to go.  

A legal analysis and related further discussion of the letter of notice,  also to be published in full, will be forthcoming in the next few days. 

In the meantime, though: These people are using fear and intimidation to get their way. I am hardly surprised. 

paoloreed@gmail.com