I WAS A PERSON
Friday, 25 November 2011 18:33
My name is Paul Flannery, and I was one of the 4% of US adults with severe mental illness. We do not seem to have a voice in this whole "Occupy" movement. The call to save Medicaid funding once again leaves my fellow 4% out in the cold. For some, that is a literal statement.
You see, Medicaid funding for long-term, in-patient treatments is denied to Medicaid eligible adults who are unlucky enough, like I was, to have an illness in their brain, instead of their heart, or lung or some other organ in their body. There is even a law against us, it is called the Medicaid Institutes for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion.
Because people with severe brain disorders, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are denied access to appropriate long-term, in-patient treatments, 200,000 of us are homeless, 500,000 of us are in prison, we cycle in and out of the local emergency rooms, psych wards, and jails by the millions, and we die, on average, 25 years sooner than you, the other 96%, due to medical neglect. You traded state hospitals for homelessness, incarceration, and death. This is not protecting our civil liberties.
I died three years ago; I was only 48 years old. You could be my voice, and the voice of the 4%. Please tell Congress to repeal the discriminatory Medicaid law that puts long-term, in-patient treatments out of our reach. It is literally killing us.
Repeal the Medicaid Institutes for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion
You see, Medicaid funding for long-term, in-patient treatments is denied to Medicaid eligible adults who are unlucky enough, like I was, to have an illness in their brain, instead of their heart, or lung or some other organ in their body. There is even a law against us, it is called the Medicaid Institutes for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion.
Because people with severe brain disorders, like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, are denied access to appropriate long-term, in-patient treatments, 200,000 of us are homeless, 500,000 of us are in prison, we cycle in and out of the local emergency rooms, psych wards, and jails by the millions, and we die, on average, 25 years sooner than you, the other 96%, due to medical neglect. You traded state hospitals for homelessness, incarceration, and death. This is not protecting our civil liberties.
I died three years ago; I was only 48 years old. You could be my voice, and the voice of the 4%. Please tell Congress to repeal the discriminatory Medicaid law that puts long-term, in-patient treatments out of our reach. It is literally killing us.
Repeal the Medicaid Institutes for Mental Diseases (IMD) Exclusion
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Comments
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It can't. The United States stopped being that when the US Supreme Court took the internal decision to permit the American empire by refusing judicially to review the unconstitutiona lity of the first federal imperial statute the Appropriations Act of 1871, pursuant to which the invasion of the territorial sovereignty of the Indian tribes was inaugurated.
Foreign policy and domestic policy are one when it comes to empire because empire is by nature and character altogether mean, vicious and elitist. The solution is to force the US Supreme Court to reinstate constitutional democracy. Maybe Paul can help influence this from the other side.
A legal remedy does exist, albeit the prospect that the rule of law can be reinstated is remote. Please see the website "Might Is Not Right" at http://mightisnotright.org/ and know, Illene and Paul, that others share your heartbreak and your caring aspiration that the tragedy of Paul's mistreatment will not be repeated forever.
Your article is devastating and inspiring. Thank you.
Sincerely,
W'Lawpsh
Paul was my twin brother. I lost him twice, once to schizophrenia and then again to lung cancer due to medical neglect. I tell people that he was actually one of the lucky ones...he was never street homeless or incarcerated. That is a sad testament to the state of medical care for people with severe mental illness.
Please contact your members of Congress to urge them to repeal the IMD Exclusion.
Thanks again for your comment.
Thank you.
Love Laurie
Since the states have to pay 100% of the costs for the care of Medicaid eligible adults who are treated in states hospitals, it has put a huge burden in their state budgets. Along with that, they have misinterpreted a Supreme Court decision upholding a person's right to live in the community, if they are capable, and there is proper supportive housing available... And that is where the problems began. When 50% of all people with schizophrenia, totalling millions of people, don't even understand they are sick, and the community mental health system requires they initiate treatment, and do not provide supportive housing, no wonder so many become homeless and wind up in jail, or are killed by police or die of other medical illnesses.
Got to www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org to learn more about AOT laws. And go to www.paulslegacyproject.org to learn more about the IMD Exclusion
If you are willing to click on a link. Here is the link to the story: http://www.clinicalpsychiatrynews.com/index.php?id=2623&type=98&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=93552&cHash=da03e20e36
Otherwise you can google: Severe Mental Disorders Highly Prevalent in Jails, Prisons
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