KERANA TODOROV | Posted: Thursday, May 5, 2011 6:15 pm

A bill designed to make it easier to involuntarily medicate Napa State Hospital patients deemed incompetent to stand trial received the green light from a state Assembly committee this week.

The measure is one of several introduced in the state Legislature this year to improve safety at the five state psychiatric facilities where violence remains a top concern.

Assembly Bill 366, co-authored by Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, allows a committee at each state hospital to authorize the involuntary medication of patients who refuse to take antipsychotic drugs for up to 21 days while the courts review their case.

The bill also requires judges to rule if patients lack the “capacity” to make decisions on whether or not to take antipsychotic drugs.

Currently, patients who are sent to state hospitals because they are deemed incompetent to stand trial and who refuse to be medicated may go without antipsychotic drugs for months while their case is reviewed by the courts, said Dr. Patricia Tyler, a psychiatrist at Napa State and a member of the Union of American Physicians and Dentists, the doctors union that strongly supports AB 366.

Patients may decide to refuse medications because they don’t believe they have a mental illness, Tyler said.

A quarter of patients who are incompetent to stand trial arrive at the hospital without a court order allowing involuntary medication, Tyler said, citing figures from the state Department of Mental Health.

This state agency oversees California’s five state psychiatric hospitals, including Napa State, where the lack of staff and patient safety has made national headlines with a patient accused of strangling psychiatric technician Donna Gross in late October.

“This is about creating a safer environment for patients and staff, one that they both expect and deserve,” Allen said this week. “To do that we must make changes to the security infrastructure of the various facilities and provide the necessary tools for effective medical treatment,” he said.

The bill, Allen said, improves the current involuntary medication process by eliminating gaps for patients who are incompetent to stand trial and committed to a state hospital.

Under the bill, judges determine at the initial trial if the patients have the capacity to make decisions regarding antipsychotic medications. The requirement, Allen told a committee earlier this week, eliminates unnecessary and redundant court hearings.

The bill received unanimous support Tuesday from the state Assembly Committee on Public Safety. Allen’s chief of staff, Sean MacNeil, expects the bill to be amended as it moves forward through the legislative process.

The two-member local committees proposed in AB 366 include a patient advocate and a non-treating psychiatrist. The bill may be redrafted to include a third person, MacNeil said.

Tyler noted that local committees to review involuntary medications were formerly in place at Napa State but stopped in last fall at DMH’s directive. That happened after a Coalinga State Hospital patient successfully challenged the practice, MacNeil said.

Disability Rights California, a statewide organization that advances the rights of Californians with disabilities, opposes the bill unless it is amended, Margaret Johnson, the nonprofit’s director of advocacy, said Thursday.

Disability Rights California wants to protect people’s rights to due process. “That’s our primary concern,” Johnson said.

She said Disability Rights California is in negotiations with Allen’s office. “We have been working with Michael Allen on suggested amendments,” she said.

Ronald Abernethy, Napa County’s chief public defender, expressed reservations about the bill, noting that “the issues surrounding the involuntary administration of anti-psychotic medication are complex.”

“The desire to authorize the involuntary medication of every mentally ill criminal defendant, the seeming goal of AB 366, is understandable,” Abernethy said in an email.

“Unfortunately, the statute offers few real protections of an individual’s constitutional right to be free, except in narrowly defined circumstances, from the forced administration of powerful drugs over a patient’s objection.

“Whether AB 366 in its current form would pass constitutional muster, under guidelines provided by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Sell decision, remains to be seen,” he said.

Jennifer Turner, spokeswoman for the Department of Mental Health, said the agency has not taken a position on AB 366.

URL: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_a8a04d66-777c-11e0-9f2c-001cc4c002e0.html

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A yearlong investigation by the federal government confirmed what mental health advocates in the state have long maintained: New Hampshire does not have adequate community support systems for people with mental illness.

As a result, individuals are institutionalized in more expensive and more restrictive settings, primarily the New Hampshire Hospital in Concord and Glencliff Home, a nursing home for people with mental illness in Benton.

“In spite of a challenging fiscal environment, the state has continued to fund costly institutional care, even though less expensive and more therapeutic alternatives could be developed in community settings,” the study found.

The situation is particularly frustrating because the state could actually be spending less money to get better results for people struggling with mental illness. As the report points out, reliance on institutional care is not only less effective and more expensive, it violates the civil rights of people with disabilities.

While some may see this as another example of federal overreach, the fact is that Congress did pass the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Department of Justice has to enforce it. If New Hampshire does not take appropriate action, it could face a costly federal lawsuit.

None of this comes as a surprise to lawmakers and state officials. New Hampshire already has a blueprint for improving mental health services – a 10-year plan released in 2008.

The plan called for creating “supporting housing,” where individuals get housing subsidies and community treatment, expanding residential treatment programs, providing additional mental health beds in community hospitals, and developing “Assertive Community Treatment teams,” which provide services like nursing and case management in the community.

But as is often the case, the plan has never been funded. There has been no money for adding community mental health beds; additional treatment teams were never created; no additional community hospital beds have been provided.

The roadmap is there, and it must be implemented.

“Many of the things the Department of Justice cites as ways that the state is falling short of its obligations would be remedied by simple adherence to the 10-year plan as it was outlined,” Jeff Fetter, president-elect of the New Hampshire Psychiatric Society, told the Concord Monitor.

Instead, the state is moving in the opposite direction. The recently passed House budget recommended major cuts to community mental health centers, removing eligibility for about 7,000 community mental health patients. Many of them would end up in institutions, costing the state more money and impeding their chances for recovery.

The budget is now pending in the state Senate, which must restore the mental health center funding, especially in light of the federal report.

Gov. John Lynch has proposed closing a New Hampshire Hospital unit and using the money to create two community treatment teams. This is exactly the approach the state needs to take on this critical issue, not just to avoid costly federal sanctions, but because it’s the right thing to do.

URL: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/opinioneditorials/916250-263/mental-healthsystem-is-failing.html

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I’ve found this inspiring video on YouTube, and it personally hit a home run. It reminded me back when I was imprisoned in the psychiatric hospital, and that their was no way that I would be able to be released unless if I do everything that the “doctor” or nurse tells me. I was subject to take dangerous drugs, and if I refuse I get more time added on my stay; they thought that I was being too drastic, and because of my assertive behavior I needed more stay in the hospital, even know that I didn’t truly wanted to be there in the first place. They used “more time” as a weapon rather than treatment.

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Published: March 28, 2011

BROOKSVILLE – State officials have placed emergency restrictions on a psychiatrist who used to treat female inmates at the Hernando County Jail following accusations he sexually fondled patients and, among other charges, requested they take off their clothes during therapy sessions.

The state surgeon general ruled that Dr. James Yelton Rossello cannot treat female patients and must be supervised if he treats male patients after concluding that he abused his role as a psychologist by making sexual advances toward female inmates while working at the jail between November 2009 and August 2010.

Florida Department of Health officials also declared him, “an immediate serious danger to the public health, safety or welfare.”

An investigation was eventually prompted after one inmate informed a correction officer at the jail.

The victims’ ages ranged from early to late 20s.

Attempts to reach Rossello were unsuccessful. Attempts to reach him through, Corrections Corporation of America, which ran the jail at the time, were also unsuccessful. An employee said she believes he is no longer employed there.

According to the FDH emergency restriction order, Rossello asked female inmates to expose their breasts to him, requested hugs, kisses and in one case, a lap dance. He also handed out contact information to see about getting together for sex once they were released from jail.

His most avert attempt to engage in sexual activity with a patient occurred while treating a 24-year-old woman who would not allow him to touch her beyond a tattoo and scar on her wrist, the report showed.

After agreeing to give him a hug, the woman claimed he pushed her against a wall, kissed her lips and neck and placed his hand between her legs.

“Dr. (Rossello’s) actions demonstrate such a disregard for the laws and regulations governing physicians that the safety of patients cannot be assured as long as Dr. (Rossello) continues to practice medicine without restriction in the state of Florida,” the report showed.

Other examples from the FDH included:

• While treating a 29-year-old patient, he inferred that he would provide her drugs for sex.

• During a session with one 21-year-old patient, Rossello had her sit on his lap and later requested she undress for him.

Believing that whether she complied would influence whether she received her medications, she complied, but pulled away when Rossello grabbed for her underwear. Afterward, Rossello increased her anti-psychotic medication and then later asked to see her once she was released from the jail.

• That Rossello told one patient he was, “faithful to his wife 98 percent of the time,” and that, “he became a bad boy,” with women like the patient he was treating.

• Rossello also prescribed lorazepam to a woman who he knew to have a history of medication abuse. An independent medical expert also concluded that the drug was inappropriate for her and that nothing in her medical records justified the treatment.

• That Rossello also falsified medical records, claiming he evaluated a patient once when he provided treatment for her for roughly six months. He also failed to document multiple treatments.

Officials are now seeking a proceeding to determine future discipline and restrictions on Rossello’s license. Sgt. Donna Black, spokeswoman for the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, said she could not comment on whether charges locally are pending against him.

URL: http://www2.hernandotoday.com/content/2011/mar/28/state-sexual-advances-lead-to-restrictions-against/

Reporter Jeff Schmucker can be reached at 352-544-5271 or jschmucker@hernandotoday.com

Related story: Florida restricts license of ex-Hernando jail psychiatrist accused of molesting female inmates

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Richard Lemus interviewed the atrocious Psychiatrist, Dr. Scott Segal the owner of the Segal Institute for Clinical Research and has said:

Dr. Scott Segal, Psychiatrist, Segal Institute for Clinical Research: “It’s definitely making adults depressed, and therefore the children depressed, as well. However, they have less money to spend on treatments, and these days insurance companies have higher co-payments and it’s very difficult for people to come in.”

Even scarier, it’s hard for patients or their families to pay for the medications they so desperately need.

Dr. Scott Segal: “They get their visits and their evaluations and whatever is needed in the study for free, as well as medications. In fact, in research studies, the treatment is above the normal level of care.”

Patients will often try out new drugs that aren’t on the market yet and many times they can stay on that medication after the study is over.

Dr. Scott Segal: “In many studies, after the study is over, the pharmaceutical company will give them a compassionate care and allow them take the medications for a period of time.”

David is on a new medication and sees a doctor weekly. He and his mom have high hopes for the future.

What Richard Lemus and the Channel 7 News Fox WSVN-TV fail to revel to the public is that theirs other ways to defeat depression without the usage of the dangerous drugs. It’s called proper diet, exercise and proper outdoor activities like going to the beach or going to a park. In the whole segment of the story reported by Richard Lemus nowhere did it mention natural ways to deal with depression.

Transcript from this story can be seen on: URL: http://www.wsvn.com/features/articles/medicalreports/MI131332

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VqP0Knb5fU[/youtube]

Please allow the video to load to prevent the video from lagging and cutting.

Obviously you can’t go in there cursing like a sailer and demanding to get released because it will not happen.

I was reading an article that I’m about to show to you below. This Psychiatrist named Thomas M. Peterson was accused of improperly prescribing medication to his 2 children patients. The medications that he was improperly prescribing were anti-psychotics. Go to my The Dangers of taking antipsychotics article to find out how dangerous Anti-Psychotics are. I can only speculate that the Anti-Psychotics that Tomas M. Peterson was giving these children were the prescription medication Risperdal, a now approved medication by the FDA to give to children.

He had his medical license taken away and now the state board of medical examiners are reinstating his medical license for some obvious reason.

Bismarck, N. D. (AP) The state Board of Medical Examiners has reinstated the medical license of a Grand Forks psychiatrist accused of improperly prescribing medication to children.

Thomas M. Peterson’s license was reinstated on Wednesday. The board had restricted his license last month after he improperly prescribed anti-psychotic medication to two children.

The board says Peterson has since completed a course at Harvard on child and adolescent pharmacology. His license will remain on probation for three years.

The medical board also placed Lois Freisleben-Cook on probation for three years for improperly prescribing medication. The board ordered the Williston doctor to complete courses in pharmacology, ethics and record-keeping.

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