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Having
worked at Rochester Psychiatric Center as a Peer Advocate
and currently as a Peer Specialist I have seen first hand
how Kendra's Law is a huge benefit to people with a mental
illness and their families. In fact, I know many people
in recovery who feel as I do that Kendra's Law helps the
most vulnerable and underserved population of people who
have a mental illness. All too often people with a mental
illness fall through the cracks and live tormented lives,
tortured by their symptoms and are forced to live on the
street eating out of garbage cans. These innocent people
are often abused and victimized. Kendra's Law can help.
Jack Goldstein, Rochester
AOT
has given my daughter a real life and new hope for the
first time in 15 long and terrible years. In honor of
her strength and courage, I will try to explain how. Her
illness and her lack of insight, resulted in horribly
dangerous behavior. Hers is an all too typical, history
of forced hospitalizations always followed by non-compliance.
A history of homelessness, of being raped and beaten while
homeless. A history of contracting every sexually transmitted
disease except AIDS. She has had to undergo surgery for
a pre-cancerous condition resulting from one of those
STD’s contracted on the streets. She had an accidental
heroin overdose for which she required CPR to keep her
alive.
Please imagine the following scenario: There are two people
with serious brain diseases wandering, lost, vulnerable
and helpless in our city. One of those two people has
their photo shown on the TV news with their family pleading
for their safe return. That person has a brain disease
called Alzheimer’s. The other lost person has a
mental illness. No one is helping their family to find
them, to keep them safe. They are sought only if they
commit some act of violence for which they would be arrested.
Would we as a society (or the Civil Liberties Union or
Lawyers for the Public Interest) argue that an individual
with Alzheimer’s has the right to remain on the
street unsafe? Of course not. We help those very ill people.
We don’t blame Alzheimer’s victims for behavior
they cannot control. The mentally ill deserve the same
compassion.
My daughter has been under an order of AOT since her six-week
hospitalization in Bellevue last summer. She stopped her
meds once but was convinced to re-start by her caring
case manager. Today she has a part-time job which she
loves, is attending her day program and taking her medication
voluntarily for the first time in fifteen years. She gains
insight every day and is thankful for her new life.
Patti Sacher, Parent, New York City
Based on my personal experience, I urge you to make the
AOT law permanent. Please do not allow this crucial law
to expire later this year. It is absolutely essential
for the mentally ill patients and their families to have
it available. The law literally saved my son's life. There
is no way he would have survived much longer in his condition
without medication and support. Because of his untreated
illness, he could not understand his predicament.
After 10 painfully desperate years, my son is now able
to take care of himself, interact with people in a way
he has not been able since he was 16 and even attend and
excel in a business training program. You cannot imagine
what all this means to him, me, and my entire family and
how grateful we all are to AOT.
Dana Straka, parent, New York City
Due
in large part to the increase in case management that
accompanied the implementation of Kendra’s Law,
Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) has helped to insure
that the identified hard to serve individuals in the community
have received needed mental health services. Local governments,
providers of services and the New York State Office of
Mental Health have worked effectively to insure that AOT
recipients and individuals in the service enhancement
category receive services as detailed in individual treatment
plans.
Mark Gustin, Board Chairman, Mental Health Association
in New York State
The core principle behind Kendra’s Law was simply
that true compassion for the mentally ill requires us
to acknowledge that some patients, though capable of functioning
well in the community with treatment, have difficulty
taking responsibility for their own care. Denial of the
need for treatment is a common manifestation of mental
illness. A patient who repeatedly exhibits such tendencies
must be carefully monitored. And if the patient abandons
treatment again and rebuffs efforts to solicit compliance,
there should be some recourse before the individual deteriorates
further. Families and caregivers must not be forced to
stand by helplessly and watch their loved ones or their
patients repeat the same heartbreaking cycle of release,
noncompliance, decomposition, dangerous behavior, and
repeated hospitalization.
Brian Stettin, Office of the NYS Attorney General
Assembly Mental Health Committee Hearing, New York City,
April 8, 2005
Hearing
people assail Kendra's law because they argue it takes
away a person's rights, or civil liberties. Does anyone
have the right to throw someone into a train, because
he is unmedicated? Andrew Goldstein is now medicated and
understands he has a mental illness.
The most vulnerable and underserved people in New York,
in the United States, indeed, in the world, are those
with mental illness. More people are diagnosed with schizophrenia
than AIDS, yet less research dollars are spent on us.
Medication doesn't numb us. It clarifies our thoughts
and allows us to think clearly and rationally, as well
as evens out our moods so we're not at the mercy of chaotic
feelings.
Though I haven't had much contact with the anti-drug contingency,
who I must admit I think are anti-recovery, I've heard
horror stories, time and time again, about what happens
to people who don't take their meds. A person with two
masters degrees can only get work flipping burgers in
a diner.
On the other hand, a person who lacked insight into her
illness, before getting assistance, went from 80 hospitalizations
in 10 years, to being able to function without needing
inpatient services, after receiving treatment via Kendra's
Law.
Give me a break! I will not stand by, idly, either, while
other human beings are relegated to homelessness, poverty,
mental imprisonment, and despair.
Christina Bruni, mental health care consumer, Staten
Island
“Our
experiences as it relates to improvements for individuals
are closely aligned with the findings that the New York
State Office of Mental Health has offered. Hospitalizations
have decreased by over 75%, arrests have been reduced
by about 85%, and homelessness has decreased by over 70%.
Not only have individuals’ tenure in the community
improved, but also their quality of life. Further studies
have also shown that persons subjected to mandated services
report a preference of receiving assistance as opposed
to being caught in the revolving door of going in and
out of hospitals and jails. As reported in the report
from the state, 62% of AOT recipients reported AOT has
been a good thing, where 81% see AOT as having helped
them get and stay well.”
Michael Ranney, Coordinator, AOT Program
Erie County Department of Mental Hygiene
Assembly Mental Health Committee Hearing
Buffalo, April 21, 2005
“The availability of AOT changed the way hospital
staff and administration viewed my son and his treatment.
For the first time, they were forced to grapple with my
son’s history. Because they could get an order to
back up a discharge plan, they were more willing to invest
the energy necessary to come up with an appropriate plan…
“(In Assisted Outpatient Treatment) he made more
progress in five months the he had in 20 years. Clearly
he still has a long road ahead, but for the first time
I feel there is hope. Kendra’s Law changed the way
the system responds to individuals like my son. AOT not
only gives hope to consumers and their families, it is
a powerful tool for professionals in the mental health
system who are helpless without it.”
Arlene Steinberg, mother
Assembly Mental Health Committee Hearing
New York City, April 8, 2005
“AOT has been successful in providing appropriate
supervision and treatment to thousands of severe and persistent
mentally ill (SPMI) individuals with a track record of
danger to self or others due to non-compliance with treatment.
AOT is viewed by providers as the “last resort”
for patients with histories of repeated hospitalizations
and incarceration in order to avoid long-term inpatient
treatment in State hospitals. As a forensic psychiatrist
I can attest that AOT is viewed as an efficacious alternative
to incarceration for many mentally ill individuals with
criminal justice system contact. Many AOT patients have
informed staff and judge alike ‘AOT was the glue
that kept them together,’ attributing AOT to helping
transform their lives.”
Antonio Abad, MD, President
Association of Hispanic Mental Health Professionals
Assembly Mental Health Committee Hearing
New York City, April 8, 2005
“It does not boost the ego of a grieving family
to have a law named after the deceased. It honors the
life of our beloved Kendra to dignify and restore some
quality of life to those who suffer from an abhorrent
disease not of their choosing.”
Pat Webdale, mother of Kendra
Assembly Mental Health Committee Hearing
New York City, April 8, 2005
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