Moms say state failing severely mentally ill people

The sheer size of the audience reflected the importance of the topic.

Impromptu overflow seating was set up outside the discussion room inside NAMI Southwest Washington’s offices to accommodate the nearly 85 people who attended Thursday night’s meeting.

The crowd gathered for a Mothers of the Mentally Ill community discussion about mental illness, and how they believe failures by the state government have put people who are severely mentally ill in a position where their most likely outcomes are homelessness, incarceration or death.

The keynote speaker was Jerri Clark, who has a son who has struggled with mental illness. She is a parent advocate with the advocacy group Partnerships for Action, Voices for Empowerment.

She said Gov. Jay Inslee told her at a recent meeting: “Mental illness has been criminalized in the state of Washington, and that has to stop. We have to make this a priority.”

“I’m going to hold him to that,” she said.

Clark mentioned the Involuntary Treatment Act, which can get individuals committed to a mental hospital or institution against their will, and how it difficult it is to actually meet the criteria. The ITA requires that patients be considered violent or an imminent threat before they can be helped.

“Behavior that is violent usually means that treatment is withheld and replaced with punishment,” Clark said. “Families are trapped by this Catch-22 in the law.”

Linda Wiley, a mother from Seattle who spoke about her son’s experiences battling mental illness, added to Clark’s points.

“We hope they get sick enough without dying because that’s what it takes to get help in Washington state,” Wiley said.

Clark asked folks in the room to raise their hand if they’d heard the language around these failings. A half-dozen hands rose up each time she said a phrase.

• “He’s not sick enough yet. Call back when he’s dangerous.”

• “It’s not illegal to be psychotic.”

• “There’s nothing we can do until he breaks the law.”

• “Jail is good news. Now he can access more programs.”

“Jail is never good news,” Clark countered. “The system that denies care until somebody gets hurt, and then denies care because somebody got hurt, is inhumane, ineffective, deadly and ridiculously expensive.”

Clark categorized severe mental illness as serious depression, severe bipolar, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, or “disorders that lead to psychosis.” She said there are almost 200,000 people, or nearly 4 percent of Washington’s population, who fall into this category. It costs hundreds of millions to care for these people in jail each year, she explained.

Clark would like to see reform to the ITA, more funding for mental health beds and other evidence-based programs, higher accreditation standards for inpatient hospitals, better incentives for mental health care providers and outcome data tracking from inpatient facilities.

The discussion was intended to ignite action in the upcoming legislative session. After the meeting, Heidi Bjurstrom, NAMI Southwest Washington manager of programs and volunteers, said she thought it served its purpose in educating the community.

She noted the challenges that severe mental illness advocates face.

“There is a really deep stigma that exists around mental illness that is the culture in society. We don’t understand it well,” Bjurstrom said. “I think we’re kind of a society that thinks quick fixes can happen. Mental health — mental illness — is something that is not a quick fix.

“It’s not ‘take a pill and you’re better.’ It’s a systemwide issue. It affects the entire family, too. It’s not just the individual.”