Still here
Okay, I'm trying to pretend I'm not blogging right now, but I'm still at work, so it's pointless to pretend. Below, a heartbreaking story of abuse at a state hospital in Texas. Michael Fiala, 35, begged his father to get him out of the hospital, where he was ultimately beaten to death. From the Dallas News:
"Deaths like Mr. Fiala's are rare, said Joe Lovelace, outgoing executive director of the Texas branch of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. State statistics support that: Michael Fiala was the only patient to die from assault at a Texas state hospital last year."
I imagine such deaths are, in fact, infrequent, but I wonder at Lovelace's certainty. How do we know for sure?
Comments
I hope I'll be forgiven for going slightly off-topic but Joe Lovelace
was a supporter of Texas SB 2292. Not good news for those who
suffer from a mental illness deemed less severe. Doubtless consumers
dealing with anxiety and panic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder
and nonsuicidal depression might disagree with the conclusion that their
illnesses are any less severe or the implication that their suffering is any less.
How it worked out.
Mental Health Systems in Disrepair. (January 23, 2005)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/3004871.html
Posted by: Joe | January 31, 2006 11:31 AM