Dr. Torrey in New York Post

David Tarloff, accused of killing psychologist Kathryn Faughey and trying to kill psychiatrist Kent Shinbach, was known by his neighbors as "the crazy guy." He'd been "in and out of mental hospitals more than 20 times," says his brother, but "they kept releasing him." He did reasonably well when maintaining treatment, but he "frequently went off his medication."

Off medication, in these stories, is when the trouble usually starts...


Violence committed by seriously mentally-ill individuals who are not being treated are merely one manifestation of our egregiously failed mental-health-treatment system...

And there is abundant evidence that all of these problems are getting worse.

We know what to do, of course. Most individuals like Tarloff do very well if they are properly followed up and treated. Kathryn Faughey's killing is a failure not only of the treatment system but also of every New Yorker for not demanding a system that works - first and foremost, by holding hospital and mental-health accountable.

Until we start doing that, each mind-numbing tragedy will keep on being followed by another.

- TAC president, Dr. E Fuller Torrey in an op-ed in today's New York Post

Safety must supersede freedom

Three homeless men died on Long Island in the severe weather. Alexander Roberts, a homelessness advocate, writes in Newsday today that those deaths, “would have been avoided last week if police were allowed to force people living on the street into a temporary shelter in the freezing weather.”

He recounts the sad 20 year old story of Billie Boggs, a woman “protected” by civil libertarians from involuntary treatment, who was able to gain her freedom to live with psychosis and without a home.

Robert suggest that the answer should be involuntary shelter for people who are “imminently dangerous” to themselves and will not take care to get themselves out of the freezing cold. An even more helpful solution is for the mental health system to start caring for those who are homeless due to untreated severe mental illness; for mental health professionals to use both the inpatient and outpatient treatment laws to help restore such individuals to a level where they can make competent decisions about the need for shelter; and, for all of us to hold the mental health system responsible for maintaining the safety net for the individuals it so routinely tosses to the elements.

A week of tragic consequences

The tragic consequences of untreated severe mental illness were evident across the country this week.


In Georgia, a 33-year-old man bludgeoned his girlfriend to death. Shannon Marrow has schizophrenia and had been in and out of treatment centers for years. He had recently stopped taking his medication


In Maryland, Timothy Hayes Marsh was fatally shot in the head. His sister says Marsh struggled with bipolar disorder for years, and had substance abuse problems from self-medicating. She suspects Hayes was in the midst of a drug deal when he was killed.

In New York, David Tarloff had been in and out of hospitals for years before he killed psychologist Kathryn Faughey. Tarloff has schizophrenia and relatives say he had recently stopped taking medication.

In Florida a mother has been declared insane and sent to a psychiatric hospital after she repeatedly stabbed her 5 year-old daughter. Olga Fererra has a history of mental illness including bipolar disorder and psychosis.

Getting messages from the TV

Jeffrey Arenburg is in the news again; this time facing charges for punching an officer in the face.

Twelve years ago, Arenburg killed Ottawa sports broadcaster and former hockey pro, Brian Smith after he finished his 6 p.m. sports show. Police said Arenburg, who had worked as a fisherman, had made complaints in the past that TV stations were broadcasting messages into his head.

According to Canadian media reports, Arenburg was later diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and was found by a judge to be “not criminally responsible” for the death of Smith.

In a terrible irony, after Arenburg killed Brian Smith, Ontario passed “Brian’s Law,” in his name – a bill that allows for court-ordered community treatment.

Unfortunately, threats to local TV and radio personnel by people with untreated mental illnesses are more common than many realize.

In a questionnaire answered by 259 radio and TV stations:

• 123 stations (47.5 percent) reported having at some time received a telephone call, letter, fax, or e-mail from an individual asking the station to stop talking about them or sending voices to their head.
• The stations had received a total of 3,155 such communications from 284 separate individuals in the past year, with one station reporting having received 1,500 communications.
• 43 stations reported that an individual had at some time personally come to their station to ask them to stop talking about them or to stop sending voices to their head. The stations reported having received a total of 150 such visits from 61 different individuals in the past year.

Tragic endings to a bad situation

Over the weekend we were reminded again of the role law enforcement is forced to play in dealing with severe mental illness. The failure of the mental health community to properly treat those with severe illnesses so often ends in tragedy across the country.

In Florida –
A sheriff’s deputy in Indian River County shot and killed Byruss Green, a man with a mental illness who had not been taking his medication.

In Illinois –
A jury determined that officers were not to blame in the March 2000 shooting of Joseph T. Zagar that had been called a suicide-by-cop. Officers had been to the home of Zager multiple times and had taken him in for mental health treatment. This time, Zager was threatening the officers with what they thought was a gun.

In Kentucky –
Brenda Joy Woosley, a woman with a mental illness had been driving erratically and avoiding police attempts to pull her over. Two officers fatally shot her after she drove her car into them.

In New York –
A man with a mental illness in Brooklyn was fatally shot by police officers after he repeatedly charged at them with a broken bottle. Before charging the officers, Dragan Kostovski stabbed his roommate.

Bracing for the cold - and bitter tragedy

Every winter, we read sad news stories about homeless people with severe mental illnesses who fall victim to the elements. While the weather gets blamed for the deaths, the truth is more disturbing: About 1/3 of the nation’s homeless are people with severe mental illnesses.

• Many of these individuals are homeless BECAUSE of their illnesses.
• Most are not being treated for their illness and often the lack of treatment is because they have impaired awareness of their illness.
• The headlines overlook the daily victimization and brutal realities on the streets for people with severe mental illnesses.

Next time you read one of these sad stories, consider the fact that Assisted Outpatient Treatment can prevent tragedy. In New York, 74% fewer participants experienced homelessness while in the AOT program as compared to before they entered the program.

Important message in "Michael Clayton": location matters

It wasn’t the climax of the movie. It wasn’t even a major part of the plot. But, for those struggling to get treatment for a loved-one, a short portion of the new George Clooney movie – Michael Clayton- reveals something they know all too well - location can make all the difference in the world when trying to get treatment for someone with a severe mental illness.

In the movie, Arthur, a powerful, smart, well-respected attorney with bipolar disorder has a psychotic break and strips naked in a courtroom in Milwaukee, claiming he’s Shiva the god of death. Arthur refuses to take his medication, saying life is clearer than it’s ever been. He’s even been through a re-birth in which he was covered in placenta while he was walking down the street.

Later in New York, in a scene no longer than two minutes, Michael Clayton is trying to convince Arthur to take his medication and seek treatment for his bipolar disorder. Arthur responds by saying, “to involuntarily commit me, I have to be a danger to myself or someone else. If you wanted to commit me, you should have left me in Wisconsin.”

And he’s absolutely right.

As Arthur alluded to in the movie, in Wisconsin he probably could have gotten involuntary treatment for stripping naked in a courtroom and running around outside in a snowstorm wearing only socks. Wisconsin probably would have sensibly permitted a court to place someone as sick as Arthur in either inpatient or outpatient care. Wisconsin’s “Fifth Standard” essentially permits such treatment interventions for those who can’t make informed treatment decisions, need care or treatment, and will suffer severe mental, emotional or physical harm resulting in either the inability to function in community or a loss of cognitive or volitional control. Arthur’s condition and actions would have likely met those criteria.

Meanwhile in New York, there was nothing Michael Clayton could do to get treatment for his friend. In New York Arthur had to be an immediate physical danger to himself or others in order to be placed in inpatient treatment.

What assisted outpatient treatment can... and can't... do

Last Saturday, Lee Coleman evaded his family’s attempts to have him hospitalized and went on a rampage – stabbing two people with knives he stole from a Manhattan restaurant before being shot by an off-duty police officer who had just paid his check.

It is the type of gripping tragedy that leads to unfortunate, big-lettered headlines in a city’s papers, such as PSYCHO STABBER from the New York Post, as well as editorial pleas with titles like Stop The Insanity On The Streets. And when the general community peers into the most often ignored world of severe mental illnesses, the possibility of reform emerges. On Monday, Governor Eliot Spitzer expressed his support for creating a panel tasked with investigating how to treat the most severely ill and thereby protect the public from those in that group whose symptoms would otherwise escalate to violence. New York is home to Kendra’s Law, the best-known and most thoroughly documented assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) law in the United States. Yet despite the availability and success of Kendra’s Law, tragedies intertwined with non-treatment continue in New York. Does that mean Kendra’s Law has failed? Hardly.

Kendra’s Law neither is nor is purported to be a cure-all.

For starters, an AOT program cannot help someone who is not in it. As is appropriate with any form of court-ordered treatment, the eligibility standard for Kendra’s Law is targeted at those incapable of managing and maintaining their own care. And even if Coleman was eligible at some point, the Kendra’s Law program is not tasked with searching out those who are sick and need AOT.

AOT is also not a mechanism designed for times of extreme crisis. The law has no mechanism for immediate intervention other than for those already under AOT orders.

The purpose of Kendra’s Law is to give intensive and sustained outpatient treatment to those that courts order into the program, treatment designed to help some of those most overcome by severe mental illnesses stay out of the hospital, off the streets and away from jail. It does that exceptionally well.

Failure in the case of Lee Coleman can be pinned to New York’s still-restrictive standard for emergency intervention and inpatient hospitalization, which requires immediate and demonstrable physical danger. Coleman’s uncle pled with police for help after his nephew frantically fled attempts for treatment and disappeared. The police told him they were powerless because “there was no history of violence.”

Mental health week

This week (October 7-13) is national mental health week; a time to “raise awareness of mental health issues.”

Doubtful Teresa Gonzales needs a week of mental health awareness.

Kendra's Law- more important than ever

A recent investigative report by WABC TV in New York showed in the past 15 years, the number of inmates with mental illnesses in New York state prisons has grown by 71 percent, and that many of these prisoners have spent months, even years in total isolation, with virtually no therapy. According to Jack Beck, an attorney for a prison watchdog group:

"Often people with mental illness start their Southport Correctional Intuition sentence not because they've done some terrible act, but they've done some smaller act," Beck said. "But then, once they’re in this environment, that is so difficult for them to cope with, they start yelling and screaming and just being non-cooperative."

"Instead of having mental health beds, we have prisons and jails for the mentally ill. And that is the story."

Meanwhile, Kendra’s Law in New York has had stunningly successful results- For those in the AOT program: 77 percent fewer experienced psychiatric hospitalization; 83 percent fewer experienced arrest; and 87 percent fewer experienced incarceration.

The continued use of Kendra’s Law – a proactive approach to get treatment for people with severe mental illness before they deteriorate and commit a crime- is more important than ever.

Who is left to do the right thing?

William Demegall got 25 to life for the stabbing, bludgeoning and burning of 56-year-old George Mancini. His severe mental illness, though acknowleged by the court, was not seen as a factor in sentencing.

Despite pleas by members of the local NAMI, the judge gave Demegall the maximum sentence possible.

Once again, we turn to the prison system as the last hope for treatment. As the editors of the local paper noted in an editorial today:

"It is now up to the New York State Department of Corrections to be the institution, at last, to do the right thing in this case and assign Mr. Demagall to a facility that can properly treat mental illness." [Berkshire Eagle, March 23, 2007]

Deinstitutionalization knows no borders

“Canada is not alone in jailing the mentally ill. The United States, too, deinstitutionalized a large number of psychiatric patients. There, too, law-enforcement agencies increasingly are left to pick up the pieces.

In New York City, according to statistics compiled by the Treatment Advocacy Centre, the number of police responses to complaints about "emotionally disturbed persons" climbed from 20,843 in 1980 to 64,424 in 1998. In Florida, mentally ill people in crisis must be assessed under the state's mental-health treatment law. In 2000, there were 80,869 mental-health assessments, a figure that handily surpassed the 60,337 drunk driving arrests that year.”

More from the Montreal Gazette …

For more information on ensuring appropriate treatment for people with severe mental illnesses in Canada, visit: http://www.cfact.ca/

Kendra's Law saves lives

James Masse struggled with severe mental illness for years. Eventually, he was placed in Adult Protective Services, but even that wasn’t enough to help him. When Masse was found walking into oncoming traffic, Kendra’s Law- New York’s version of assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) - was enacted for him. According to Megan Johnson, deputy clinical director at the Office of Community Services for Warren and Washington Counties:

It's a "last resort," Johnson said, but can help people avoid ending up in jail
or an emergency room.

"It is the most restrictive measure available to us, and taking away an individual's freedom of choice is not something we take lightly," she said. "But it allows us to intervene earlier, before they become an imminent danger to themselves or others.

Thanks to AOT Masse’s life has turned around. Masse says:

"I'm not ashamed of having a chemical imbalance. It's something that happened by accident; it's not like I'm being struck down for doing something bad," he said.

"If other people can help and not be the way I was, that's good."

The Shock, Grief, Panic and Guilt from the Other Side of a Tragedy

Severe mental illnesses can agonize in so many ways. The most direct manner is the impact on those who have them, but the scope can range far wider – to the families, others, and numerous critical components of our society.

Among the most heart-wrenching of anguish is that of families whose loved ones fall victim to the acute psychiatric disorder of another. We have painfully watched as families, such as those of Kendra Webdale, Laura Wilcox, and Gregory Katsnelson, bravely withstand the devastation of needless and unexpected loss. We have also been awed as members of these families have nobly turned their grief, not into revenge, but to bringing treatment to people incapacitated by illnesses like the one that ripped away their child, sibling or parent.

There is a flip side of these tragedies that rarely gets attention – the grievous turmoil of the families of the person who caused the harm, and did so only because of the symptoms of an illness that were neither asked for nor susceptible to self-control.

Imagine the turbulent mixture of shock, grief, panic and guilt experienced by the parents of Anthony Capozzi when their son, who has schizophrenia, was charged with two rapes in 1985 and later convicted of them. Was it the illness? Could his parents have prevented his actions? Something else? According to Albert Copozzi, Anthony’s father, "It is with you every moment …We don't go to bed at night without thinking about our son."

To put a twist on the Capozzis' distress that is hopeful yet also utterly confounding, imagine that – after 23 years of weekly eight-hour roundtrips to visit him in prison – Anthony Capozzi might not have done anything after all.

Dateline producer: "This is not tilting at windmills stuff"

From the blog entry of Dateline producer Lee Kamlet - Dateline will be airing a show on the Kendra Webdale story today, SATURDAY, JANUARY 20 at 8:00 pm EST:

On a damp, dreary day in January 1999, Kendra crossed paths with another New Yorker, a stranger named Andrew Goldstein. Kendra had made a last-minute decision to defy the rain, and take the subway to meet some friends. Andrew was going to take the same train home. Witnesses say Andrew stepped up to Kendra and asked the time. Then, just as the train pulled into the station, he stood behind Kendra, and with what one person called impeccable timing, shoved Kendra in front of the train. She died on the tracks.

The horrific story stunned not only New Yorkers, but the entire nation. What could have prompted someone to push a total stranger in front of the fast-moving train? To find the answer, Dateline spent 10 months investigating the story. We learned that Andrew Goldstein had quite a history ... [Read more ...]

Kendra's Law on Dateline this Saturday

Tune in to Dateline this Saturday, January 2o, for a piece by Edie Magnus on the death of Kendra Webdale 8 years ago in New York. New York's widely successful "Kendra's Law" was named for her and is in place and helping people today because of the compassionate advocacy of the Webdale family.

Find your local channel and airtime on Dateline's website.

A SAMPLE OF THE RESULTS OF KENDRA'S LAW ...

During assisted outpatient treatment (AOT):

• 74% fewer participants experienced homelessness
• 77% fewer experienced psychiatric hospitalization
• 83% fewer experienced arrest, and
• 87% fewer experienced incarceration.

Individuals in Kendra's Law were also more likely to regularly participate in services and take prescribed medication.

And AOT recipients endorsed the effect of the program on their lives. After receiving treatment, 75% reported that AOT helped them gain control over their lives, 81% said AOT helped them get and stay well, and 90% said AOT made them more likely to keep appointments and take medication.

Remembering Kendra Webdale, her family and so many others

Eight years ago today, Kendra Webdale a vibrant, beautiful young woman was pushed to her death from a subway platform in New York City by a man with schizophrenia who had a documented history of assaults and failing to follow prescribed medication regimens.

At the time, advocates like DJ Jaffe had been working for at least 10 years in New York toward a statewide assisted outpatient treatment law. Kendra family’s commitment to prevent the tragedy of untreated mental illness coupled with Governor (then-Attorney General) Elliot Spitzer’s political will finally succeeded in achieving the reality of Kendra’s Law for assisted outpatient treatment in New York. All those who are being helped by Kendra's Law in New York today are indebted to the Webdales, particularly Kendra’s mother Pat, who continues to advocate and Chairs the AOT Quality Improvement Panel sponsored by New York’s OMH.
In addition to mourning Kendra, today is a day to remember some other random victims of the violence that is sometimes a result of untreated mental illness ... and the families who have, like the Webdales, opened their hearts to try to help others.

Edgar Rivera, who lost his legs after being pushed from a NY subway platform in April 1999, epitomized grace and understanding when he lamented that although he lost his legs, at least he had his mind, unlike his assailant. Linda Gregory partnered with Alice Petrie, the sister of the man who shot her husband in the line of duty as a sheriff’s deputy. Their successful advocacy lead to Florida’s adoption of AOT and they continue to advocate for more humane treatment. Amanda and Nick Wilcox’s daughter was killed at a mental health center in California by a man with untreated mental illness. They are fighting to get their county to adopt Laura’s law.

There are so many others, too many to mention here, but we particularly want to remember 11-year-old Gregory Katsnelson who was killed, while riding his bike, by a young man whose family was told he was not “dangerous” enough to be helped. Before he killed Gregory that day, he also killed his own mother. Gregory would be 15 years old now - the Katnselsons have spent the last 4 years trying to persuade New Jersey legislators to become the 43rd state to adopt an AOT law. The Senate, under the leadership of Governor Codey, passed the bill last year.

Our hope for the New Year is that the Katsnelsons will succeed as other families have in making a terrible tragedy into a legacy of hope for others ... and that better laws and better usage of and understanding of the laws that exist will mean fewer sad anniversaries like today.

Posted by TAC executive director Mary Zdanowicz.

Sad ending

Broder suffered from schizophrenia and [authorities] said the area he was discovered in was indicative of somebody who was disoriented, given that it was in an isolated area not accessible by any roads and bordered by swamp land.

“Lost man found dead,” Auburn Citizen, January 31, 2006

Read more: Needs treatment, but gone missing