Dan E. Weisburd
Editor of _The JOURNAL_

Thanks for your message, David. Here are the two “censored” Publisher’s Notes that you requested…the ones that were glued together by a paranoid and malicious NAMI California Board who completely ignored that way back in 1989 I was given carte blanch to create what became The JOURNAL as long as I took no money from liquor or tobacco interests. For 11 years and some 44 issues I have published and edited what has become an internationally acclaimed quarterly where consumers and their families had equal access to the pages along with researchers, educators, mental health professionals and policy makers. Needless to say, along the way there were some rocky times with some board members, but until recently there was a majority that supported allowing me to continue this venture uninterrupted. The past two presidents have showed a willingness to do anything they could to disrupt and now to kill The JOURNAL with me at the helm.

So be it! I am ready to continue my work elsewhere. NAMI California has a leadership in place that will, I believe, bankrupt the organization. Morally, what they have done to The JOURNAL, indicates they are already intellectually bankrupt.

Here are the two Publisher’s Notes that were glued together. Dozens of readers of The JOURNAL have requested to see what they have been denied. Essentially the notes say that E. Fuller Torrey has had articles published in the country’s best papers, printed without substantiation, claiming that more than 1,000 murders a year are committed by unmedicated patients with mental illness. Apparently he has found that dangerousness sells, and he and his TAC people are pushing involuntary treatment in that manner. The WELLNESS Note calls for decent access to Medical care for persons with mental illness. And, in the case of my son David, it points out that the new atypical antipsychotic meds significantly elevate cholesterol and triglycerides, but that information has not been broadly disseminated because of heart attack risk!

Thanks for your support and that of your colleagues.

Dan

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Publisher’s Note by Dan E. Weisburd

WELLNESS issue

“What does it take to make you wake up, Dan?” A voice broke into my sleep. I sat up startled. The clock read, 3:15 A.M. “Why hasn’t David had a physical?” Was I asking myself? Where had I been? My eldest son has had schizophrenia for 19 years–as many years as he hasn’t had it. Do I remember getting him a physical? No. “Where have you been, Dan?” the now exasperated voice demanded. It sounded somewhat like my stern, long-dead father, or maybe it was my internal scolding severest critic–myself. “You’d know full well if David had a physical. He’d have told you. And you’d know the results! You’ve let him down again, guy. You’re just another negligent know-it-all fraud of a family member telling the world he deserves better, and how much you love him!”

It was 10 A.M. before I could reach Martha Long, the director at The Village ISA in Long Beach, the excellent psychosocial rehabilitation program I’d helped to conceptualize, and where my son was now a member. “No, we don’t routinely get them physicals, Dan,” she answered apologetically. “I’ll be happy to pay for a simple Lipid panel, if there’s no budget for it,” I said. “He eats lots of Chinese food–grease and sugar–loves steaks, and burgers and cheese– and we both know he rarely gets any real exercise.” She agreed to get David an appointment for a blood draw, because, after all, he probably had my genes and I’ve had a heart attack, five bypasses and three heart surgeries. Given David’s life style and genetic inheritance, he could be courting disaster at age 39.

“He is doing well at his job. And he has a lot of friends, here, He seems much happier.” She ended on that optimistic note, and I knew it was true. David was thriving on the life the Village staff had helped him attain. He was committed to recovery.

A couple weeks later I got what would be only the first of many reports. Cholesterol 300. Triglycerides 700. Terrible! Outrageous! Much worse than my readings when I’d had my heart attack. “What does the doctor say about that?” I asked. “They’ll test him again in three months,” answered his personal service coordinator. “What kind of doctoring is that? That’s not good enough,” I replied and asked for an immediate retest, “And have someone be sure David’s done the necessary overnight fast. That alone could skew the results.” “Yes, sir,” said the voice at the other end.

The retest gave even worse results followed by the same lame “…retest in three months” reply. I had done a little research of my own between the two tests. It seems that the marvelous new atypical medications significantly elevate both cholesterol and triglycerides in most patients who take them. David was on high levels of both Clozaril and Zyprexa. With our family history he could be destined for coronary disaster–especially as a two-pack a day inhaling smoker whose rumbling cough is frightening to witness. Why hadn’t his psychiatrist of eight years warned us?

I brought David home, and took him to his mother’s internist, Gilbert Ross, an old family friend, who agreed to be David’s principal physician, if David agreed to do what he prescribed. David said, yes. Ross would offer his services pro bono because he didn’t want to do the MediCal (Medicaid) paper work, and he knew that if I paid (as a third party) it might be used by the bureaucracy to jeopardize David’s SSI and MediCal eligibility.

David’s blood work came back from Ross’ lab worse than ever, and this time I had been the fasting enforcer. Because of David’s profile, Dr. Ross prescribed large daily doses of Lipitor, checked with MediCal and of course they refused to pay for it, so he gave David all the samples he had, and we began a six-week test. At the end of six weeks David’s readings were normal! Cholesterol down from 320 to 184. Triglycerides down from 700-plus to 130! Ross wrote the paperwork, and now MediCal had to pay for the costly Lipitor. But what about all the others who are lucky enough to get the new breakthrough atypical antipsychotics? Who would advocate for them?

I called some top people at Los Angeles County Mental Health. No one wanted to reply for the record. Off the record I learned they knew of the problem, and that few if any clients got physicals. Who will pay was the question. And if they got physicals, given their below poverty level lifestyles, medical problems were bound to surface. Who will pay for the needed medical care? It was a question of reimbursement–plain and simple. “Has this non-productive population been written off as expendable? Are they, in reality, putting aside politically correct rhetoric, discard people?” I didn’t expect an answer. And I got none.

As we read this issue about wellness we would do well to remember that treatment works and that recovery is possible, but never for a moment must we forget that enlightened social policy and dollars to do the job is what will make what is needed available. And, how do we get that? # # # We gratefully acknowledge the efforts of our co-editors Dede Ranahan, Diane Vines, Suzane Wilbur, and Ed Diksa who brought in a majority of our authors.

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Publisher’s Note by Dan E. Weisburd

“Mental Illness and The Law”

I remember we were taught in a Political Science class that we had a government of laws not men, and that it was a good thing. Men, with too much power, could act on a whim and do stuff that was detrimental to others– actions that could be biased, unfair, demeaning, even deadly. Laws were enacted to protect us– all of us. We the people were committed to justice and equality– for everyone. No one was overlooked. Not here.

I liked the sound of that. It made sense, and it caused my boyish pride to swell with a deep inner feeling that I guess you could call patriotism, and that felt good. For me it brought the welcomed embrace of security, especially after cringing through a course in World History and being exposed to the indiscriminate violence and treachery that apparently, with the exception of brief pauses in time, has always stalked humankind.

Thank heaven our Founding Fathers, through an act of genius and enlightened self-interest, sought to preserve the blessings of liberty by carefully crafting a framework where law ruled and justice prevailed. The founders of the United States bestowed upon us a chance– to alter the course of history — a constitution, by which all laws would be tested.

Our actions regarding this inheritance will keep that chance alive, or let it slip away. Our inaction, our indifference, or our getting caught up in the din of the music of the moment in this age of an emerging technocracy that transports us through a delirium of disconnected facts posing as knowledge, could relegateconstitutional concerns to the “something quaint trash heap” of irrelevant past litter, like a discarded PC that hasn’t enough RAM to run anything anymore.

How vigilant must we be to protect the priceless gift of freedom we have inherited? And how does that gift apply to persons who, through no fault of their own, have disorders of brain chemistry? What attention do they merit? Where on our newly acquired liquid crystal desktop do their rights reside?

Look deeply into the dark shadows that lie between the lines of so many of the articles in this compelling issue of The JOURNAL, and see for yourself if those questions cry out for enlightened involvement.

The mother of a frequently abandoned child desperately tries to get her mentally ill son out of the indiscriminate web of “Three Strikes.” A police chief beseeches mental health to do its job, so his cops can do theirs. The hostage negotiator despairs that mental illness is being addressed as a public safety issue and that more people will inevitably get hurt– even killed. An advocate fears that a Mental Health Court has too much power to punish persons who have committed no crimes. A judge believes that, at long last, with a Mental Health Court an ill person has a chance to get fair treatment. A patient protests that treatment is doled out as punishment. An attorney warns that what you say to your therapist may be used against you in court.

How excruciatingly painful it must be for an accomplished individual with masterful communication skills to be unable to influence the public perception enough to create a demand to alter laws so that what he thinks would be helpful can come to pass. Such appears to be the case with E. Fuller Torrey, MD. For years he had chastised public mental health professionals and his psychiatric colleagues for ducking the problem of the uncared-for, unmedicated psychotics on the street– homeless, hungry, and neglected. He was right, but to no avail. Now, in apparent desperation to get public action, he willingly tars all those he claims to care about with the same brush– dangerousness!

In a series of articles and Op-Ed pieces printed by the best newspapers in our country The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post– he expertly drums home a single point that he presents as fact.

” …the mentally ill are responsible for about 1,000 homicides a year in the United States.”

” We estimate that approximately 1,000 homicides a year are committed nationwide by seriously mentally ill individuals who are not taking their medication.”

“Department of Justice data suggest that such people commit about 1,000 homicides each year, and the number is apparently increasing.”

His message appears to be getting through this time as Lesley Stahl, on the May 8th, 2000 edition of 60 Minutes, quotes; “According to the Justice Department, the Mentally Ill are responsible for as many as 1,000 killings each year.”

And Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee reads the quote into the Congressional Record, as she seeks funding for programs for people with mental illness.

Let’s see, 1,000 in the country would mean about 120 in California. One murder by a mentally ill person every three days? It’s just not true. It doesn’t happen!

The words of Harry Truman ring in my ears, “…Lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Has anyone checked the veracity of the statement? You find it repeated everywhere. Could it be accurate?

My phone rings. It’s the National Stigma Clearinghouse (NSC) returning my call. The study Fuller Torrey referred to was by Dawson ?

Did anyone at the Times, Post or Journal bother to check for source? They’re the best we have. And, what about 60 Minutes? They’re our most popular and trusted TV information source.

Wasn’t it Josef Goebbels who said, “Make a statement often enough and it becomes a part of the common wisdom?” Anybody remember who Goebbels was?

States have begun to act in the face of this dangerousness belief– New York, among others. Will a national law follow? Could it serve patients well? Did Torrey merely create his statement extrapolating from a few known Washington, DC murders committed by mentally ill persons, then speculate on what that might infer nationwide? Will coercive treatment laws stand the constitutional test?

“Fuller’s a brilliant man, and he’d make a helluva scientist if he ever got down to the hard work of serious science,” said the late Daniel X. Freedman, MD, editor of The Archives of Psychiatry, and my mentor as I started this publication 11 years ago. Sitting in his UCLA-NPI office, enjoying a weekly consultation, I had mentioned that Dr. Torrey agreed to do an article for our Siblings issue, and how I admired his giftedness. Danny cautioned, “He has a way with words, and a penchant for headlines. Unfortunately hunger for the spotlight often brings a willingness to bend things, and that can boomerang — get you into trouble.”

Are we all headed for trouble? I miss Danny at moments like this, but I know what Harry Truman would say regarding this oft-quoted statistic that is now out there in play in our world. He’d give ‘em hell, all right. And, to his daughter he might add, out of respect for those Founding Fathers, “You’ve got to be vigilant, Margaret…”

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We are grateful for the efforts of our four co-editors Mary Beraz, Patricia Warburg-Cliff, Anne O’Niell and Jim Preis for recruiting a majority of the authors for this special edition of The JOURNAL.

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