MASSACHUSETTS’ CIVIL RIGHTS CRISIS, PART ONE – BACKGROUND

Massachusetts has long been considered a global leader for medical research, treatment, hospitals, and innovation. For medical care, the reputation is deserved: Beth Israel-Deaconess, Mass. General Hospital, Childrens’ Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Center and the Joslin Diabetes Clinic, among others, are world-renowned. However, the State’s progressive reputation still hasn’t caught up with the hard realities its consumer/survivors face.

In 1833, Worcester State Hospital, the first State Hospital in the United States, was opened. In 1841, Dorothea Dix, considered by many to be the first mental health advocate, discovered and campaigned against cruel and inhumane facilities near Boston. She actively lobbied State Legislatures and the U.S. Congress for the construction and expansion of public hospitals, the first of which was Worcester State. Early on, some such hospitals were based on Quaker ideals of “Moral Treatment” – i.e., asylums meant to be restful and humane places where patients were treated with respect and ample access to fresh air and nature. But despite the lofty goals and good intentions of the concept of “Moral Treatment” fell out of favor, and asylums became notorious “snake pits”.

In 1966, the shocking documentary film “Titicut Follies” exposed conditions at Bridgewater State Hospital. But still, forty years later, the situation for survivors in the criminal justice system here is quite grim.

During the 1970s, and 80s, Massachusetts was home to some of the most well-known mental health activists, including Judi Chamberlin, Dan Fisher, and others. The Mental Patients’ Liberation Front (MPLF) was an early, outspoken activist group, which established the famed Ruby Rogers Drop-in Center in Somerville. A court ruling named for Rogers established the right to refuse treatment.

In 1977, the court ruling Brewster vs. Dukakis (also known as the Brewster Consent Decree) was one of the major steps in what is known now as deinstitutionalization, resulting in major discharges at Northampton State Hospital.

Many of the country’s most celebrated literary figures have written about their experiences in the Massachusetts mental health system, especially at psychiatric hospitals, including: Susanna Kaysen (Girl, Interrputed); Lauren Slater (Welcome to my Country and Prozac Diary); Augusten Burroughs (Running With Scissors). Authors Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton spent time at McLean Hospital, as did musicians James Taylor and Ray Charles.

And to this day, many top names in mental health advocacy are based in Massachusetts, including Dr. Fisher, Pat Deegan and Robert Whitaker.

MASSACHUSETTS' CIVIL RIGHTS CRISIS - A Series of posts

This is a series of posts that will serve as an introduction to the rights issues we are dealing with in Massachusetts. I hope this will put our efforts into sharper context, and will resonate with readers outside of Mass. First, I will cover the basic history of mental health in Massachusetts, and then I will go over the "Fundamental Rights" law: what it means, why it isn't working, and what the hosptal "landscape" looks like here. Finally, I will describe our agenda and action plan. I hope you find this interesting and useful!!

Privileges to Rights - A Passage of Note

The following is an excerpt of the 2000 "From Privileges to Rights" Report, published 10 years ago by the National Council on Disability, in which Dr. Dan Fisher talks about the "Fundanmental Rights" legislation in Massachusetts - the focus of our current struggle.

Sadly, things haven't changed much.

(Thanks to Dr. Fisher for permission to reprint.)

Daniel Fisher, a psychiatrist, testified that some states, such as Massachusetts, had to pass legislation to ensure the human rights of people in institutions who are labeled with psychiatric disabilities, such as the right to make a phone call or have visitors, legislation that would not be necessary if people labeled with psychiatric disabilities did not lose their ordinary citizenship rights. It is important to note that both in institutions and in community facilities, rights are referred to as "privileges" that must be earned, generally by compliance with treatment. Such so-called "privileges" as using the telephone or having access to fresh air must be recognized as basic rights that may not be infringed. Just as it would be intolerable and unacceptable for people to lose their rights when they enter a hospital for medical treatment or surgery, such policies should be similarly unacceptable in psychiatric facilities.

From Privileges to Rights

I've just added a link to the classic "From Privileges to Rights: People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak For Themselves" report, published in 2000 by the National Council on Disabilities.

This report highlights the continual problems we face and asks for improvements. It's been ten years since the report's publication, but still most of the problems it highlights are still occuring. What do you think?

Sponsors of our effort

Check out the list of organizational and individual supporters of our effort during the 2009-2010 Legislative Session (and beyond...) This will be available on this site as an individual page.

Two enormous and abusive hospital giants to merge

According to news from Tennessee, Universal Health Services, (UHS,) the giant, for-profit hospital chain which runs over 100 psychiatric facilities nationwide, including the large, notorious psych-only chain in Massachusetts, Arbour Health Systems, is moving closer to buying the equally-notorious chain based in Tennessee, Psychiatric Solutions, Inc.

This $3.1 billion deal would result in a for-profit chain of over 200 hospitals in about 40 States, with approx. 22,000 psych. beds and placements. Both systems have a horrible reputation for human rights abuses, and have been repeatedly investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice - in fact, at least one of these companies (if not both), are currently under investigation.

A report published in 2007 by the Service Employees Industrial Union Local 1107 in Las Vegas detailed a long history of rights violations at UHS, and the site ProPublica has done a series on abuses at Psychiatric Solutions.

Despite the history of horrific abuses resulting in injury, trauma and many deaths at both companies' facilities, each is doing extraordinarily well financially, especially at the behavioral health facilities. An illustration of this is the extraordinarily large sums of money being paid to PSI's departing executives:

- PSI Chief Executive Officer Joey A. Jacobs will be given over $50 million.

- Five other top PSI executives will receive over $40 million.

Another sad example of how the mental health hospital system makes enormous profits at the expense of human rights.

- Thanks for this article from my colleagues at "Keep An Eye on PSI!" on Facebook!

A few links have been added...

Although there may be a relative lack of context posted here as of yet, please note the "Five Fundamental Rights" Law. This is the only law in Mass. that spells out five basic human rights in Massachusetts Hospitals, and unfortunately, it's being violated at an alarming rate.