Ten years ago, a rancid odor lingered through the dark, hollow corridors. There was a telephone that was off the hook. There were names on the back of shirts because they were constantly stolen. There were people mumbling, yelling and howling.
I was told that things could only get better at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital, where my mother stayed for four months in 2000.
That year, we spent Mother's Day there, bringing my 2-year-old son to a side door that was filled with quarter-sized holes, as though somebody tried to use a railroad spike to break through.
We talked to my mother through the holes, providing her a half-hour of comfort before the aides finally relented and, after much pressing, let us in. They allowed us to see her in a sterile waiting area away from the smell, the shirts and the shouts.
Things will only get better, we were told. At least there weren't murders or rampant drug use, they said. Someday, New Jersey will build bigger and better facilities that will make Ancora obsolete. Maybe the patients will move into group homes and find lives of their own. Maybe they'll be able to wear shirts that will stay safely in their dresser drawers.
Fast-forward to earlier today, when I did a Google search of Ancora Psychiatric Hospital. I was interested because of some news from my father, news that I didn't believe.
Haven't things gotten better? I asked. I was told this, over and over, as we dealt with my mother's care until January 2003, when she passed away. Someday, there will be a place for her and others, I was told. Someday, there will be phones and television sets and places that provide comfort for those who are mentally ill.
Perhaps this Asbury Park Press headline says it all:
TROUBLES AT ANCORA PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
Overcrowding. Poorly trained staff. Rampant drug abuse. And a constant danger of being assaulted or even murdered, not only for the patients but for the psychiatrists treating them. Welcome to state-run Ancora Hospital.
Here is the link to a series of stories on Ancora that were printed by this New Jersey newspaper over the past two years: http://www.app.com/article/99999999/SPECIAL/80114089&template=recurring.
Things will get better, I was told. But maybe they can only get better with articles like these. The only true way to ignite passion in people is to print it.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Things could only get better
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3 comments:
WOW! That is unbelievable. How can that be in this day and age?
It's a sad commentary on our health system. Government neglect hits the "hidden services" such as mental hospitals first and then it creeps its way toward more obvious services, such as acute care hospitals (with low Medicaid reimbursements). I'm a libertarian for just about everything, but our health care system is too broken to leave it to the "invisible hand" of the marketplace.
New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services' February 2006 "Wellness and Recovery Transformation Statement" includes, "..... it is the Division’s policy to ensure that consumers and families receive a system of recovery-oriented services and resources that promote wellness, an improved quality of life and true community inclusion."
In August 2009 DMHS could not evidence at Ancora what it had ensured more then three years earlier. This is supported by the the US Department of Justice's scathing report on Ancora.
Tom Davis is right, "The only true way to ignite passion in people is to print it." Sadly, Alan Guenther who wrote the majority of the APP's Ancora coverage is no longer with the paper. (Larry Ragonese who provided on-going coverage of Greystone is no longer with the Star-Ledger.) More broadly, there is less and less coverage of New Jersey's public mental health system in print despite a meteoric rise in the number New Jersey residents who look to it. We are left with endless unquestioned representations that our public mental health system continues to improve.
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