WINCHESTER — Winchester Rescue Mission Executive Director Brandan Thomas talked about the need for more federal and state resources to address mental illness during a fundraising event for 29th District Del. Bill Wiley, R-Winchester, on Thursday night at West Oaks Farm Market in Frederick County.
Thomas said he works daily with men and women who struggle with mental illness. He also said he grew up in a household with a father who was bipolar and paranoid schizophrenic.
“As a kid, I remember being told on a regular basis that we had to be careful because the government is watching us through our TV,” he said, referring to his father’s paranoia. “I remember having to be careful when we were at stoplights because the cameras that they installed on top of the stoplights were actually them watching us. And when I was 16 years old, I don’t talk a whole lot about this, but when I was 16 years old, my dad had a break that caused him to try to kill me.”
Thomas said he wasn’t at the event to endorse Wiley or any other candidate but to raise awareness and advocate for an issue he feels passionately about.
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Lexington, was among several Republican candidates in attendance.
Thomas said because his father was a veteran, he was able to go to a Veterans Administration hospital that treats patients with mental illness. But he noted there are millions of Americans who are not provided with such care.
“I will tell you this, in our community, we have seen the devastating effects of untreated mental illness,” Thomas said.
He pointed to the “devastating situation” involving 19-year-old David Austin Rowe, who had a history of mental illness before being indicted on Aug. 28 for the murder of his grandmother in Frederick County.
About a week before 63-year-old Dianna Lynne Swaner was killed, Rowe was staying at the Winchester Rescue Mission’s homeless shelter on North Cameron Street, but he had to be removed for allegedly threatening to kill members of the nonprofit’s staff. He was placed under an eight-hour emergency custody order at Winchester Medical Center.
According to Thomas, Rowe was fine when he took his medication, but he became violent and erratic when he did not. During his eight-hour stay at Winchester Medical Center in August, Rowe received medication and calmed down, so officials had no reason to detain him further.
Thomas used this as an example of why more resources are needed to help people with mental illness. He said there needs to be more hospital beds available for patients with mental illness, longer hospital stays and more medication access.
“I don’t blame Austin for what he did,” Thomas said. “I blame the system that should have intervened in this young man’s life to prevent this from happening. It could have been prevented.”
Thomas also critiqued the “housing first” model of addressing homelessness, believing it does not address the mental illness issues that impact many homeless people. Thomas made a point in drawing a distinction between people dealing with severe mental illness versus the broader population dealing with more common mental health challenges.
He said people need to be hospitalized until they are stable and that mental illness can’t be treated in the same way you treat a broken arm: “We’ll put a cast on and we’ll send you at the door.”
“It doesn’t work,” Thomas said of that approach. “It takes time to get stable on meds.”
He also criticized Medicaid’s IMD [institutions for mental disease] exclusion. Currently, the law prohibits states from using Medicaid to pay for the care provided in institutions for mental diseases — such as psychiatric hospitals or other residential treatment facilities with more than 16 beds.
“This, in my opinion, is an antiquated, discriminatory ruling or rule that prohibits Medicaid from paying for care received at mental health institutions. … I think it’s discriminatory because it treats diseases of the brain differently than other diseases that cause significant suffering,” Thomas said.
Susan Shick, Wiley’s legislative assistant, said mental health is “a topic that affects everyone in our community and families and friends in one way, shape or form. We’re thankful for the representatives that we have on the federal, state and local levels that are making the mental health issue a priority.”
Wiley said mental health issues were “put into overdrive” during the COVID-19 pandemic and that he is working on drafting legislation to introduce later this year in the General Assembly to provide more resources for mental health facilities at the local level. He also hopes to relieve police and law enforcement from staying with mentally ill patients at hospitals, believing that’s a job for mental health experts.
Earlier this year, Wiley proposed a $5 million amendment to the biennial state budget that adds bed space at Winchester Medical Center so that police have a place to bring individuals having a mental crisis. Half of what he requested was approved in the state budget in June.
The $2.5 million will go toward the Northwestern Crisis Intervention Team Assessment Center (CITAC) at Winchester Medical Center, allowing it to offer services 23 hours per day, seven days per week. It previously had been open five days a week from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
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