We have a potentially disruptive and expensive bill pending in Congress that was introduced and sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania. Mr. Murphy is a child psychologist, and he thinks he has figured out how to "Fix" the chaotic mental health delivery system in the US.
His proposals in HR 3717 have received wide-spread approval from main-stream media, and Murphy got the opportunity to meet with the Editorial Board of a large paper in Raleigh, which is part of the McClatchy chain. Those of us who differ with Murphy's proposals in many ways have not been able to get a reciprocal meeting with the editors of the News and Observer.
This has been frustrating for advocates who would like to discuss the coercive nature of Murphy's Bill, and how it would create civil liberties problems if passed. It would also almost defund the national protection and advocacy system for persons diagnosed with a mental illness.
After Rep. Murphy made two stops in North Carolina on a PR swing through our area, the President of the NC Psychiatric Association wrote the following letter to the Raleigh paper:
The North Carolina Psychiatric Association and our national organization, the American Psychiatric Association, applaud U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, and we support many of the provisions in this bill. NCPA urges Congress to move this bill forward through the process toward refinement and ultimate passage.
As you noted, mental health reform in North Carolina has been tumultuous over the years. Mental illness is a brain disorder, and its effects tear through families and communities in costlier ways than most physical illnesses’ effects are felt. It is imperative that our country acts quickly to strengthen mental health care.
Likewise, North Carolina must increase access to mental health care – both inpatient- and community-level resources. We are glad that U.S. Reps. Murphy and Renee Ellmers, among others, have made this challenge a priority.
BURT JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, N.C. PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION, RALEIGH
I wrote a letter in
response to Burt Johnson's letter, and it was published on Friday, October 16. Here is my letter to the editor:
Regarding the Sept. 26 letter “ Mental health help”: The N.C. Psychiatric Association’s endorsement of the Murphy bill (HR 3717) is problematic on many levels. The bill is based on an unproven premise about those who cannot cope with everyday life events due to trauma or life experiences.
Rep. Tim Murphy makes the assumption that the children or relatives of the family members he seeks to help are psychotic, dependent, without insight, unable to care for themselves and non-compliant with treatment.
The Murphy bill assumes that the best that can be hoped for by those with emotional and behavioral disorders is maintenance and lack of stability, not long periods of remission, which is the experience of many. If there were no such thing as recovery (to one degree or another), the rolls of SSI/SSDI and Medicaid, added generation after generation, would explode exponentially.
The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 50 percent of Americans will be eligible for a Diagnostic Statistical Manual V label. Let me repeat: The docs think half of the population are mentally ill. I will leave it to those with a grain of common sense to evaluate the probability of these statistics being accurate. Seems to me it’s a case of lies, damn lies and statistics.
MARTHA BROCK, CARY
It is highly unlikely that HR 3717 will pass in its entirety or without many amendments. However, it is the thinking behind the bill that is disturbing to me. It appears that many of Murphy's co-sponsors signed on without knowing many of the problematic provisions of the bill. i will deal with those in a future diary, but let me sum it up by saying he is not popular at all with the people he pretends to care about: those with mental illnesses.
In fact Mr. Murphy is concerned about he NAMI family member supporters and those who support E. Fuller Torrey and the Treatment and Advocacy Center. They and Mr. Murphy have declared war on those with "serious mental illness."