I fear those involved with Aubrey’s mental health case, the moment they heard of his demise, exclaimed “Oh, sh**” because they all but knew how he died.
Another sad case of a faceless bureaucracy unaccountable for its malfeasance.
Wow, this is not something I had heard about before and it makes the case all the more heartbreaking and enraging. As someone with a sibling who has paranoid schizophrenia this hits very close to home. Our society is failing the mentally ill and it is depressing as hell.
Great article! I hadn’t heard anything about Mr Arbery’s mental health issues. While the article places some of the blame on Georgia’s mental health system and rightfully so, helping those with mental health challenges is incredibly difficult, even for “the system”. My brother is bipolar and has PTSD. Getting him to go somewhere to get help was almost impossible after he stopped taking his meds. Unfortunately many of these individuals would need to be detained by police in order to receive help because they won’t go on their own. Also once they start taking their meds as prescribed they often can function well in society, until of course they stop taking their meds again. Then it becomes this back and forth occurrence that leaves everyone exhausted and drained of resources. In the state I live in, unless court ordered, you cannot hold someone in a mental health facility without their consent, even if it’s clear they need the help. It can be a slippery slope balancing the rights of individuals and trying to protect them. The Brittney Spears conservatorship saga is a great example of this. When do you take away a mentally ill persons rights to live free and make their own decisions, particularly when they have not committed a crime or have committed a crime and served their sentence? A heavy hand could easily lead to claims of criminalizing mental health.
I agree with your overarching message, but cannot agree with how you got there for this particular piece because it makes an assumption that the mental health system failed Mr. Arbery. The judge did not allow Mr. Arbery’s mental health records into evidence for a few legal reasons. Chief among them was that he didn’t deem Gateway’s diagnosis, by a nurse whose only training on the subject was an online course with a quiz at the end, as credible. The judge made the right decision.
Again, I’ll restate that I wholeheartedly agree with the overarching subject of your piece and appreciate the work you’ve put into it. The DD (developmentally disabled) and MH (mental health) community is underserved nationwide, especially in Georgia. As you accurately noted, most failures in the state mental health system are preventable. Unfortunately those failures all too often end in death at the hands of law enforcement. Tragic for all involved.
I am pretty familiar with this system. My former partner was an LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) employed by Gateway as a crisis response manager for SE / Middle Georgia. The same company who gave Mr. Arbery his “diagnosis”. She was the one who would respond to a crisis hotline go to the location, attempt to de-escalate the situation, and if needed bring them to a crisis house to wind down. She would interface with law enforcement that were on-scene or make the determination to call them if warranted.
I am not a lawyer, but it appears all the sources cited in your piece were documents submitted by the defense. That could be dangerous in my opinion. Just because an attorney submits a document does not mean the document contains data that is relevant, credible or true.
The defense attorneys used a strategy of “self-defense” to justify the murder of Mr. Arbery. It is in their best interest to paint Mr. Arbery in the worst light possible, including but not limited to manipulating the jury’s perceptions of Mr. Arbery. They attempted to use his alleged “mental illness” to infer he was a deadly threat at the moment in time the defendants killed him.
I am concerned about using his case as a supporting argument for the theme of your article. I worry the dubious diagnosis will be used akin to a criminal record to manipulate public perception of Mr. Arbery. I worry it provides ammunition to those who fight against the social justice movement and increases the stigmatization of those suffering from a MH issue or living with a DD.
From the Judge’s decision, in the link provided.
“The medical records that the Defendants seek to introduce are from one single
visit to Gateway. The “diagnosis" contained therein was made by a registered nurse, who was not formally trained in mental health but instead had taken an “online” course that she would click through and read, and then took a short test at the end. This RN was tasked with questioning Arbery and coming up with a mental health diagnosis. A nurse practitioner with Gateway met with Arbery on that same day for a half an hour, and then confirmed the RN's diagnosis and gave him a prescription. There was no follow up, no feedback from Arbery, nor any continued treatment that would suggest this “diagnosis" was correct or that the prescription was helpful in any way.”
Please keep learning, reading, investigating and above all writing about these issues. I hope my comment is constructive.
I fear those involved with Aubrey’s mental health case, the moment they heard of his demise, exclaimed “Oh, sh**” because they all but knew how he died.
Another sad case of a faceless bureaucracy unaccountable for its malfeasance.
Wow, this is not something I had heard about before and it makes the case all the more heartbreaking and enraging. As someone with a sibling who has paranoid schizophrenia this hits very close to home. Our society is failing the mentally ill and it is depressing as hell.
Great article! I hadn’t heard anything about Mr Arbery’s mental health issues. While the article places some of the blame on Georgia’s mental health system and rightfully so, helping those with mental health challenges is incredibly difficult, even for “the system”. My brother is bipolar and has PTSD. Getting him to go somewhere to get help was almost impossible after he stopped taking his meds. Unfortunately many of these individuals would need to be detained by police in order to receive help because they won’t go on their own. Also once they start taking their meds as prescribed they often can function well in society, until of course they stop taking their meds again. Then it becomes this back and forth occurrence that leaves everyone exhausted and drained of resources. In the state I live in, unless court ordered, you cannot hold someone in a mental health facility without their consent, even if it’s clear they need the help. It can be a slippery slope balancing the rights of individuals and trying to protect them. The Brittney Spears conservatorship saga is a great example of this. When do you take away a mentally ill persons rights to live free and make their own decisions, particularly when they have not committed a crime or have committed a crime and served their sentence? A heavy hand could easily lead to claims of criminalizing mental health.
Excellent article.
https://glynncounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/72887/Order-on-the-Admission-of-the-Victims-Mental-Health-Records
I agree with your overarching message, but cannot agree with how you got there for this particular piece because it makes an assumption that the mental health system failed Mr. Arbery. The judge did not allow Mr. Arbery’s mental health records into evidence for a few legal reasons. Chief among them was that he didn’t deem Gateway’s diagnosis, by a nurse whose only training on the subject was an online course with a quiz at the end, as credible. The judge made the right decision.
Again, I’ll restate that I wholeheartedly agree with the overarching subject of your piece and appreciate the work you’ve put into it. The DD (developmentally disabled) and MH (mental health) community is underserved nationwide, especially in Georgia. As you accurately noted, most failures in the state mental health system are preventable. Unfortunately those failures all too often end in death at the hands of law enforcement. Tragic for all involved.
I am pretty familiar with this system. My former partner was an LCSW (Licensed Clinical Social Worker) employed by Gateway as a crisis response manager for SE / Middle Georgia. The same company who gave Mr. Arbery his “diagnosis”. She was the one who would respond to a crisis hotline go to the location, attempt to de-escalate the situation, and if needed bring them to a crisis house to wind down. She would interface with law enforcement that were on-scene or make the determination to call them if warranted.
I am not a lawyer, but it appears all the sources cited in your piece were documents submitted by the defense. That could be dangerous in my opinion. Just because an attorney submits a document does not mean the document contains data that is relevant, credible or true.
The defense attorneys used a strategy of “self-defense” to justify the murder of Mr. Arbery. It is in their best interest to paint Mr. Arbery in the worst light possible, including but not limited to manipulating the jury’s perceptions of Mr. Arbery. They attempted to use his alleged “mental illness” to infer he was a deadly threat at the moment in time the defendants killed him.
I am concerned about using his case as a supporting argument for the theme of your article. I worry the dubious diagnosis will be used akin to a criminal record to manipulate public perception of Mr. Arbery. I worry it provides ammunition to those who fight against the social justice movement and increases the stigmatization of those suffering from a MH issue or living with a DD.
From the Judge’s decision, in the link provided.
“The medical records that the Defendants seek to introduce are from one single
visit to Gateway. The “diagnosis" contained therein was made by a registered nurse, who was not formally trained in mental health but instead had taken an “online” course that she would click through and read, and then took a short test at the end. This RN was tasked with questioning Arbery and coming up with a mental health diagnosis. A nurse practitioner with Gateway met with Arbery on that same day for a half an hour, and then confirmed the RN's diagnosis and gave him a prescription. There was no follow up, no feedback from Arbery, nor any continued treatment that would suggest this “diagnosis" was correct or that the prescription was helpful in any way.”
Please keep learning, reading, investigating and above all writing about these issues. I hope my comment is constructive.