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.
What's depressing in this case is that there were numerous people with the official capacity to do something to help a very unwell young man, but none of them did anything, as far as we can tell.
Thank you. Not doing anything is the standard approach to severe mental health crises in this country, alas. (Which is not to gainsay the help and contributions of the often underpaid and overwhelmed people who work in this field and are doing their best to make a difference every day. My brother has been helped by them, but they are too few and far between.)
I’m so sorry. My sister has it too. She has been arrested in the past for trespassing. (She felt compelled to rearrange the homeowner’s furniture.) She is untreated and often homeless and there’s nothing I can do. Being a woman, and white, she’s less likely to be murdered during an episode, but I worry constantly that her life will end prematurely and in tragedy.
I'm sorry for you & your sister. It just sucks, there is nothing good about it as you know. They are so vulnerable and so hard to help. Public ignorance and stigma make it worse. That Arbery was suffering in this way and was chased down and killed lends an already sad and terrible tale an additionally horrific dimension. Thanks again to FBT for writing on important issues and perspectives that should have a more mainstream outlet but unfortunately don't.
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.
We're sorry to hear about your brother's struggles. Thank you for the words of praise and for the very balanced and sober assessment you present regarding the difficulties involved in trying to help people with mental health issues. There really are no easy answers. As you point out, a heavy hand and a "criminalization" of mental illness is no path forward in a free society. How far are we willing to infringe on the individual's personal autonomy in order to help/protect them? Very tough questions.
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.
First, thanks for your serious and constructive engagement with our post!
We’re not lawyers either. There’s no doubt that Arbery’s mental health shouldn’t have been allowed in court, and does not, in the least, excuse the McMichael’s and Bryan’s actions. But it was perplexing that the judge questioned the diagnosis. He wrote that it "was made by a registered nurse," but RNs can only diagnose conditions, not disorders. The schizoaffective disorder Dx could only have come from the NP, who interviewed Arbery for a half-hour and gave him the Zyprexa Rx. Has the judge misunderstood medical protocol?
In any case, the judge goes on to say that “there was no follow up,” which sounds like Gateway dropped the ball. A community-based provider, after having made a diagnosis that serious and prescribing a med that powerful, should have followed up. That, alone, is a failure worth pointing out.
It also seems clear there’s more evidence of his mental condition than the fact of the diagnosis. You’re right it’s not adequate to rely on the defense motions, but some of the content draws on testimony from the federal hate crimes proceedings, and much of it could be verified by police reports and other public documents. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to follow up. Perhaps we could have been more explicit about the limitations of our sources and clearer about our goal of motivating deeper investigation.
That’s fascinating that your former partner was a crisis response manager at Gateway who accompanied police on calls. If it’s true that police visited Arbery at his mother’s home after one of several times he’d been caught trespassing on private residential property, that would probably have been the right time to take a crisis response manager along.
Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful and constructive reply.
We suspect that mental health problems are an underlying factor in a great many terrible occurrences. Both on the perpetrator's side and on the victim's side.
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.
Great point. Bet you are right about the bureaucrats.
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.
We wish your sibling the best!
What's depressing in this case is that there were numerous people with the official capacity to do something to help a very unwell young man, but none of them did anything, as far as we can tell.
Thank you. Not doing anything is the standard approach to severe mental health crises in this country, alas. (Which is not to gainsay the help and contributions of the often underpaid and overwhelmed people who work in this field and are doing their best to make a difference every day. My brother has been helped by them, but they are too few and far between.)
Yes, our impression is that most people who do this work are dedicated but poorly compensated. Unfortunately, Arbery fell through the cracks.
I’m so sorry. My sister has it too. She has been arrested in the past for trespassing. (She felt compelled to rearrange the homeowner’s furniture.) She is untreated and often homeless and there’s nothing I can do. Being a woman, and white, she’s less likely to be murdered during an episode, but I worry constantly that her life will end prematurely and in tragedy.
Very sorry to hear this about your sister. It's a crying shame that there are not more resources publicly available to help people like your sister.
I'm sorry for you & your sister. It just sucks, there is nothing good about it as you know. They are so vulnerable and so hard to help. Public ignorance and stigma make it worse. That Arbery was suffering in this way and was chased down and killed lends an already sad and terrible tale an additionally horrific dimension. Thanks again to FBT for writing on important issues and perspectives that should have a more mainstream outlet but unfortunately don't.
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.
We're sorry to hear about your brother's struggles. Thank you for the words of praise and for the very balanced and sober assessment you present regarding the difficulties involved in trying to help people with mental health issues. There really are no easy answers. As you point out, a heavy hand and a "criminalization" of mental illness is no path forward in a free society. How far are we willing to infringe on the individual's personal autonomy in order to help/protect them? Very tough questions.
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.
First, thanks for your serious and constructive engagement with our post!
We’re not lawyers either. There’s no doubt that Arbery’s mental health shouldn’t have been allowed in court, and does not, in the least, excuse the McMichael’s and Bryan’s actions. But it was perplexing that the judge questioned the diagnosis. He wrote that it "was made by a registered nurse," but RNs can only diagnose conditions, not disorders. The schizoaffective disorder Dx could only have come from the NP, who interviewed Arbery for a half-hour and gave him the Zyprexa Rx. Has the judge misunderstood medical protocol?
In any case, the judge goes on to say that “there was no follow up,” which sounds like Gateway dropped the ball. A community-based provider, after having made a diagnosis that serious and prescribing a med that powerful, should have followed up. That, alone, is a failure worth pointing out.
It also seems clear there’s more evidence of his mental condition than the fact of the diagnosis. You’re right it’s not adequate to rely on the defense motions, but some of the content draws on testimony from the federal hate crimes proceedings, and much of it could be verified by police reports and other public documents. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources to follow up. Perhaps we could have been more explicit about the limitations of our sources and clearer about our goal of motivating deeper investigation.
That’s fascinating that your former partner was a crisis response manager at Gateway who accompanied police on calls. If it’s true that police visited Arbery at his mother’s home after one of several times he’d been caught trespassing on private residential property, that would probably have been the right time to take a crisis response manager along.
Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful and constructive reply.
We suspect that mental health problems are an underlying factor in a great many terrible occurrences. Both on the perpetrator's side and on the victim's side.
Thank you! This is high praise indeed. The major media are ignoring this.