Some Thoughts For Western State Hospital, DSHS
So things have gone into the crapper for Lindsay at Western State Hospital. She’s being denied the ability to go outside at all, a true prisoner of the system. Or so her mother, Stephany Newman, reports on her blog after attending a treatment team meeting for Lindsay yesterday at which Lindsay’s doctor, Daniel Ruiz, yelled at Stephany and Stan Cavers, who’d gone along as a patient advocate, as Stephany told me in an email last night.
Some thoughts:
1. It is entirely unacceptable for a public employee (cops excepted in some circumstances) to yell at a citizen. Ruiz owes Stephany and Cavers a written apology.
2. It is a violation of medical ethics as well as professional standards in this state for a doctor to yell at a family member. Ruiz is lucky Stephany hasn’t filed a complaint with the Medical Quality Assurance Commission, the name of our medical board out here.
3. Why isn’t Lindsay permitted to go outside? Have you folks at WSH gotten that understaffed or that hard-hearted? For God’s sake, I’ve toured your facility and you do have fenced-off outdoor areas attached to the units where Lindsay could be outdoors for a bit each day without being in danger of walking off.
4. I recall WSH personnel once telling me how sad it was that many patients at WSH had families who’d written them off and forgotten about them. Now you have a parent who has fought extremely hard for her daughter and the best you guys can muster is disrespect? That’s some nice public service there WSH/DSHS. Really touching.
5. Why are male sex offenders housed in units with women? That sounds like a disaster in the making. What are you all doing to guarantee that women like Lindsay are not raped and molested (much less beaten) by some of the men on your wards? How are women supposed to achieve psychological stability in such an environment?
6. I know Lindsay’s case is remarkably complex clinically, but the reality is she was sent to WSH not because she was a danger to self or others but because her condition puts her in danger from society. It strikes me as bizarre that in 2010 there isn’t appropriate community housing available for someone like Lindsay, especially when it would likely cost the state about half of what one day in WSH would (about $450 a day at WSH per person). What are you all doing to create appropriate community housing for people like Lindsay, even in an extremely challenging budget environment?
7. A note for readers: on her blog, Stephany encourages people to write Washington’s Gov. Christine Gregoire. I know Lindsay’s case has stirred strong emotions in some readers and I simply ask that if you write the Governor, please be polite. If you cannot be, don’t write her.
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Posted in Furious Seasons