(Oct. 6, 2014) Before you vote in the November elections, ask the legislative candidates if they would vote for laws that would help people with mental illness get the care they need, plead Doug and Nancy Reuter in an op-ed for the Seattle Times (“Ask candidates about reforms to mental-health care and Joel’s Law,” Sept. 24).
The Reuters’ son, Joel, suffered three psychotic episodes over nine years.
The first two psychotic episodes occurred while the family was living in Arizona. During each episode, the Reuters signed papers to have their son involuntarily committed to treatment in a hospital.
Having our son committed “was the hardest thing we had ever done,” they said. “But . . . at least Arizona’s law allowed us to get him timely help.”
In Joel’s case, “help” in Arizona meant both court-ordered outpatient and inpatient treatment.
Joel suffered a third psychotic episode after he moved to Washington. But Washington state law required that Joel be gravely disabled or a danger to himself or to someone else before he received involuntary treatment.
Dozens of calls made by family and friends who could see that Joel was deteriorating and needed treatment went unanswered. When they were answered, the family was told that Joel would need to have a loaded gun in his hand with his finger on the trigger to get help.
When he finally did get into treatment, it only lasted 14 days and there was never any follow-up after he was released.
Three weeks after Joel was released from the hospital, in the middle of a psychotic episode, Joel aimed a gun at police because he thought he was killing zombies. The police responded with fire and Joel’s life ended in tragedy.
To prevent tragedies like this, incoming state lawmakers and Governor Jay Inslee must provide more psychiatric beds and improve the assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) law for people with severe mental illness, urge Joel’s parents.
“Let’s adopt a policy of treatment before tragedy.”
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