(Oct. 13, 2015) A recent series authored by PennLive reporter Daniel Simmons-Ritchie takes an in-depth look at the 2006 closure of Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg State Hospital – the state’s oldest public mental health facility.
The closure came with a promise from state officials to the 7 counties it served: mentally ill people wouldn’t end up on city streets.
But where did the people in need of those services go?
PennLive has been exploring where these patients have gone and other issues with Pennsylvania’s mental health system in the multi-part investigative series From Patients to Prisoners.
“As a reporter, the mass-incarceration of people with mental illnesses was important to me because I have long had a passion for human rights issues,” said Simmons-Ritchie.
“My editors and I felt this topic deserved coverage of this depth because those with serious mental illnesses are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized in American society,” he continued. “We wanted to give a voice to a population that is so frequently ignored or unable to speak for itself.”
The series has been underway for five months and includes numerous stories from families who have loved ones with serious mental illnesses. This month, PennLive told the story of Nina and Alan McDaniel – a Berks County couple that tried desperately to get help for their schizophrenic son but, over and over again, were rebuffed by the system. Those failures almost cost them their lives.
Some of the other key pieces in the series include:
- The story of a Harrisburg man whose schizophrenia went from a manageable condition to beyond control after he was incarcerated.
- An investigation into the extensive delays – potentially some of the longest in the country – to transfer mentally ill prisoners in Pa. to state hospitals for treatment.
- The story of how Pennsylvania’s shortage of group homes left a Harrisburg man trapped in a Pa. jail and turned his family’s life upside down.
We commend Simmons-Ritchie and PennLive for taking Pennsylvania’s inadequate mental health system to task, exploring how it has transformed patients into prisoners and what solutions might exist for those caught up in it.
The elimination of psychiatric facilities across the country is wreaking devastating impacts on individuals in need of treatment, their families and the communities in which they live. We will continue to see devastating consequences until we recognize the need to overhaul our broken system.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center report “No Room at the Inn” to learn more about the trends and consequences of closing public psychiatric hospitals.
(Photo courtesy of PennLive)
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