(Apr. 13, 2016) #ManInTree took social media by storm last month, when Cody Lee Miller, 28, climbed up an 80-foot tree in downtown Seattle and spent nearly 25 hours at its peak before emergency personnel were able to coax him down. A large group of spectators reportedly gathered at the scene, cheering “man in tree!” as Miller, armed with a knife, threw pinecones and branches at police officers and cars below.
But behind the hashtag is a very real and very sick man left without care until he literally went out on a limb and committed an act providing indisputable evidence of the danger he posed. If he hadn’t posed such a public danger, it is likely Miller would continue to be denied the help he so clearly needs.
Miller was diagnosed with mental illness over a decade ago. His mother, Lisa Gossett, first noticed something was “off” when Miller reached his late teens and began hoarding knives in his bedroom and warning of an “evil presence” in their home.
Gossett tried to get her son into treatment numerous times but was told there was nothing anyone could do unless he posed a danger to himself or others.
Herein lies the root of the problem. In Washington, the law states that a person needs to be a danger to self or others before he or she is able to receive treatment. This means families must watch their loved ones descend, sometimes slowly, into dangerous territory because the law does not allow them to push the “help” button until the person reaches the crisis stage.
But by this point, it is sometimes too late. Letting someone deteriorate to the point of crisis often results in an encounter with law enforcement and entanglement within the criminal justice system. Like every state in the nation, Washington incarcerates more individuals with severe mental illness than it hospitalizes – with nearly 3 times as many people with mental illness behind bars than receiving treatment in a hospital.
Make no mistake; this could have very easily become a tragedy in which onlookers and society at large watched as a man suffering from severe mental illness plummeted to his death. Fortunately, this didn’t happen in Miller’s case, but tragic outcomes are occurring at an ever-increasing rate to many others like him who are abandoned by the treatment system, including fatal interactions with law enforcement, suicide, victimization, and incarceration, to name a few.
Policymakers can’t see the forest for the trees. They must recognize this event for what it is: a clear sign that the mental health system isn’t working. Requiring dangerousness just to get care is dangerous and not what the state’s laws require. Treatment for someone in need like Cody Lee Miller is available under the state’s progressive “gravely disabled” standard. But only if it is understood and used by those making treatment decisions – something that is obviously not happening now.
How many more tragedies need to occur in Washington before those in power close the gaps in the system and protect the state’s most vulnerable citizens, their families and their communities?
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