A MATTER OF CIVIL RIGHTS

A Matter of Civil Rights

By Andrew Malekoff

Did you know that every day more than 290 Americans die from suicide or a drug overdose? With proper treatment, many of these tragedies could be prevented—but despite a law that guarantees coverage, people face enormous roadblocks when they seek care.

In 2008 President George W. Bush signed the landmark Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Parity Act). The Parity Act mandates equal insurance coverage for mental health and substance use disorders (MH/SUD) as compared to other medical/surgical benefits covered by the plan.

According to its new website parityat10.com, “Parity at 10 seeks to ensure that insurance carriers and state Medicaid programs comply with the law so that consumers can access the evidence-based health care they need and are entitled by law to receive.”

What does equal insurance coverage mean? It means ending insurer discrimination against access to timely and affordable care including high out-of-pocket costs and shorter lengths of care for MH/SUD. Parity—which is another word for equity—in this case means that MH/SUD coverage must be provided on par with coverage of medical and surgical care.

Notably this legislation was the result of a bipartisan effort by Senators Paul Wellstone, a liberal Democrat, and Pete Domenici, a conservative Republican. What the senators had in common were personal family experiences that motivated their tireless efforts to pass this law.

Parity saves lives. Parity law is a civil rights law that has not been vigorously enforced by the States, which have the primary responsibility for enforcement of private insurance and Medicaid.

One of the most pernicious violations and barriers to care is inadequate networks of MH/SUD providers. North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center documented this in its 2018 Project Access Study which surveyed 650 Long Island consumers of MH/SUD care. Nearly 50% of respondents said that it was easier for them to access medical/surgical care than MH/SUD Care.

Nationally, patients responding to a National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) survey reported being denied twice as often for mental health care as for medical surgical care under the Affordable Care Act.

The actuarial firm Milliman reviewed claims data in New York and found that patients had to go out-of-network for MH/SUD care far more often than for medical/surgical care—a very expensive proposition that flies in the face of the Parity Act.

At North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, we are a proud partner of the Parity at 10 Compliance Campaign. On August 10 I attended an inaugural Parity at 10 meeting in Albany with my fellow advocates and top officials in the Cuomo administration.

Some of the details in this column were included in the policy brief provided to Governor Cuomo. The consensus among the advocates was that insurers do everything in their power to skirt parity.

Another staunch supporter of the original legislation was Patrick J. Kennedy, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Kennedy struggled with mental illness and addiction for most of his life.

In his book A Common Struggle, Kennedy said the battle ahead is for the law to be enforced in the face of health insurers who stand to profit by denying the full range of coverage for people living with mental illness and addictions. Kennedy rightly frames the inequities that people with mental illness and addictions face as a matter of civil rights.

Discriminatory insurance coverage for those with mental health and substance use disorders must end. When insurers do not comply with the law and enforcement is inadequate, millions of Americans are at risk.

Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.

This article appeared in TheIslandNow.com on August 16, 2018

NO MATTER WHAT YOU'RE GOING TRHOUGH YOU'RE WORTH SOMETHING

On March 9, 2017 I had the honor of introducing Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, a founding member of the early hip hop group Run-D.M.C. Young and old of all backgrounds gathered together at the Leeds Place of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center in Westbury for a community forum.

If you don’t already know, DMC is a hip hop pioneer, a rap poet and an inspiring prophet. The packed house at the Leeds Place got to experience all three in a two hour tour-de-force in which Darryl taught us about the history of hip hop, delighted us with rap lyrics and moved us with intimate stories of resiliency.

When I introduced Darryl, I told the audience that I learned that his favorite things to do as a child were to read comic books and pretend to be a superhero. In fact, I told them, he now produces comic books under the DMC – Darryl Makes Comics – label.

Darryl’s comics are not about traditional superheroes like Batman, Superman, Spiderman or the Incredible Hulk. Darryl, I learned, believes that there are heroes in everyday life with powerful stories to tell. Just like everyone in the room tonight, I said.

Darryl is 52 years old, six feet tall and solidly built, with muscular arms bulging from his tight black t-shirt. He spoke for two hours without a break, moving about energetically without breaking a sweat.

He inspired the crowd with the story of when he was a young boy growing up in Hollis, Queens, and he was a self-described Catholic School nerd who wore thick-framed glasses and read comic books all the time. He said he liked school.

He gave a great history lesson about the birth and meaning of hip hop. He described how neighborhood kids who had little in the way of physical resources brought music and art to the parks and streets by plugging  turntables and speakers into light poles, making dance floors out of cardboard boxes and creating street art by painting and drawing on walls.

In his talk, Darryl encouraged the young people in the room with transcendent and core messages of hip hop: “Always be open to do something different. It could change your life.”

Darryl spoke about his unexpected rise to fame and fortune, exhorting the young people to develop what they like to do, try new things, take chances and, most important, to know that “no matter what you’re going through, you’re worth something.”

He went on to say that despite his early rise to fame and fortune, at the age of 35 he discovered that he was adopted and was a foster child. Around the same time he went through a period of suicidal depression and became addicted to alcohol.

When he finally sought professional help, he discovered that he had been suppressing powerful feelings his whole life, especially things that angered him. Despite the powerful lyrics in his raps, he said that he never wanted to make waves in his personal relationships. 

Some of the lessons he learned were: “You have to express your truth. It’s normal to feel. Release what you’re going through. Your situation doesn’t define who you are.”

In time, with the help of his adoptive parents, Darryl met his biological mom who told him that she gave him up so that he could have a better life.

In the end, before Darryl patiently signed autographs, posed for photos and chatted with kids and parents, I closed the meeting by saying, “DMC gave his music to the world. And, tonight Darryl gave us his heart.”

Andrew Malekoff

Appeared in Long Island Weekly, April 2017

https://longislandweekly.com/no-matter-youre-going-youre-worth-something/

SPRINGSTEEN SPEAKS OUT AGAINST STIGMA

I recently read rock star Bruce Springsteen’s 2016 autobiography Born to Run. I have to admit: I started the book a virtual stranger. Of course I was familiar with Springsteen’s music, but mostly as background. I wasn’t a faithful fan. My only obscure connection is that I attended junior high and high school in South Orange and Maplewood, NJ with his drummer Max Weinberg.

Max and I weren't close friends but, I would say, friendly acquaintances. I remember him telling me one day in the early 1960s that he was going to be playing drums on a UHF television show hosted by John Zacherle. On the night of the broadcast, I set up the UHF antenna on my parent's black-and-white TV and was proud to see someone I personally knew performing on the tube. It was almost as exciting as the build up to the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

Although I had no intention of reading Springsteen’s book, I decided to pick it up on the recommendation of a friend who knew I worked in the field of children’s mental health. At the same time I read the book, I turned my dial to E Street radio to add a sound track to my reading experience. By listening to the music I thought I could better get to know the author, who wrote extensively about his personal life in his songs.

Born to Run blends many elements of Springsteen’s life, from early family experiences to first steps as a musician to forming a band to becoming a rock star, husband and parent—and much more. But the core of the book is the enduring and troubling impact of his relationship with his father Doug. Near the end of Born to Run, Springsteen reveals a dream in which he is performing on stage. His then deceased father is sitting in the audience. Bruce approaches him in the dream and says: "Look dad...that guy on stage...that's you, that's how I see you." You’ll have to read the book to have a more complete understanding what the dream represents.

As I worked my way through the book and his music, I was struck with the overwhelming feeling that it was written in its entirety in the voice of vulnerable young boy, as opposed to world-renowned rock icon. The boy has been fighting the isolation and loneliness of living with mental illness in the family his whole life and, at the same time, he has been seeking enduring and healthy relationships. And, he found them.

As much as it is a book about rising to music stardom, Born to Run is a story about debilitating depression, mental illness and adverse childhood experiences. But it’s also a story of hope. Springsteen shows that despite his most troubling childhood experiences, resilience and healing are possible. Readers owe him a debt of gratitude, not only for the decades of socially conscious and uplifting music, but for stepping beyond stigma to, in his own words, “show the reader his mind.”

I started the book a stranger; now I'm a fan.

https://longislandweekly.com/springsteen-speaks-stigma/

Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.

A COMMON STRUGGLE

Patrick J. Kennedy is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives who has struggled with mental illness and addiction for most of his life. He has become a leading force in the passage of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, a U.S. law that states that it is illegal to treat diseases of the brain differently than those of any other part of the body. The battle ahead is for the law to be enforced in the face of health insurers who stand to profit by denying the full range of coverage for people suffering with mental illness and addictions.

In his 2015 book, A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction, Kennedy offers personal reflections on the impact of trauma, addiction and mental illness on the extended Kennedy clan. He talks about the rocky relationship he had with his dad, the late U.S. Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy and about his mom Joan’s battle with alcoholism.  

At the heart of the memoir are Kennedy’s own revelations about his co-occurring mental illness and prescription drug and alcohol addiction, his path to recovery, and his ascendance to becoming, arguably, the nation’s leading advocate for parity and equity in mental health and addiction care. Kennedy has fought hard to lift the veil of ignorance about mental illness and addiction and to expose the health insurance industry’s tradition of denying and restricting access to care for individuals with brain illness.

Kennedy radiates a fire for eradicating stigma and ending discrimination against people with brain illness. According to One Mind, a nonprofit organization he co-founded, that is dedicated to benefiting all affected by brain illness and injury, “One of the harmful effects of stigma is that it can lead to discrimination. It could be as obvious as someone making a negative remark about your mental illness or as subtle as someone avoiding you because they think you could be unstable, violent or dangerous.”

On their website, One Mind lists some of the ways that these attitudes can be damaging and even dangerous. For example:

·      Reluctance to seek help or treatment due to the labeling

·      Lack of understanding by family, friends, co-workers or others you know

·      Fewer opportunities for work, school or social activities or trouble finding housing

·      Bullying, physical violence or harassment

·      Health insurance that doesn't adequately cover your mental illness treatment

·      The belief that you'll never be able to succeed at certain challenges or that you can't improve your situation

Kennedy rightly frames the inequities that people with mental illness and addictions face as a matter of civil rights.

What he has accomplished, which he freely acknowledges is the result of a collective effort, has already gone a long way to wiping out stigma and increasing people’s access to mental health and addictions care. His goal, he states, is to launch “a new civil rights movement, to finally force medical equality for diseases of the brain.”

Tens of millions of Americans owe Patrick Kennedy a debt of gratitude for leading the way. Now all of us must carry the ball forward by treating children and adults with brain illnesses with dignity; and demanding that government enforce parity and equity for all and put an end to discrimination.

https://longislandweekly.com/a-common-struggle/ 

Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.

DAVID AND GOLIATH

On January 21, 2016 I received a most unusual award – a David Award – that was described to me as follows:

For each of the past 15 years, every January Networking® magazine has honored eight exceptional men – “Renaissance Men” who have performed generous and unselfish acts for the benefit of us all. The David Awards are named for David, the giant slayer, who represents the Renaissance Ideal Man memorialized by Michelangelo’s famous 16th century statue of David. Each of our honorees has been a true Renaissance man having excelled in business or academics and also accomplished outstanding heroic and humanitarian acts.

I thought that I would make this column a little more personal than usual and share my remarks here.

Having been selected for this honor led me to consider, "If I am David, then who is Goliath in my life?" I can think of many but I’ll share just two with you.

On the same day in late September that Networking Magazine publisher Christine Sheehan delivered the good news to me about this honor, my doctor called with the results of a biopsy and PET scan. She said that my cancer, which had been in remission for five years, transformed into something more aggressive. It was rapidly spreading and required immediate treatment.

In fact, if the David Awards breakfast was held just one week earlier to the day, instead of my sitting on the dais you would have found me seated in a recliner at Sloan Kettering, hooked up to an IV, and receiving what I am hoping will be my last infusion.

I tell you about my personal Goliath not for your sympathy. I tell you because I know I am not alone in this room of more than 500 people. I salute my fellow cancer survivors and family members of those who have battled cancer.

Although my first Goliath is more personal, and now public, my second Goliath is more insidious. It cannot be slayed by science and medicine, and it demands the attention of our hearts, minds and souls.

My second Goliath is stigma – the stigma that brings shame to people with mental illnesses and addictions; the stigma that denies them the sympathy and support that I have received in abundance while battling cancer.

Please understand that no parent would hesitate for even a moment to get help for a child with cancer. However, parents who have a child suffering from a mental illness or addiction wait weeks, months and even years to ask for help. Stigma causes many to hide and retreat, rather than stand and advance.

Stigma has two co-conspirators. They are the government and the health insurance industry. Government neglect and corporate greed represent nothing less than institutional child abuse and neglect that prevent sufferers from choosing and accessing life-saving treatment options. This is a clear denial of civil rights.

Defeating the Goliath stigma is a good start. It requires that we make a collective commitment to treating illnesses above the neck the same as illnesses below the neck.

If my being a David Award winner helps to inspire that, then I will truly feel a worthy recipient. Thank you.

https://longislandweekly.com/david-and-goliath/

Bio: Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org. 

REMOVING THE STIGMA - We must start treating illnesses above the neck the same as illnesses below the neck?

Anton News, Long Island; Opinion – Andrew Malekoff

February 25 – March 3, 2015 

When we hear that our neighbor’s teenage son has been diagnosed with cancer, or that our colleague’s newborn has a heart defect, we shed some tears—and then we move into action. We bring meals; we offer to take their other kids to soccer games or piano lessons; we raise money so the parents can stay home from work to care for their ailing children.

But when we learn that our daughter’s best friend has been hospitalized for depression, or that a boy on our son’s basketball team has stopped going to school because of severe anxiety, we’re often at a loss as to how to respond.

Here’s a fact that may surprise you: Although more children suffer from psychiatric illness than autism, leukemia, diabetes and AIDS combined, only one of five with an emotional disturbance gets help from a mental health specialist. Moreover, 50 percent of serious mental illness occurs before the age of 14.

People with mental health problems and addictions, along with their families, often suffer in silence, while people with physical health problems evoke the sympathy and support of others. Why do we continue to treat illnesses above the neck differently than illnesses below the neck?

The sad truth is that there’s still a widespread stigma when it comes to mental health. The result? Parents who need help often wait months and even years to make that first phone call. A parent whose child is diagnosed with cancer doesn’t wait to ask for help. Waiting only happens with mental illness and addiction.

Fortunately, more than 60 years after our founding, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is still here to fight that stigma and provide help to children in need. Let me share a few of their stories.

We met nine-year-old Joey 14 years ago, a few weeks after his father died in the World Trade Center. We soon discovered that he was calling his dad’s cell phone number every day. As Joey explained, “I call because, what if he is still alive? I don’t want him to be all alone.”

We met seven-year-old Jeremy two years ago. He came to us holding a large flashlight in his tiny hands. He said he needed it in case the lights went out again, like they did after Hurricane Sandy, when Jeremy lost his toys, his home, his daily routine. And, as Joey before him, he lost his belief that the world is a safe place.

While we do respond to headline stories, we more often are called upon to respond to personal dramas and private disasters that are hidden in plain sight.

For example, we met six-year-old Jerome soon after he attempted to jump out a window because, as he said, “Nobody loves me.” Fifteen-year-old Celeste said the reason that she cuts her arms until they bleed is not to take her life, but to lower her blood pressure. And 14-year-old Maria told us that she lives in a house with a revolving door welcoming men who touch her.

Depression, anxiety, fear, child abuse, school refusal, bullying, isolation, drug addiction, domestic violence . . . we receive more than 100 calls a week, and increasing numbers are emergencies.

All across Long Island, mental health agencies are shuttering their doors, or they’ve been acquired by corporate entities with no roots in the community. That’s tragic, because community-based mental health organizations are as essential to the health and well-being of our children as hospitals or schools.

What can you do? First, tell your representatives that you value the mental health organization that serves your community and would like their support to ensure its future. And if you know someone whose child is suffering from a mental health issue, don’t ignore them. Make that phone call. Let them know you care.

Bio: Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org.

We must start treating illnesses above the neck the same as illnesses below the neck?

PARENTING PLUS column for Anton News, Long Island, NY, February 2015

When we hear that our neighbor’s teenage son has been diagnosed with cancer, or that our colleague’s newborn has a heart defect, we shed some tears—and then we move into action. We bring meals; we offer to take their other kids to soccer games or piano lessons; we raise money so the parents can stay home from work to care for their ailing children.

But when we learn that our daughter’s best friend has been hospitalized for depression, or that a boy on our son’s basketball team has stopped going to school because of severe anxiety, we’re often at a loss as to how to respond.

Here’s a fact that may surprise you:  Although more children suffer from psychiatric illness than autism, leukemia, diabetes and AIDS combined, only one of five with an emotional disturbance gets help from a mental health specialist. Moreover, 50 percent of serious mental illness occurs before the age of 14.

People with mental health problems and addictions, along with their families, often suffer in silence, while people with physical health problems evoke the sympathy and support of others. Why do we continue to treat illnesses above the neck differently than illnesses below the neck?

The sad truth is that there’s still a widespread stigma when it comes to mental health. The result? 

Parents who need help often wait months and even years to make that first phone call. A parent whose child is diagnosed with cancer doesn’t wait to ask for help. Waiting only happens with mental illness and addiction.

Fortunately, more than 60 years after our founding, North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center is still here to fight that stigma and provide help to children in need. Let me share a few of their stories.

We met nine-year-old Joey 14 years ago, a few weeks after his father died in the World Trade Center. We soon discovered that he was calling his dad’s cell phone number every day.  As Joey explained, “I call because, what if he is still alive? I don’t want him to be all alone.”

We met seven-year-old Jeremy two years ago. He came to us holding a large flashlight in his tiny hands. He said he needed it in case the lights went out again, like they did after Hurricane Sandy, when Jeremy lost his toys, his home, his daily routine. And, as Joey before him, he lost his belief that the world is a safe place.

While we do respond to headline stories, we more often are called upon to respond to personal dramas and private disasters that are hidden in plain sight. 

For example, we met six-year-old Jerome soon after he attempted to jump out a window because, as he said, “Nobody loves me.” Fifteen-year-old Celeste said the reason that she cuts her arms until they bleed is not to take her life, but to lower her blood pressure. And 14-year-old Maria told us that she lives in a house with a revolving door welcoming men who touch her.

Depression, anxiety, fear, child abuse, school refusal, bullying, isolation, drug addiction, domestic violence . . . we receive more than 100 calls a week, and increasing numbers are emergencies.

All across Long Island, mental health agencies are shuttering their doors, or they’ve been acquired by corporate entities with no roots in the community. That’s tragic, because community-based mental health organizations are as essential to the health and well-being of our children as hospitals or schools.

What can you do? First, tell your representatives that you value the mental health organization that serves your community and would like their support to ensure its future. And if you know someone whose child is suffering from a mental health issue, don’t ignore them. Make that phone call. Let them know you care.

Bio: Andrew Malekoff is the Executive Director of North Shore Child & Family Guidance Center, which provides comprehensive mental health services for children from birth through 24 and their families. To find out more, visit www.northshorechildguidance.org. 

THEY LOBBY FROM THEIR GRAVES

THEY LOBBY FROM THEIR GRAVES

by Andrew Malekoff © 2013

It was not necessary for the slaughter of innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School to validate what we are reminded of daily - that there is evil in the world. But what it did do is to affirm that if the massacre of six- and seven-year-old children is not off limits, then nothing is.

Immediately after the murderous rampage in Newtown, CT, mental health experts offered tips to speechless parents about how to soothe their children. The advice sounded like this: Be available emotionally, be compassionate, limit media exposure, reassure safety, offer distractions to prevent obsessive worry, monitor for angry outbursts and depression and, if symptoms persist, seek professional help.

Can you imagine how the advice might have sounded if parents spoke from their guts instead of their heads and hearts? The advice might have sounded like this: It’s a cruel world, evil is everywhere, toughen up, watch your back, be vigilant, don’t trust anyone and (for older children) just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.

In the last 30 years, America has mourned at least 61 mass murders. After some time passes, the latest homegrown massacre will become another tombstone in our collective psyche, alongside Columbine, the World Trade Center, the Long Island Railroad, Virginia Tech, Oak Creek, Aurora and more.

We seem always to move forward believing that we have seen the last and worst of it; until the next time. Denial is a healthy defense when the alternative is all-consuming, paralyzing and debilitating fear. We do all we can to protect our children emotionally, as well as physically. And, so we support their denial, using psychological bromides to seal their emotional scars.

The two major talking points since Newtown are preventing gun violence and promoting mental health. On the issue of gun violence, I wholeheartedly support the right to bear arms and taking steps to get certain guns out of uncertain hands. On the issue of mental health care, the chronic under-funding of children's outpatient community-based mental health services in Nassau County and New York State, is a disgrace.

New York State has ensured easy access to community-based mental health care for Medicaid recipients and neglected the needs of underinsured middle class and working poor families. Their answer is always that the marketplace will take care of it. It won’t. They know full well that private practitioners often do not accept private insurance and will not provide the labor-intensive services that licensed community-based mental health agencies do.

The gun lobby is formidable and well-heeled. Children, on the other hand, don’t have a voice until they are in the ground. Children are killed, grieving parents become tireless advocates and laws are passed. Timothy’s Law (mental health parity), Megan’s Law (making information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders) and Katie’s Law (making aggravated vehicular homicide a crime) come to mind.

Think about it. After the Newtown shootings there was not one parent in the United States who was able to escape the tyranny of imagining their child being murdered in their neighborhood school. How many more children will be taken from us before lawmakers devote the same energy and resources it takes to launch their re-election campaigns, to safeguarding our children?

Wake up lawmakers, elected and appointed officials, and government bureaucrats. Our children are suffering and dying, families are struggling and desperate. Support the constitutional right to bear arms, take steps to prevent gun violence and provide adequate funding for community-based mental health centers to support the emotional well-being of all of our children.

"24-HOUR-A-DAY-GUARD-DUTY"

24-hour-a-day-guard-duty
by Andrew Malekoff© 2008

As winters in February go, this year’s was a mild one. Nevertheless, it was brutal month that brought the inexplicable murders of three young children in New Cassel and the execution-style killing of a teenage boy outside Don Juan’s restaurant in Westbury.

A legion of children and teens (and others) left in the wake of these deaths are the collateral damage that bloodshed brings. They include family, friends, and neighbors of the four young victims. Many of them now face the emptiness, frustration, fear and rage of incomprehensible death. They are at risk for suffering traumatic stress that impacts deeply on their lives, interfering with normal social growth and destroying their basic assumptions about the safety of the world. A single line of graffiti on a concrete wall, composed by a young trauma survivor, says it best: “I don’t like being a child, its 24-hour-a-day guard duty.”

What we know is that society expects parents to do everything—to counter the violent messages in the media, to teach children problem-solving skills, and then to keep them physically and emotionally safe. These are unrealistic expectations. Too many parents lack the information and wherewithal to accomplish this alone. Parents need our help.

At North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center we have a long history in the New Cassel community. Consequently, we were invited to meet with groups of parents, faculty and others in Park Avenue Elementary School, where one of the young victims attended. Being a community-based agency with deep roots in the neighborhood made all the difference. Meeting in groups is essential to rebuilding social connections that traumatic situations destroy.

A first step is to encourage parents and other caring adults to address their own feelings. This is necessary to free them to help their children to cope. Trauma expert Bessel van der Kolk advises that, “successful coping in the aftermath of traumatic events must protect four vital functions: the ability to continue task-oriented activity, the ability to regulate emotion, the ability to sustain positive self value, and the capacity to maintain and enjoy rewarding interpersonal contacts.”

A second step is to identify and emphasize community strengths and resources that sustain hope and reduce shame and isolation. Restoring a sense of community is critical for transcending the emotional impact of deadly violence.

I feel confident that as the bright lights and unforgiving glare of the media fade, and then flicker on again with every new legal development and political promise, the good people of New Cassel will heal and will rise up as those before them have risen up.

The good people of New Cassel will heal, with a little help from their true friends, and will let the world know that although Jewell Ward, Michael Demesyeux, Innocent Demesyeux, and Edwin Yovani Mejia are gone, they will never be forgotten.

As for the rest of us, we are faced with the daunting challenge of ensuring that no child’s life will be what it is becoming for too many today - 24-hour-a-day guard duty.

This article was originally published in the Anton Community Newspapers, Long Island, NY in March 2008.

HEADLINE HATCHET JOB

Headline Hatchet Job
By Andy Malekoff © 2007

Early in December, 2007 there were several news stories about a man with a long history of mental illness who took hostages in Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign office in New Hampshire. A headline on the front pages of the New York Post read: LOONY SEIZES HOSTAGES IN HILLARY’S OFFICE. For two consecutive days the New York Daily News printed headlines that read: WACKO BOMBS AT HILL’S OFFICE and NUT’S LIFE FROM HELL.

By now you know that the headlines were referring to an individual with a known history of serious mental illness. Had there been no such history then the derisive terms “loony,” “wacko,” and “nut” would have been a way of highlighting the lunacy of a desperate criminal act versus employing insulting stereotypes to label an individual with a mental illness. Although these headlines are about one man’s criminal act, the effect of the language in the headlines is to discredit all individuals with mental illness.

So, you may be wondering, what is the big deal? Or, you may be thinking that you are reading another tired diatribe promoting political correctness. After all, the man did do something undeniably crazy. Nevertheless, although juicy headlines sell newspapers, there is collateral damage when stigmatizing language about individuals with mental illness is used. The headline writers cannot hide behind the crime. Language that appears in the headlines of popular newspapers does influence people’s perceptions, attitudes and behavior. In this case they promote an undesirable stereotype and reinforce discrimination. The headline writers who write such headlines are the equivalent of schoolyard bullies except, in this case, the schoolyard is the entire New York metropolitan area and beyond, and the headline writers are more sinister and have more sway than the typical schoolyard bully.

Stigma experts Bruce Link and Jo C. Phelan from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, offer insights on how stigma evolves. First, human differences are labeled and assigned undesirable characteristics that lead to negative stereotypes. Labeled persons are then put in distinct categories in order to separate “us” from “them.” Finally, labeled persons lose status, and experience discrimination that leads to unequal outcomes.

Many individuals suffering with mental illnesses - children, teenagers and adults alike - have long histories of being at the butt end of cruel and stigmatizing taunts and jokes. Most people with physical illnesses, on the other hand, are beneficiaries of widespread understanding, sympathy and support. This is the reality despite the fact that neuro-imaging studies show physical changes in the brain are associated to mental disorders. Headlines that use terms like “loony” and “wacko” reinforce the notion that mental Illness is a sure sign of dangerous and irrational behavior, versus a disease with a biological basis. Headlines that employ such language also reinforce the idea that mental illness is something that is “all in one’s head” and can be controlled only if one has the moral fiber to do so.

It is shameful that the editors of major metropolitan newspapers choose to exploit isolated criminal acts to promote negative stereotypes and reinforce stigma in people with mental illness. Clearly, simply telling the truth and informing readers about a desperate criminal act is less important to them than taking the opportunity to exploit and discredit people suffering with mental illness, through malicious name calling that reinforces fear, mistrust and stigma.

This article was originally published in the Anton Community Newspapers, Long Island, NY.