Thursday, April 2, 2015

Relapse and Recovery

I am neither ashamed nor unwilling to acknowledge at this time, that I have recently experienced an acute reocurrence of my established diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder, and associated suicidal ideation, which has led me to be currently being an inpatient member of a Bozeman, MT, mental health treatment center, The Hope House. Hope House is operated by the the Gallatin County Mental Health Center, where I have been recieving out patient therapy for the past 5 months.
 
Serious mental illness, including my own, is a very real thing; and in spite of reasonable quality out pateint care, including prescribed psychiatric medication, it is not uncommon for persons affected as such to experience such relapse(s). In my own case, prior to to my 21 full months of inpatient care in the state of Arizona (including my time in The Arizona State Hospital), the likehood is very high that I would have made an attempt to commit suicide. But I have by now learned to seek help- largely as a consequence of my initial 8 months of treatment in the Tucson area University of Arizona's mental center (formerly known as Kino Hospital), versus the grossly inept practices at ASH- and as such, did seek the asssistance and resources before allowing my recent emotional break lead to an intentional attempt at suicide.
 
That said, my deepest thanks to the good doctors at Kino Hospital, for teaching me that my illness is managable, with the additional heartfelt advice that I do seek help when in crisis, as I am at this time. All told, I am doing well, and the staff resources available here at Hope House are providing very high quality care that I am confident will get me through this current medical crisis. It is likely that my stay here will last no more than 4-6 days (today is my first, after a late night arrival last evening), at which point, I will return to my home here in the Bozeman area, and resume my normal life activities, as they have stood since my Feb. 2012 discharge from the state of Arizona's sole long term public mental hospital, ASH; which as I have made clear in this blog since its inception in April, 2012, was and is still operating in gross violation of established medical-mental health practices.
 
So do not for one moment take for granted that my willingness to continue exposing you Rat Bastards has in any way been compromised.  I am quite certain that you all are happy to learn of my current situation, but I assure you, Noriega, Nelson, Rudd, Humble, etc., that I am going nowhere in terms of my advocacy work on behalf of the ASH community. And your time is still coming, trust me.
 
In closing, spending inpatient time in close quarters with persons affected as I am by serious mental illness has greatly reminded me of my former patient peers at ASH. I am thus compelled to express my best wishes to each and every one of you folks. I sincerely miss many of you (many, but not all...), and as always,we are in this together,in spite of the distance between as at this time. I will never foget or otherwise abandon you. You are my sole source of inspiration today.
 
 

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Will Humble the Quitter Turns Over His Position to this Man. 


(repost from 2013)
The Lies Continue. Wherein the former short time supervisor of The Arizona State Hospital, Cory "meathead" Nelson again refuses to acknowledge the simple fact that he is 100% responsible for a recent federal investigation that found ASH to be operating in irrefutable violation of state and federal law.

Herein the face and skin of reptile.

Cory Nelson, deputy director for Behavioral Health


INTRODUCTION: CORY NELSON WAS HIRED BY THE ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH/BEHAVIORAL HEALTH SERVICES IN SUMMER 2012, IN ORDER TO OVERSEE THE OPERATION OF ARIZONA'S SOLE LONG TERM PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH CARE FACILITY, THE ARIZONA STATE HOSPITAL (ASH). WITHIN 3 MONTHS OF BEGINNING HIS STINT AT THE HELM OF THIS PUBLIC ENTITY/FACILITY, NELSON UNILATERALLY- AS IN, WITHOUT CONSULTING THE VAST MAJORITY OF ASH STAFF, MOST OF WHOM HAVE FAR MORE EXPERIENCE IN PUBLIC MENTAL HEALTH CARE THAN HE DOES-  ALTERED A RANGE OF LONGSTANDING POLICIES AT ASH THAT WERE TO THAT TIME SOMEWHAT FUNCTIONING CONSISTENT WITH STATE AND FEDERAL LAW. MOST SPECIFICALLY, AS ILLUSTRATED IN A NUMBER OF MAJOR MEDIA REPORTS, NELSON DRASTICALLY REDUCED SECURITY STAFF, AS WELL AS LOWER RANKING TECHNICIAN AND NURSING STAFF, AN ACTION THAT IMMEDIATELY ESCALATED THE PRESENCE AT ASH PATIENT ON PATIENT/PATIENT ON STAFF VIOLENCE, AND FURTHER LED TO A VERY DISTURBING REDUCTION OF DIRECT CARE STAFF WHO BY ARE LAW REQUIRED TO OVERSEE THOSE PATIENTS KNOWN TO BE OF GRAVE HARM (TO THEMSELVES AND OTHERS) ON A 24 HOUR/SEVEN DAY BASIS. THE LATTER OF THESE IMPACTS DID AS A MATTER OF PLAIN FACT DIRECTLY CONTRIBUTE TO THE KNOWN DEATH OF AT LEAST ONE ASH PATIENT, A 22 YEAR OLD MAN NAMED CHRIS BLACKMAN. ON THE BASIS OF THESE ISSUES (AS THEY EMERGED IN THIS BLOG, AND LOCAL PHOENIX MEDIA REPORTS), A FORMAL 2013 INVESTIGATION OF THE ASH OPERATION CONCLUDED THAT NELSON'S ACTIONS IN THIS CONTEXT DID OCCUR IN VIOLATION OF STATE AND FEDERAL LAW, THEREIN REPRESENTING A GROSS VIOLATION OF PATIENT RIGHTS, TO THE  DETRIMENT OF THE OVERALL FLOW OF CARE SERVICES THAT ALL ASH PATIENT'S ARE DESERVING OF.  FOLLOWING THE FINDINGS OF THIS INVESTIGATION, SEVERAL FEDERAL AGENCIES- INCLUDING THE CENTER FOR MEDICAID AND MEDICAID SERVICES- DETERMINED THAT FACT THAT ASH WAS OPERATING IN CONTRADICTION TO THE TERMS OF THE FACILITIES CERTIFICATION AS A PUBLIC HEALTH CARE FACILITY, WHICH LED TO A VERY REAL THREAT OF ASH LOSING SAID CERTIFICATION, AND THE DEMAND THAT ASH SHAPE UP, OR SUFFER THIS EFFECT TO FULL EXTENT OF ALL APPLICABLE FEDERAL LAW. 

THREE DAYS AGO, THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED BY CAPITAL MEDIA SERVICES. NOTE THE FORMAL LANGUAGE OF ALL ADHS REPRESENTATIVES WHO COMMENTED IN RELATION TO THIS MATTER, AS IT HAS EVOLVED, FOR THEREIN LIE THE PATTERNS DESPICABLE IMMORALITY AND DECIET THAT I WITNESSED AND EXPERIENCED FIRST  HAND AS AN ASH PATIENT. CORY NELSON, FOR EXAMPLE, SAYS THIS HIMSELF: 

Cory Nelson, the health department's chief of behavioral health services, said he is pleased with the new findings. 'This is obviously the outcome we were all expecting...' Nelson said the report found no instances of abuse. What it did find, he said, were situations which affected 'a patient's ability to be in a safe environment....' 


Arizona State Hospital meets federal standards, will continue to receive millions in Medicaid funding


Posted: Friday, March 14, 2014 2:15 pm




In a letter to state health officials, Rufus Arther of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services said his agency is scrapping its plans to terminate the certification of the mental health facility. He said the latest survey done by an independent inspection unit of the state Department of Health Services for the federal agency shows the hospital is now complying with all the requirements to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

A copy of the March 10 letter was obtained Friday by Capitol Media Services.
The move comes four months after Arther, manager of survey, certification and enforcement for the federal agency's non-long-term-care division, removed the hospital's status as a provider considered to be meeting the required standards.
Arther said a September inspection found violations of regulations dealing with patient rights and nursing services. He said that review found deficiencies that substantially limit the hospital's capacity to render adequate care to patients, or are of such a character as to adversely affect patient health and safety.

Failure to comply with CMS standards comes with a risk: Cutoff of federal dollars. That federal cash makes up about a fifth of the $30 million budget for the hospital's 120-bed civil commitment unit.

Cory Nelson, the health department's chief of behavioral health services, said he is pleased with the new findings.

“This is obviously the outcome we were all expecting,” he said. Nelson said
State Health Director Will Humble acknowledged last year that the inspectors, who are state health department employees but independent of the hospital, did find various instances where procedures were not followed and patients were injured.

But he also said that in some of the cases, procedures were actually followed. The problem, he said, was that hospital personnel had failed to document what they had done.

The investigation is an outgrowth of a report by the Phoenix ABC affiliate about a patient death in September. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office said the man died of complications from having swallowed multiple “foreign bodies.”

Nelson said the report found no instances of abuse. What it did find, he said, were situations which affected “a patient's ability to be in a safe environment.”
Nelson said the hospital works with people with serious mental illnesses, including some “who have very serious self-harm issues.”

He said protocols require that some of the people be monitored closely – one staffer to one patient – with direct visual contact and at a distance of no more than six feet. Nelson said investigators found six instances where that did not occur.

And in several of those, patients were able to harm themselves by doing things like swallowing foreign objects or using items – or even their own nails – to cut themselves.

Last year's inspection also found situations where there was not the level of staffing the hospital itself had said was necessary. Nelson said while some of that was lack of documentation, there also were situations where someone did not show up at work.

Nelson said CMS orders special inspections when they get complaints. But he said they serve a legitimate purpose.

“We appreciate the fact that outside entities come in and help us identify things that we may not see on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “The survey process is simply part of an overall quality process that health care facilities utilize.”

Arther said the last inspection was not entirely a clean bill of health, with some “standard level deficiencies” found.

For example, it said that that the hospital's own policies and procedures did not ensure that patients were provided the same level of care for urgent medical needs 24 hours a day. And it found situations where the hospital did not document evaluations of patients placed on a “sick call” log.

Arther said these violations are not sufficient to require the hospital to submit a plan of correction to maintain its eligibility for federal dollars.

Nelson said policies will be adjusted.

In the case of that question of 24/7 care, he said the practice until now had been if a patient complained of something like a headache at night, that would be noted and a doctor or physician's assistant would examine him or her in the morning. Now, he said, the patient will get the same attention that would otherwise be available during normal business hours.

The inspection was only of the civil commitment unit of the hospital. It houses 120 patients, virtually all of whom were sent there under court order because they were found to be a danger to themselves or others.

A separate 120-patient unit is reserved for those who essentially have been found “guilty but insane,” people who would otherwise be behind bars except for their mental condition. And a third unit, with between 80 and 90 patients, houses those who have served their time in prison for violent sexual offenses but are considered too dangerous to be back on the streets.

(END OF ARTICLE)
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Cory "meathead" Nelson in a nutshell: "What it did find, (NELSON) said, were situations which affected 'a patient's ability to be in a safe environment.' "  This statement is only one more striking example of the manner in which this man, who is currently entrusted as the Deputy Director of Arizona's entire behavioral health care system, willfully twists the language/communication process anytime hard evidence emerges about the substandard conditions at ASH; he and his superiors- i.e. AHDS Director Will Humble engage in such miscommunication as a matter of standard operating procedure. They do this simply in order to preserve whatever semblance of reputation ASH may happen to have, putting the needs and rights of ASH patients well behind their own selfish and dimwitted ways in this sense; willfully deferring the fact that that ASH  staff have been engaging in violating the rights of all ASH patients to be provided with a reasonably safe environment that can serve to aid the needs these citizens as per the letter of law. Indeed, anything less is an abominable breach of the public trust, which I contend occurs due to gross abuses of power and authority. In no uncertain terms, with the above statement in mind,  Cory "meathead" Nelson more places the causal factors underlying substandard safety conditions on the "ability" (or lack thereof) of the ASH patients, all of whom are seriously mentally ill and disabled, and deserving as such of optimally safe conditions which only ASH staff are capable of ensuring.

Cory Nelson, deputy director for Behavioral Health


Cory Nelson, deputy director for Behavioral HealthHerein, the face of the snake. As I have already reported, the patterns of these violations were identified in 2013, and largely came about in direct relation to Nelson's grossly inept mis-supervision of ASH in the 12 months that he served as the Hospital's chief executive officer, 2011-12. And as I have also stated, ADHS Director Will Humble chose to grant this bum a major promotion, with no consideration whatsoever for the fact that ASH is and still continues to operating at substandard level of health care that should be shocking to anyone of reasonable conscience. There are at least 5 other highly entrusted ADHS/BHS/ASH staff who were 100% complicit in furthering the issues that are now known to be of serious concern to a range of well intentioned authorities, including several Arizona lawmakers, members of ASH's Human Rights Right Committee, and citizens such as myself who know via extensive first hand experience. Likewise, the primary source of information that the federal government relied upon in order to initiate this investigation flowed from local Phoenix area media, most particularly ABC Ch. 15 executive investigative (Emmy award winning) reporter David Biscobing, and at that point in time when these media based reports emerged in early 2012-the present, Will Humble patently rejected the merits by characterizing these sources as unreliable.

As such, Cory "meathead" Nelson has proven himself time and time again to be utterly dishonest each whenever he has made public comments about the factual realities at ASH, including during that time when I was hospitalized on the "civil" side of the Hospital itself (2011-12), gross dishonesty and outright deception that has occurred to  such a degree that anybody well familiar with these issues is fairly well nauseated whenever this miscreant's voice arises, be it in news media, the official ADHS/BHS blog site, and so on. A fat faced patent liar, who left the state of South Dakota under a very disturbing cloud of suspicion and associated controversy specific to his position in that state's public services system. As I have sarcastically said before, where does a man like Cory Nelson go if his misconduct has been exposed in media (as did occur in South Dakota, circa spring 2011)? Arizona, apparently, where men like ADHS Director  Will Humble, , and women like ASH's current CEO Donna "You are sooo busted" Noriega (and on the list of such names goes, as per my records and associated knowledge base) willfully engage in breaching the public trust as a matter of standard practice. The presence of this criminality in the executive offices of ASH and and ADHS has a trickle down effect that has long served to further all elements of the substandard medical-mental health care practices within the walls and fence lines of the Hospital itself, including deeply unacceptable occurrences of graphic patient abuse, which I attest to having witnessed and experienced firsthand for the virtual entirety of my 13 long months at ASH.

Equally significant to my tone of my voice in this context, I will also a say again:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, FOR THE CITIZENS OF ARIZONA WILL NOT ACCEPT THE FACT THAT A BLATANTLY INCOMPETENT STATE OFFICIAL IN ONE THE POOREST STATES IN THE NATION (S.D.) CAN RELOCATE TO LAND A HIGH LEVEL POSITION IN OUR STATE'S PUBLIC SERVICES SYSTEM. THIS PROCESS IS FAR FROM OVER, AND I STILL FULLY INTEND TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO SEE THAT THESE PEOPLE ARE HELD FULLY ACCOUNTABLE UNDER THE LETTER OF LAW. 

paoloreed@gmail.com


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Friday, March 6, 2015

Let the Fallout Continue

Arizona Health Director Will Humble Quits



---
You can run, Mr, Humble, but you can't hide. You know as well as anyone how deeply involved you've been in discriminating against the rights and care needs of Arizona citizens affected by serious mental illness. In your relatively brief tenure as the Director of ADHS, you  have actively awarded persons such as Cory Nelson for furthering the grossly substandard conditions at the The Arizona State Hospital, and in doing so, have continually turned a blind eye to good faith and utterly valid data to the effect. How many ABC Ch. 15 news reports have you refused to cooperate with? Ten... twelve? And how many lawsuits are you now a party to in terms of patients and patients' families who have suffered from your ineptitude? Two...four? You should be not only be ashamed, sir, but willing as well to do the right thing, even at this late stage of your history as a state employee. 

One way or the other, trust me when I say: You are still well in my sights as I diligently seek to address the due accountability of you and every other Rat Bastard responsible for the grossly substandard conditions at the Arizona State Hospital. Your troubles are only beginning in the context. I have all textural records specific to your role in my experiences as an ASH patent, wherein you willfully disregarded state and federal law, simply in order to maintain the status quo at what is now being recognized as one the most grossly mismanaged public mental facilities in the nation today.

paoloreed@gmail.com

Friday, February 13, 2015

Flanagan fired amid question: Is DCS the new CPS?
By Laurie Roberts. The Arizona Republic. February 10, 2015.
"Today, Gov. Doug Ducey fired DCS Director Charles Flanagan, who 
shepherded the new agency through its first year. Greg McKay, the Phoenix police detective tapped several years ago to oversee state investigations of criminal child abuse reports, will take Flanagan's place."

BELOW: My formal response to this news.

Consider the fact that, if Arizona's highest ranking officials are willing to neglect at-risk children, the equally grave threat posed by such ineptitude when it comes to Arizona citizens affected by serious mental illness. Throughout the annals of human history, persons so affected have ALWAYS been as hatefully discriminated against as it gets, and this certainly applies with respect for contemporary American history. That said, the issues underlying DCS's failure to meet the public trust is only one aspect of the broader implications. For I can and do attest to the fact that along with at-risk children in the state of AZ, persons young and old affected by serious mental illness have equally been subject to grossly substandard ineptitude and policy practices by the current administration of ADHS/BHS. And it is ongoing. This is arguably no more apparent than within the walls and fence lines of AZ's sole long term public mental hospital, The Arizona State Hospital (Phoenix), where senior clinicians and administrators alike have long been complicit in subjecting ASH's most vulnerable patients to utterly unlawful care and practice, with the undeniable protection of the state's office of the attorney general, as well as AHDS/BHS's highest ranking staff (and you ALL know who you are). Absolutely substandard medical health care, and they ARE STILL GETTING AWAY WITH IT- despite countless media reports (see ABC Ch 15, and investigative reporter Dave Biscobing's data to the effect), and good faith reporting by ASH staff, and at least one former patient/consumer's widely published blog/pending book (see The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse @blogspot.com). Likewise, with the various legal actions now in process in mind, whereby each and every state official identified in this blog to date are being taken to court, it is graphically clear how in need of direct oversight and associated accountability the operation of the Arizona State Hospital's is at this time, that being specific to at least some ASH staff at all levels of employ, along with their superseding counterparts in the offices of ADHS, the AZ AG, and so on. I implore AZ's current executive officers to step forward and do the right thing on behalf of ASH's patients, patients' families, ASH staff, and the citizens of AZ across the board. Anything less just furthers the travesty, to the deep shame of AZ's overall citizenry.... who deserve far, far better.

Thank you, Governor Ducey, for doing the right thing in this instance.
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Next up, then: Will "Yea, team!" Humble, Cory corazycorycorner.weebly.com" Nelson, Donna "You are sooo busted!" Noriega, and Joel "Angel of Darkness/the Mortician"  Rudd.

Time and time again, I advised these Rat Bastards in terms that any three year old could understand: 


"You are up to no good, and you know it.  
And you are not going to get away with it."

IN CLOSING: And needless to say, perhaps, this blog is on hold while the production of the final version of "Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse: The Book" is carried forth; publication date roughly May-June 2015. Until that time, all data comprised in the context is being retained, all but- of course- the 450+ articles published and reviewed by no less than 70,000 readers in the original version of the blog itself, 
circa April 2012-October 2014.  

paoloreed.gmail.com