As per to the editorial policy… names, locations, likeness has been redacted to protect the innocent, if you know it, you’re in the area or know the biggest city and do some mental math..

If you thought the DD system was bad… well the mental health system is as bad if not worse…

In this region, this organization is the poor man’s equivalent the corporate whore house that’s for the IDD population. They aren’t area agencies, and they do not provide day services, because most people with mental health issues really need basic level supports. In fact this region was suggested to me by the hack psych-o-logist when I was in limbo in 2008. The mental health agencies expect some level of self-competency, and if you’re not, then you’re abandoned as you will be reading in this passage.

This organization also operates a psych ward (a phrase that’s my-words to protect the innocent) about a couple dozen beds. The story revolves around the psych ward and the major organization as a whole.

The family member has had severe psychiatric issues since the early 1990s, mixed with alcoholism and severe depression, and most recently admission of PTSD. Long story short, since the start of the millennia, their care was no longer supervised by my grandmother, and he had a real rough time going through so many so-called “case managers” over the years, and had some good people, but some lousy ones too. In the summer of 2023, the now rebadged profession of a “clinician” found the contact to my grandmother and met up in the community twice, before she was brought to the hospital to only find out she was in the process of dying. Ironically she had a sentiment of feeling somewhat suspicious of their “clinician” after the second meet up.

What was brought up was their memory issues, and apparently medicine was delivered during different days of the week. The memory issues was so bad, cell phones was replaced with hard wired telephones and numerous requests for a new non drivers ID, debit or credit cards, etc. Because the mental health agency does not deal with early stage dementia, it was out of their responsibility. Gee, does this sound familiar?

In December, the landlord of the Section 8 housing called someone from the agency because allegedly work was being doing in their apartment, and allegedly decficated in the apartment, each account had a different story and it wasn’t very much verified or confirmed. Because they were their own guardian, they were persuaded to go to the psych ward; of which they went to a number of times in the past.

A meet up of them and the clinician was booked in Mid December, but there was a no-show. After Christmas, it was told to my mother (who then became the emergency contact) that they were sent to the unit earlier in the month with no telephone calls on the day-of. There was an informal no-visit because apparently they didn’t trust my mother. It’s unclear if it was a delusion or “someone” planted some doubt causing a false-positive.

From January into early March, the care was then basically out of the clinician and to the psych unit, leaving the primary counselor with mixed information. This “counselor” was actually an intern, close to 40 years old to get a masters in psychology. The counselor was actually this family member’s former “case manager” from the late oughts to the late teens, almost working a decade together, the longest they had worked, and the most positive outcome I’ve heard about this family member. The intern began the day before the family member was admitted.

Ever since December, they were trying to get them out to a better care facility, however because mental health is strictly that, any dual-diagnosis is also a no-no in the system. Again does this sound familiar to you? They must fund services to what Medicaid can bill them. In this case it’s schizophrenic bipolar.

In late April they were transferred out of the psych unit to what many would see as a “halfway house” the repeated mantra of  “coming and go as they please” but this family member was out for more than 12 hours that Friday and by that Saturday the area hospital called us and said they were in their emergency department.

The last time I was at this ER was actually with this family member with Gram aprox in November 2000, because I tagged along with my grandmother and my mother was not home, which pins the time when she was in Las Vegas for a long weekend.

They were sent back to the psych unit the following Tuesday… and has been there since, with a Section 8 apartment being vacant for months on end.

In May, my mother went through the process to become guardian to supervise the care specifically. The Friday before Memorial Day we got copies of the document where the clinician wrote the worst antidotes of his worst moments (does this sound familiar too?) and when we went to court in Nashua, the clinician didn’t show up to court, another woman did, the boss, where in Yelp reviews, the person’s full name was cited actually got negative experiences.

The headquarters of place is run-down, the main entry way is not even ADA compliant, and how that has not been addressed for at least 20 years to be reasonable is appalling. but they whore for support and funds. They have plenty of marketing and social media professionals to pimp out mental health awareness and suicide prevention, but do they really mean what they do?

Lanyards  for keys and ID badges say “Zero Out Suicide” – but is that just no different than “Nothing About Us Without Us”?

Communication at the facility is a bitch. But that’s another subject for another day.