In Memoriam​

D.J. Jaffe --- A Hero Who Fought Courageously for People with Serious Mental Illness who were Incarcerated or Homeless
Jaffe ended up changing the National Conversation on Mental Health, The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law & the National Disability Rights Network --- They also changed him.  Where are we at?
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The Legacy of D.J. JafFe
Executive Director of the Mental Illness Policy Organization passes away at 65

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               Two of the things that propelled Jaffe's rise, I would argue are the same 2 Things necessitating Olmstead Compliance:
  • Deinstitutionalization, and
  • Medicaid Managed Care 

             (Jaffe, Dr. Torrey with the Treatment Advocacy Center, and others are incredibly suspicious of "Olmstead" having seen what "Deinstitutionalization" wrought.

              But I would argue Deinstitutionalization without Olmstead or its equivalent is the NIGHTMARE we've been living the past decades)
  

               The other BIG, BIG THING that propelled Jaffe's rise was DENIAL in the Mental Health Advocacy Community as a form of "SOLIDARITY" with people with "Mental Illness."


                So for a lot of mental health activists, the issue was really:
  • Medication being more complicated than the Society was prepared to deal with (THAT'S A LEGITIMATE ISSUE), and
  • Deinstitutionalization, AND
  • People with "Mental Illness" are NOT CRIMINALS and if you say we are "I'm going to SCREAM"​
  • A lot of this was the result of INTERNALIZED STIGMA -- including on the part of "some mental health professionals"
  • Unfortunately, THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of people with "mental illness" and other disabilities and often combinations of cognitive disabilities have filled our Jails and Prisons and our Probationary Ranks with little support from the people who "might be" there NATURAL ADVOCATES.

IN COMES D.J. JAFFE WITH THE MENTAL ILLNESS POLICY ORGANIZATION & He does NOT feel POLITICALLY CONSTRAINED from speaking the TRUTH nor is he AFRAID of it.

When Jaffe starts out -- he is very much advocating return to ASYLUMS.   I'm not against some type of institutional care if "NECESSARY."

Generally, I would think Institutional Care would be appropriate if:
  • An Assisted Living Residence 
  • Residential Treatment Facility or
  • Housing and Assertive Community Treatment 
were not sufficient.  There's nothing saying people can't get more creative.

At the end of his life, certainly Jaffe embraced Outpatient Certification and Supportive Housing and Assertive Community Treatment..

Further, while Jaffe could spend a lot of time on Civil Commitment Statutes --- he certainly recognized that without RESOUCES it was all meaningless.

Colorado has had OUTPATIENT CERTIFICATION a long time --- FUNDING THE HIGH END of Medicaid Mental Health Continuum of Care is no easy trick --- especially since we've been blowing it off for over 1/2 a Century.


THE IRONY
  • To really address the needs of people with Mental Illness (and other Cognitive Disabilities) who are Incarcerated or Homeless that Jaffe championed -----

WE NEED OLMSTEAD
CSPAN:  DJ Jaffe at White House Mental Illness Summit 12/19/19
"His controversial presentation starts at 3:15 in where he makes the case that it is mental health advocates that encourage the mental health system to no longer focus on the most seriously mentally ill and that is why so many seriously mentally ill go homeless or incarcerated. "

[Jaffe's Prescription was essentially to fund the HIGHER MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUMM of CARE at the expense of the lower levels.  It was hard to see how that was going to work ---- BUT the HIGHER END OF THE MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM OF CARE should be a PRIORITY -- and it's NOT NATIONALLY and it's NOT IN COLORADO]

 Olmstead is Measurable (Numeric Goals), Reasonable Times & Funding to Support the Plan to bring:
  • Housing
  • Placements, and 
  • Intensive Services 
TO SCALE for people with disabilities who are institutionalized or at great risk of institutionalization such as from homelessness.

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
  • ​Website now includes Criminal Justice 
  • They haven't really gotten away from the debate regarding "Mental Illness and Violence"
    • ​I so think that is the WRONG DEBATE -- whether Bazelon or the Treatment Advocacy Center.
    • It was a debate Jaffe and the Mental Illness Policy Organization engaged in with glee ---- 
    • This is simplistic and misses so, so much.

GUN CONTROL & PEOPLE with MENTAL ILLNESS
  • As long as we as a society focus on these HOT BUTTON issues --- many advocates will feel they "HAVE NO CHOICE" but to address "gun control," etc.
  • ALL THE WHILE THE HIGH END OF THE MENTAL HEALTH CONTINUUM OF CARE IS NOT BEING FUNDED OR STATE PLANNING BEING ENGAGED TO ADEQUATELY FUND IT.
  • In the past I've felt this was really an UNCONSCIONABLE DIVERSION from more important issues, compared to the people in our jails with mental illness who are suffering Solitary, Getting Beat Up, etc.

National Disability Rights Network (NDRN)
  • Justice System Reform