State's mental health law fails family
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By ROD STETZER mailto:rod.stetzer@lee.net
Saturday, December 1, 2007 7:30 PM CST
Editor’s Note: Wisconsin’s mental illnesses commitment law is seen as a model by other states. But the state law isn’t structured to help all people with mental illness. Today, The Chippewa Herald’s series, Slipping Through the Cracks, examines who the law helps and who it is failing.
His family could see him slowing slipping away, but was powerless to stop him under Wisconsin law.
“This man is my father. He is mentally ill. Until about a year and a half ago, he was a law-abiding citizen, a good husband and father, a person that any of you would be proud to call a friend. Now that person is gone,” writes “Heartbroken” in an entry on the Chippewa Herald’s Website, Chippewa.com, which accepts anonymous submissions.
There are plenty of available programs in Chippewa County that would have helped the man.
Non-profit groups such as Rosebud and Friends in Chippewa Falls provide support and assistance to the mentally ill, as does the Chippewa County’s Department of Human Services and its Guidance Clinic.
“We have a whole range of services there, including crisis services,” said David R. Rynders, the county’s human services director.
For example, people needing help can call or walk into The Guidance Clinic on the first floor of the courthouse at 711 N. Bridge St.
“We have mental health professionals available during our work hours and on an on-call situation.”
Still, Wisconsin law doesn’t help everyone needing it.
`“There is a balance (in the law) between individual rights and having a community safe,” Rynders said.
That balance maintained by the law didn’t help “Heartbroken’s” father. He was not a candidate for involuntary commitment because he was not considered to be a danger to himself or others.
“It breaks my heart to see how far a person can fall before anyone is willing or able to do anything about it,” writes the man’s relative.
“I have spoken to lawyers, mental health professionals, police officers, jailers — but no one has had the power to get him into treatment. Everyone I have spoken to has been kind and understanding, but they have not been able to do anything,” the man’s relative wrote.
Eventually, Chippewa Falls Police arrested the man after he allegedly showed a knife to people who had upset him. He has been referred to the Chippewa County District Attorney’s office for possible charges.
Stigma holds some back
Mary Borofka has helped many people with mental illnesses since Rosebud and Friends opened in Chippewa Falls in 1999. Its offices have been at 100 N. Bridge St. since Oct. 1, 2001.
Rosebud is a place for people to come in, socialize and have a cup of coffee, Borofka said.
Between 20 to 25 people come to the drop-in center at least once a month. A dozen come by every week.
Rosebud, which exists because of grants from The Grassroots Empowerment Project, also offers the Emotions Anonymous service. “It’s a support group based on the 12 steps of AA,” she explained.
Borofka, Rosebud’s executive director, offers a reason why “Heartbroken’s” father and others don’t seek help.
“It isn’t money, because a lot of the services are available. But the No. 1 problem is stigma, where people see it as a weakness to ask for help.”
Borofka, a former social worker, said society needs to demystify that stigma. “We all have a breaking point, is the way I see it,” she said.
But she is hesitant to loosen the restrictions in the state law to make involuntary commitment for people such as “Heartbroken’s” father easier.
“I would hesitate to take away people’s choice,” she said.
“To force someone into treatment is not always in their best interest,” she said.
Emergency detention
Its official title is Chapter 51 of the Wisconsin State Mental Health Act.
Under it, law enforcement agencies have clear-cut responsibility when someone poses an immediate danger to themselves or others.
“We deal with emergency mental health detentions,” Chippewa Falls Police Chief Wayne Nehring said.
For example, city police are routinely called out to help people who have threatened suicide, overdosed on drugs or cut themselves.
“Those are very simple, straightforward emergency detentions,” he said. Typically, a person can be held for up to 72 hours.
People being committed go either to Sacred Heart or Luther hospitals in Eau Claire. If the hospitals are full, Nehring said the people being committed can be sent to facilities as far away as Duluth, Minn., La Crosse or the eastern part of Wisconsin.
“That creates a lot of transportation issues.” he said.
Rynders said a mobile crisis response, a service developed 15 months ago with law enforcement agencies, is available daily until midnight.
Sometimes it involves putting the person in a hospital. Sometimes, that’s not needed.
“A crisis prevention plan is developed on the spot,” Rynders said. “We use the hospital less because of that.”
Still, Nehring said he’s seen people who need psychiatric assistance, but they fail to say or do anything that triggers emergency detention.
“It’s a common problem,” he said.
A different route
Then there are people like “Heartbroken’s” father who have long-range problems and whose conditions are slowly degrading.
“We, typically, can not commit on those,” Nehring said of the police.
Instead state law calls for a court-like procedure, called a three-party petition, to be used.
“Ultimately, it would still go before a judge in those cases,” Nehring said.
Rynders said the public has a misperception about the mentally ill.
“People who have a mental illness are not, in general, more dangerous than the general population,” he said.
Still, families should be active in assessing the potential dangers of a loved one who has a mental illness.
“We’d rather get more calls than less,” he said.
But as “Heartbroken’s” family found out, Wisconsin law doesn’t cover every case and every person.
“In our society, people can choose to be mentally ill and have a right to (do) that,” Rynders said.
“Heartbroken” wants that to change.
“We need to take a hard look at how we deal with mental illness in our community. Leaving people with mental illnesses on the street with no treatment is dangerous for everyone, and inhumane for them. ”
Tomorrow: How the law works.
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