Civil rights commission looks at Nev. busing of patients
By Cynthia Hubert, Sacramento Bee
James Flavy Coy Brown, a homeless and mentally ill man allegedly “dumped” by Nevada’s primary psychiatric hospital via Greyhound bus into Sacramento last year, on Friday became the national face of a problem that experts said is widespread and should be curtailed by federal authorities.
Brown’s story touched off a Sacramento Bee investigation into the Las Vegas hospital’s practice of routinely busing mentally ill patients to cities across the country. The saga was the centerpiece of a lengthy hearing before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, D.C., that explored the need for reforms of a federal law designed to protect patients from being discharged without proper treatment and planning.
“James Brown and others like him can no longer endure a disintegrating system of emergency mental health care,” said Staci Pratt, who spoke on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.
Serious mental illness is about as tragic as anything can be for both the ill individual and their family. I remember when Ronald Regan was the California Governor and closed most State hospital facilities saying that it was the responsibility of families to take care of their ill family member and not that of the taxpayer. Then he took his show national and now there are few places for a family to place their ill relative unless they’ve got unlimited money to pay for private care. Also, most family members are not professionally equipped to handle the seriously mentally ill and as awful as it sounds some people need to be hospitalized for their own safety and that of a community.
It’s a sad situation when society doesn’t care about ill people who through no fault of their own cannot care for themselves. Glad I’m old and don’t have a long life stretching out in front of me to continue watching the exceedingly selfish and greedy justify their behaviors and lack of compassion.