A quick scan of Mayor Vincent Gray's proposed budget shows that a majority of cuts going to social services. Sixty percent of the cuts target health and human services. While the mayor proposes those cuts, he has sought an increase of $16.7 million to pay for kids to be shipped out of the city to [...]
Reading University Legal Services' latest report on conditions at St. Elizabeths, one story popped out as particularly horrifying. It's worth repeating here. The story involves a man the lawyers refer to as Mr. Jones (his name has not been made public due to confidentiality requirements).
Mr. Jones had been hospitalized multiple times over the years after [...]
Today, University Legal Services, a non-profit legal service agency federally mandated to provide advocacy and oversight for D.C. residents with disabilities, published its third report on conditions at St. Elizabeths Hospital. While the lawyers praised the opening of the new hospital, it still found that individuals' care hadn't improved: "the same issues that have been [...]
Today, the Washington Post chronicled Jared Loughner's journey from IHOP-loving Normal to alleged Killer. The AP wrote its own Loughner bio with shitty poetry. These stories were your typical five-days-since-Tragedy stockpile of reporting, fast-paced Dateline-esque narrative, and limp attempts at explaining mental illness (From WaPo: "And then Jared Loughner slipped into a world of fantasy [...]
Among the dozens and dozens of District government e-mails related to Jumiya Crump's child-welfare case, chronicled in this week's cover story, only one city official seemed to really get it. City lawyers and even Jumiya's own advocates were fixed on shipping the teenager out of state to a residential facility—a costly and dubious treatment practice. [...]
During last week's oversight hearing on the Department of Mental Health, there was an opportunity for Councilmember David Catania to fire up his inner prosecutor and start asking some tough questions about what happened on the morning of Nov. 6.
On that morning, two police officers responded to David Kerstetter's Logan Circle home. The two cops [...]
At last week's hearing on the Department of Mental Health, Councilmember David Catania revealed the cost to house one person for one year at St. Elizabeths.
Guess how much?
About $280,000 per year.
"That is an enormous amount of money," Catania said in what has to be the understatement of the day. There are so many reasons the [...]
The Washington Post offers a good preview heading into this week's D.C. Council oversight hearing on the Department of Mental Health. The big debate at the Wilson Building this Thursday may center on the department's aim to shutter its mental-health clinics and replace them with private entities. The department argues that thousands of its clients [...]
As I documented in this week's cover story on Osman Abdullahi's death, the problems at 830 7th Street NE were vast. Abdullahi was left without meds in a house without heat and very little food. There was the thinnest of safety nets for Abdullahi and his fellow tenants. After the shooting, the building's manager Mark [...]
On January 26, Osman Abdullahi was gunned down by D.C. Police after an altercation inside his unlicensed group home. The home, located at 830 7th Street NE, had no heat, very little food, and no supervision. Abdullahi wasn't taking his medication at the time. The home's manager Mark Spence has a long history with troubled [...]
Look at it. Go ahead and stare. This is what a District group house looks like. This is the scene from the Jan. 26th police shooting death of Osman Abdullahi. He had been suffering from schizophrenia. He had been living at this group home, located at 830 7th St. NE, since Nov. 1.
The Department of [...]
Earlier today, we wrote about the police shooting that took place this morning at 830 7th Street NE. According to news accounts and police statements, D.C. cops were called to the address for a domestic dispute or assault. When they arrived they found a stabbing victim and the alleged perp. The suspect allegedly charged at [...]
The inauguration will mean one thing: people will be getting pissed off, freaked out, and cranky. Huge crowds–any crowds–are going to produce some difficult moments. Or worse. Who knows? On Inauguration Day, the D.C.'s Department of Mental Health will have a presence at various Department of Health Aid Stations.
The stations will be parked along the [...]
