Posts Tagged ‘Department of Mental Health’
Remembering David Kerstetter
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 knew that Kerstetter was mentally-ill and that he was in crisis. The officers did not quite know what to do. They waited outside his home for roughly a half hour. They called their supervisor. They tried calling Kerstetter's therapist.
The officers should have called DMH's mobile crisis response team. Instead, they went inside Kerstetter's home. Kerstetter ended up being shot multiple times and died. He allegedly came at the officers with a knife and a struggle ensued. [The evidence casts serious doubt on that narrative]. While a standard MOU had yet to be signed between DMH and D.C. Police, the existence of the mobile crisis team was known all the way up to the highest levels of the police department.
So I waited for Kerstetter's name to be invoked. And I waited for Catania to ask some tough questions. Instead, Catania played it safe and gentle.
The Most Expensive Room In The City
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 money isn't worth it. University Legal Services has found plenty of reasons.
City Aims To Privatize Mental Health Clinics
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 already attend private clinics and the move would save millions.
But opponents to the proposal say private clinics are not as well staffed and can close without notice.
Mark Spence Goes To Court
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 Spence simply shut the home down. Without the proper notification or going through Landlord-Tenant Court, he kicked everyone out and locked the doors. Last Friday, I reported that city officials still aren't sure where the tenants ended up.
An unlicensed home means simply that the tenants are left in particularly vulnerable positions. But one former Spence tenant did fight his eviction. He took Spence to court.
Where Did The Residents Of 830 7th Street NE Go?
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 group homes. We published a cover story on Spence's activities and Abdullahi this week.
Within a few days of the incident, Spence effectively shutdown his group home. The lights were turned off. The doors were locked. A mysterious notice to "correct" or "vacate" was placed on the door.
The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs told me they have no record of posting such a notice on the door of 830 7th Street NE. The notice cited overcrowding as an issue. Spence had 30 days to correct the overcrowding problem or face some kind of fine or eviction. I saw the notice. The notice did not have DCRA letterhead or a name and phone number of an inspector who made the determination.
I asked Spence about the note. He told me the building's owner could have posted it. He added that he had cleared everyone out of the building. This is a clear violation of landlord-tenant regs. No one stopped Mr. Spence from ignoring the law.
The Office of the D.C. Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program has had frequent encounters with Spence’s work, dating to 1999, according to Jerry Kasunic, the office’s current director.
Today, Kasunic met with the Department of Mental Health. He had one question for the department: Where did the residents of 830 7th Street NE go?
The department's answer: We don't know.
Read More "Where Did The Residents Of 830 7th Street NE Go?" »
This Is What a Group House Looks Like
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 Mental Health has repeatedly stressed that this was not technically a group home. It was not one of their own. It had not been licensed as one. It didn't get a handy acronym that I won't even bother explaining. It didn't have the proper paperwork. But it was a group home. Many of its tenants were mentally ill. [All five I talked to or researched had been in the system]. All were unsupervised. This house had a history, a backstory. Abdullahi had a story, too. We first wrote about the incident later that night. I get to expand on my reporting for this week's cover.
While DMH gets to breathe a sigh of relief that this wasn't one of their own homes, its people were still inside. Its people were living without food, without heat, without meds, without supervision. So take a look at where some D.C. residents were living. Who's going to prevent this from happening again? Who's going to make sure there's someone competent watching over our most vulnerable? While DMH is investigating the house, the big question is: Did any of their people ever do a site visit, ever actually come to the house?
More pictures after the jump.
More Details On The Police Shooting @ 7th Street NE
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 police with a pole. The police opened fire on the man and killed him. “He was dead on arrival. It was a fatal shooting," says Traci Hughes, the D.C. police spokesperson.
The incident happened shortly before 11 a.m. While there was some back and forth over whether the home was a group home, it is a rooming house that does include people who are mentally ill. One former resident I interviewed said that he had been referred to the house by a psych facility. "This is supposed to be a community residential facility," said the former resident of his one-time 7th Street home.
Tonight, the home was empty except for two residents. The former resident was on the scene as well. He talked about the man who had been shot and killed by police. He knew him as "Osmond." Police released his name a few hours ago. His name is Osman A. Abdullahi. He was 36. The former resident said that Osman could be delusional, that he talked often about people out to get him. Some of Osman's enemies were from Alaska. "I would say he was schizophrenic," said the resident. "He talked about people coming to get him."
A month ago, he says, he saw Osman laying on his bed. "He had a butcher knife under [the] covers," he recalled. "He was worried about his roommates. He said the roommates were talking in their sleep about him."
This morning, Osman, attacked one of his roommates, a senior citizen, someone the two current residents referred to only as "Lewis." Grant Osborne, 57, a resident at the 7th Street home, says he woke up this morning to Osman standing in the doorway with a knife. He was fuming about his same old problem: People were out to get him. They were coming for him. Osborne didn't understand. The shades were drawn.
Osborne remembers the police breaking down the door. He heard the police ask Osman multiple times to drop his weapon. He says he heard one shot.
Read More "More Details On The Police Shooting @ 7th Street NE" »
Inauguration Watch: DMH Will Be Working The Crowds
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 parade route, at Union Station and at RFK Stadium. Not sure why RFK. Maybe that's where the buses will be idling. The spots along the parade route or near the parade route include one at L'Enfant Plaza, two on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue, and two on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue.
"The teams will provide emergency care to people who are experiencing a crisis who need stabilization and will transport involuntarily to [be evaluated] if necessary. The teams also will do screenings and/or referrals," writes Phyllis Jones, DMH's spokesperson in an e-mail.
It is possible, Jones says, that team members will be out roving the crowds checking for people who are in distress. They aren't just going to wait for you to visit one of its tents.
Also, the mobile crisis response teams will be taking calls. Starting January 17, they will have five teams of two staffers working from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m.
