TO: Senator Thomas L. Bromwell
Chairman, Finance Committee
RE: Senate Bill 556 - Hearing March 6, 2002
Mental Hygiene - Maryland Mental Health Crisis Response System
OPPOSED
Senate Bill 738 - Hearing March 6, 2002
Task Force on the Reform of the Public Mental Health System in Maryland
PROPONENT
To follow is my testimony for Senate Bill 645 - Hearing March 12, 2002.
This document is replete with problems relating to the Baltimore Mental Health System.
As for the University of Maryland Outpatient Department of Psychiatry, I was given a series of inappropriate treatment regimens by a series of incompetent residents and social worker in training. Supervision was substandard and even the attending physician (Doris Balis) could not prescribe even after direct interviews. Please refer to my website for further information.
As for the Harbor City Unlimited program, I was assigned a high school graduate as "counselor" and a first year social work student as "program planner". These people were even in my house, asking me to sign paperwork, when I was in a state of mania. The program ignored faxes indicating psychosis. This situation continued through a period of two months, culminating with a report by the high school graduate "counselor" when I appeared at the door in a bathrobe and refused him entry that I "disrobed in front of an open door" and "barricaded" myself in my house. An unqualified Shantisse White from the Harbor City program filed a petition for Emergency Evaluation resulting in five patrol cars and a paddy wagon showing up at my house later that day. I was "discharged" from University of Maryland Hospital at 2:30 in the morning in a light cotton robe, a raincoat, bedroom slippers and my housekeys. I had no choice but to walk home. By telephone call to the "counselor", all records concerning Harbor City Unlimited had disappeared by the time of an involuntary commitment.
Diane Ossip, M.D. of the Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc. filed a falsified petition the following day without ever examining me. She and two assistants staged a home invasion. This time, the police sent one officer who essentially threw them out of my house. Ossip gave the officer a postdated petition that was not the one used later against me. The latter petition included "leaving front door open" and "walking streets at night alone". For more information, please refer to the attachment.
By my experience, it is obvious that Senate Bill 556 should receive an unfavorable decision and that Senate Bill 738 is greatly in order.
I urge the Committee to act with speed and dispatch in its treatment of these bills.