A powerful and scathing opinion-editorial was published in a recent issue of the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. Written by Bob Sharpe, president of the Florida Council for Community Mental Health, the editorial calls the question about compassion for those suffering from mental illness:
Esmin Green sat alone in the emergency room. Suffering from psychosis and severe anxiety, she waited nearly 24 hours for help. After sitting alone in a waiting room chair for almost a day, Esmin fell from her seat, collapsing face-down on the floor at 5:32 a.m. One hour later, she was dead...Though this tragedy took place on June 19, it was largely ignored until a surveillance video surfaced weeks later showing the incident in its entirety.
When people witness such abuse, they are naturally shocked and outraged. Few people realize, however, that just one year ago something very similar happened to Edith Rodriguez at Martin Luther King Hospital in Los Angeles. Edith bled to death on the emergency room floor — a death that also was caught on video.
It is time to wake up and learn from these tragic events:
Thousands who desperately need care are not getting it.
Most of those in need of care do not have insurance to pay for it.
Our country would rather pay for criminal justice costs than mental health treatment.
Our health system far too often responds to poor, mentally ill people with a lack of compassion.
The real question here is not whether we CAN do better by people like Esmine Green and Edith Rodriguez, but whether we have the WILL to do better. We're spending the money in either event, and the real tragedy is that these women, and so many more people like them, are trapped between two broken systems -- the broken health care system and a broken criminal justice system. We are always looking for partners in our advocacy and community health efforts. If you have ideas, or think you might like to work with us to advocate on behalf of the mentally ill, send us an email.
Esmin Green's story is pathetic.I can't understand the significance of the title"Compassion in Mental Health".
Posted by: Graham | July 29, 2008 at 10:16 PM