Media frenzy over forensic patients

By Jay Salter
Associate Editor

Caring for the severely mentally ill in California's state hospitals can be dangerous work. Too often, Psych Techs and other staff are attacked and severely injured by deluded, assaultive patients.

But is this information that folks outside the system really care about? Does the media devote half as much space to these events as it does to "news" of downtown dust-ups or neighborhood fracases?

Apparently they do only when such reports can be sensationalized, tabloid-fashioned, to sell more papers or to improve the advantage of certain well-connected interest groups. When this starts happening, CAPT officers and rank and file members can find themselves in a Catch 22.

Take the situation at Metro. Jay Johnson, the editor of the small, weekly Norwalk Tribune, has long campaigned against the DMH plan to increase the number of forensic patients at Metro.

Johnson suggests that because forensic patients come from the criminal justice system, they are more violent and more calculating than your garden-variety mental patient. Thus, Johnson believes they're much more likely to escape and terrorize surrounding communities.

There's no evidence to support this hypothesis, but that hardly matters. Johnson's journalism is chiefly meant to increase the paper's circulation by generating anxiety in neighborhoods bordering Metro.

So when Johnson received an anonymous tip about more Psych Techs being injured by patient assaults, he ran a story based on his off-the-record information. Next week he called CAPT Chapter President Don Gottlieb for confirmation.

Since Gottlieb never misses an opportunity to remind the public how tough the jobs of Psych Techs really are, he answered:

"Yes, injuries have increased recently. But only among staff working with patients in Metro's general population, not among those assigned to forensic units."

That isn't exactly what Johnson had hoped to hear, since it didn't advance his belief that forensics are more dangerous. But he printed it anyway pretty much as Gottlieb had reported it. A large headline blared: "Union official confirms situation at Metro."

So it served to remind his already edgy readers that Metro houses some explosive individuals, as it always has, and the state wants to bring in even more.

This story angered Metro Executive Director Bill Silva, who sees Johnson as an opportunist, prone to slant hospital- related news in the most negative light possible.

So he's punishing Gottlieb by refusing to speak to him. He no longer returns Gottlieb's friendly greetings or even acknowledges the union leader's presence in passing.

Maybe Silva's gone a bit overboard. But, what if he's right?

What if hospital employees at Napa or Metro provide the local media with information that in some way is used to promote the closure of those hospitals and the elimination of several thousand jobs? What if, as the World War II slogan goes: "Loose lips sink ships?"

That's certainly what Napa Executive Director Frank Turley believes. In fact, he's so skittish about how the media might interpret information about his hospital's operations that he recently blocked this writer's request for access to a certain Napa unit to gather information for an Outreach story about difficult working conditions.

Napa Chapter President Wanda Sarver wanted the story as part of her campaign to increase staffing on the unit. Turley justified his refusal to grant access by explaining darkly: "There's a group of influential people in this town who want this hospital closed."

He suggested that some local journalists appear to be happy to help out. In short, Turley was afraid that whatever I wrote might be twisted out of context. He may be right.

Like Silva, Turley is tormented by a tabloid. The weekly Napa Sentinel, edited by Harry Martin, has mounted a long-running campaign to discredit NSH.

Recently, Martin wrote a story accusing hospital officials of lying about whether a person involved in a recent shooting incident at the facility had previously been a patient there. Apparently, the woman had indeed been taken to the hospital by police, admitted to the hospital on a 72-hour hold and released.

The next day she returned with two pistols and held two dozen officers at bay in an hour-long shootout before being wounded and subdued.

Citing patient confidentiality requirements, a hospital spokesperson would not say whether the woman had been a patient at the hospital. Martin interpreted the refusal as an attempted cover up, and wrote that. He charged NSH officials with "lying to the public."

All of which has generated the following comments by CAPT State President Linda Pinkerton: "I sympathize with both Mr. Silva and Mr. Turley. The state needs these two institutions to fulfill demands that forensic patients get effective therapy in humane surroundings.

"And the state is bending over backwards to comply with those demands. But here come these special interests with special agendas, saying: 'Not in my back yard!' And scribblers like Johnson and Martin are happy to help them, thus threatening decent treatment and Psych Tech jobs, too," Pinkerton said.

"So I urge Psych Techs to think long and hard before answering any questions put to them by these two particular editors. In fact, I recommend all members of Bargaining Unit 18 refer these two journalists to their facility's public information officer or to CAPT communications consultants at our headquarters in Sacramento."

This doesn't mean CAPT plans to suppress or ignore information about possible unsafe working conditions. It just means the union will handle such reports in a slightly more circumspect fashion.

As for the Napa unit with difficult working conditions, Sarver has scheduled a meeting with the program's director and the hospital's labor relations officer to review the situation and press for staffing improvements.