Cho plus almost 3 years. . .

Martha note: Today, Virginia Public Radio will air a story on what it's like to be a severely mentally ill "client" hospitalized at Western State. And tonight at 7, Tom Graham will host an Assembly Conversation  on the subject of Virginia's mental health services. 

The heartbeat of state-funded Mental Health Services in Virginia are its 40 Community Service Boards (CSBs), which were formed back in the early seventies in response to a Federal mandate to provide 24-hour coverage for mental health, intellectual disabilities, and substance abuse emergencies.  

As part of my research for the story on Western State, I sat down with Dr. Robert Tucker, Director of Emergency Services for  Valley Community Service Board  (VCSB), to get some idea about how these "emergency services" work. 

Cho Seung-Hui was the starting point of our discussion that morning in the conference room at VCSB.

On April 17, 2007, Cho killed 32 people and wounded 25 others at Virginia Tech in what is now generally referred to as the Virginia Tech Massacre.

On April 18, 2007, CNN published the following:

Killer's manifesto: 'You forced me into a corner' 

Cho Seung-Hui said Monday's massacre on the Virginia Tech campus could have been avoided and said "you forced me into a corner," in a videotaped message he mailed to NBC News. 

NBC News reported that Cho mailed the package at 9:01 a.m. Monday -- during the two hours between the shootings at the West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory and Norris Hall, which left 33 people dead, including Cho, who took his own life. 

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," Cho said in one of the videos that aired Wednesday night on NBC. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

No one disputes that Cho had needed effective intervention and treatment long before he exploded into violence. But, said Robert Tucker, it's just not that easy.

Tucker remembers watching a "Town Meeting" on Good Morning America right after Cho's rampage. People were encouraged to call with concerns about bizarre behavior.  But, Tucker asks, what about Cho's Constitutional right to behave bizarrely as long as he's not breaking laws or actively threatening harm to himself or someone else?

And as for calling, call whom?  To do what?

Here are a couple of the post-Cho scenarios Robert Tucker laid out.

Say you call the police and say that your neighbor's behavior is scaring you. The police come out, agree with you. The officers can then, under their own authority, issue  what's called a "paperless custody order," which allows  them to bring your neighbor into a secure facility for evaluation by someone on Robert Tucker's VCSB Emergency Services staff.. Legally, this evaluation has to be done within 4 hours, with a possible  2-hour extension.

After evaluation, your neighbor can be committed on a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO), if the examining mental health professional deems him to be at risk in the reasonable near future (7-10 days) of inflicting serious mental harm on himself or others. Or if he's deemed not able to take care of himself..

Pre-Cho, individuals could only be TRO'd if they were of imminent danger to themselves or someone else, but they could then be kept in a hospital for treatment based on an inability to care for themselves. Now you can be TRO'd because you can't take care of yourself.

Dr. Tucker gave the following example of how this system plays out:

Say a person is manic-depressive. Bipolar. He's on meds and doing fine, and then get's physically ill and is put on a steroid which sends him into a manic episode. He starts spending money and soon he's in danger of losing both his house and his family. In the past, the system would have had to wait until this man hit rock-bottom before they could do anything. Now, the system can intervene once he's deemed not able to take care of himself. Then, based on past behavior, he can be picked up, evaluated, and put in a hospital for treatment before he hits rock bottom. 

And there's another relevant change in how emergencies are handled..

Post-Cho, police are now offered CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) training, which is 40-hours of instruction in how to tell when someone is mentally ill, or physically or intellectual impaired. This makes it less likely that ill people will get sent to jail where they will only get worse.

Another illustrative example from Dr. Tucker: 

Someone calls VCSB complaining that Joey is acting weird. Before, we might ask officers to go out there and check and see how Joey’s doing. Now, however, we’d request CIT-trained officer. And maybe, Dr. Tucker says,  I'd  send one of our CIT clinicians out with officer.  When doing crisis intervention, you want a secure protected environment, which the police/clinician partnership has a much better chance of providing. The two trained  professionals then try to engage Joey in conversation and, if appropriate, to get him to come in for services. This way, Joey avoids the stigmatization of getting involved with the criminal justice systems.

Over and over and over again, Dr. Tucker pointed out that, if a person does not meet commitment criteria, there's not a lot the system can do. But, he says, this process continues to change, with increasing emphasis on  empowering recovery and de-stigmatizing  mental illness from  a legal/criminal perspective.

The main thing I took away from my conversation with Dr. Robert Tucker and other staff members at VCSB, was an impression that Community Service Boards are staffed with skilled, compassionate, astonishingly committed and hard-working people, who need all of us to involve ourselves in understanding more about mental health issues.

You can make a start   tonight, by tuning in and calling in  (866-611-639) to Assembly Conversations. Tom Graham's guests will be Richard Bonnie, Chair of the Virginia Mental Health Law Reform Commission;  Patrick Hope (D-Arlington), House of Delegates Member and former Arlington County Community Services Board Chair]; and  Bonnie Neighbor from the advocacy group for mental health consumers “VOCAL.”


Cho Seung-Hui was the starting point of our discussion in the conference room at VCSB.

The View from Richmond . . .

Martha note: Even though those of you who live in Virginia's 5th District may have already read Delegate David Toscano's e-account of his doings during the first week of the Virginia General Assembly's 2011 Short Session, I'm using it as today's blog post for two reasons.

• The first is somewhat WMRA-centric. Today's Virginia Insight will discuss what's going on in the Virginia General Assembly. And tomorrow night at 7, Virginia Insight host Tom Graham will be in Richmond to host the "General Assembly Conversation," a statewide production of Virginia Public Radio. I thought Mr. Toscano's letter would give you some in-depth background information for both those shows.

• The second is that quite a few of us in WMRA Land are state employees, and the following provides an excellent, non-partisan explanation of exactly what is going on with the Virginia Retirement System. 

TOSCANO UPDATE FROM THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

January 21, 2011
We convened the 2011 session of the General Assembly on Wednesday, January 12. The first few days are generally reserved for reorganization and few bills are actually heard. Nonetheless, there is considerable controversy already brewing in the Capitol. In Gov. McDonnell's amended budget, he has proposed several million dollars in school funding cuts for Albemarle and Charlottesville, he has yet another proposal to privatize the Alcoholic Beverage Control and, in perhaps the most controversial proposal of all, he has suggested that state employees be forced to contribute a portion of their salary to the state retirement system.

I have signed onto legislation that will restore the school funding cuts to Albemarle and Charlottesville. I have also expressed serious concerns about the governor's plan to force employees, most of whom have not received a raise in several years, to contribute to the retirement system.

This year, we are confronting a major problem with the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) and its $17.6 billion "unfunded liability," which is approximately the amount of money appropriated from the General Fund in a year. The term "unfunded liability" describes the ability of a retirement plan to pay the future benefits due to employees if they retired immediately. Since all employees will not retire immediately, sound financial planning does not require that a fund be 100% funded. In fact, economists believe that if a plan is 80% funded, and so long as contributions are continuing to be made into the fund and investments perform adequately, a retirement fund is fine.

The problem with the VRS is that we have consistently underfunded our system while the stock market, where this money is invested, has not brought the returns to which we have become accustomed. In addition, over the last twenty years, the General Assembly has actually met the required actuarial funding request in only three years. If we had made those contributions, our assets would be $5.4 billion more than we have at present, thereby putting less stress on the system. The problem has been exacerbated by the $620 million the General Assembly "borrowed" from the retirement plan to balance the budget last year. I did not support this and voted against the budget, partially due to this provision. We would be in a much better position today had we not taken that money from VRS.

Some economists believe that the problem is even more serious because the actuarial assumptions underpinning the unfunded liability figures are perceived to be too liberal. If that is the case, the fund could experience problems even greater than are now being projected.

One overlooked portion of the governor's proposal which could have considerable impact on state employees in our area, including faculty at the University of Virginia, is his plan to decrease the amount of state contributions to what is called the "Optional Retirement Plan." Under this plan, members of ORP will have their state contributions reduced from 10.4% of their salaries to 8.5% of their salaries, and, unlike VRS employees, who will receive a 3% raise to partially offset the change, ORP employees will receive nothing. It is estimated that approximately 25,000 employees around the state are enrolled in this plan, including faculty at the University, VCU, Virginia Tech, George Mason, William and Mary, ODU, and Longwood. At UVA, 3,156 employees are enrolled in ORP compared to 6,210 at VRS, so the stakes are high.

Given the numbers of people involved and the fact that we will not solve this problem overnight, it is important to move deliberately, getting as much information as we can and as much input as possible, before developing a long term strategy to solve the VRS problem. Moving too quickly will be a disservice to employees and interject levels of inequity that are unfair and could create unintended consequences for the future. If you have any suggestions on what we should do to address this problem, I would appreciate hearing from you.

Tea Party on . . .

Tomorrow at 3 p.m., on WMRA's Virginia Insight, Tom Graham's guests will be three of WMRA Land's Tea Party leaders. I plan to listen.

To this blogger, the Tea Party seems more mood than political movement; a channel for peoples' righteous anger at the stubborn mess this country finds itself in; a way for people to feel less afraid that nobody in government cares.

It also seems to me that Tea Partiers feel they can draw a line in history's sands, step backwards over it, and start again in 1783.

Tea Partiers again out-voted Republicans in yesterday's Republican primaries.  They partied on in the Delaware Republican Senate primary, choosing Christine O'Donnell, founder of S.A.L.T.  (Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth, an anti-lust, anti-masturbation organization) over the current Republican Representative, moderate Mike Castle.

Castle, the poor nincompoop, ran on his experience. That is not politically savvy these days.

Farther north, as NPR puts it,

Up I-95 in New York, another Tea Party choice, businessman Carl Paladino, pasted former Congressman Rick Lazio to win the Republican governor's nomination.

The results on the Republican side continued the run of successes the Tea Party movement has had this year.

Tea Party victories in Massachusetts, Utah, Nevada, Florida, Alaska and now Delaware and New York were fueled by anger towards Washington over deficits, bailouts, the health care overhaul and the economy.

I spent a fair amount of time this morning looking for anything approaching a comprehensive platform offered by either of the newly-selected candidates. All I could find is that both support the repeal of the new health care act and both support "fiscal responsibility."

I fully acknowledge Tea Party Patriot members' right to feel however they feel – whether it's angry, frustrated, scared, or truly concerned about the Constitution. Yet while I can empathize with such emotions, I still want to hear specific ideas from them about how to address this country's very real current troubles.

Saying the budget needs to be balanced doesn't balance the budget.

I see tomorrow's Virginia Insight as my chance to listen to what our area's Tea Party leaders have to say. And to ask for their specific ideas.  I do hope you will join me in both listening and asking.

The backstory of a story

Martha note: In today's WMRA Blog post, Tom Graham tells the story of his gathering of today's Morning Edition story. I've cut and pasted his e-mail directly onto the blog, because I think it says it all . . .

This may be too much “insider radio” for our blog friends.  Then again, one of the most frequent questions I hear is, “How do you first find out about the stories you cover?”

So here’s the tale of the news segment that finally ended up on WMRA this morning.  The one about the Free Acupuncture Clinic.

It began at 3:57pm on Monday, March 15, 2010.

We were just wrapping up that day’s broadcast of the Virginia Insight talk show. 

 

 “Treating Pain” had been the focus.

A family physician, a physical therapist, a psychologist, a pain management medical doctor, and an acupuncturist were the guests. 

It was acupuncturist Jody Forman who got the final word that day.  As the show wrapped, she quickly blurted that a free clinic serving military veterans and their families was available in Charlottesville every Monday evening.

Intrigued, when the show ended, the other guests and I asked Jody for more.

It turns out a number of Chinese medicine specialists - mostly from the Charlottesville area, but some from as far away as Winchester and Richmond - had decided they wanted to give thanks to U.S. military folk and their families.

So they began offering a specialized form of acupuncture treatments, for free, to any active duty military personnel, any military veteran, and their families. 

The problem was, while the clinic could treat close to two hundred people at a time, generally only about a dozen clients were showing up. 

“Ah, a story !” I thought.

Problem is Mondays are the most hectic day of the week for me.  I often don’t get home to Charlottesville until after 9 or 10 at night.  How was I going to visit a one hour clinic that only occurred Mondays evenings at 7?

Eventually I worked it out.  I recorded interviews with some of the acupuncturists, some of the military personnel.   Then put together a story and sent it to WMRA’s designated approver-of-all-things-that-get-on-the-air -- program director Matt Bingay.

Matt didn’t like it.

In retrospect, he was right. 

[Wanna know how hard it is for me to admit that?]

I had focused on the irony of a free service that hundreds, if not thousands, of people could be taking advantage of - but after a year’s worth of Monday nights, almost no one was.  This despite the fact that those who did go spoke in glowing terms of all the health benefits they’d received.

But my approach was just too quirky.  I really hadn’t focused enough on the people in this story.

So back to the drawing board.  And the editing bay.

I will resist the temptation to discuss how many more machinations had to be experienced before an acceptable [to Matt, at least] story got created. 

But one finally was. 

It aired this morning [Monday, May 24]. 

And if the result is even just one more person getting the kind of health benefits from this free clinic that other people have gotten, it will be worth all the days off I spent worrying away at this story.

I am going to keep telling myself that. 

And if I should stress out too much about it, at least I know where I can go for a highly acclaimed Monday night destressification session with needles in my ear.

Best.

Tom

[P.S.  Martha -- if you want to add some specifics:

The Free Acupuncture Clinic -- available to any one currently in the military, anyone who’s ever been in the military, and their families -- is held Mondays, 7pm, at the JABA Center, 674 Hillsdale Drive, Charlottesville.  For further detail, clinic founder Jody Forman can be reached by email at jodyforman@mac.com.]

Post from Tom Graham

Note: This note from WMRA Reporter and Virginia Insight Host Tom Graham came into my e-mail box over the weekend.

Hi Martha -

I wondered if WMRAers might like some behind the scenes political news.

On Morning Edition this past Friday, Bob Leweke and I reviewed some of the latest developments out of the state capitol -- now that this year’s General Assembly Session has reached its half way point.

As usual, time constraints kept us from being able to go into everything on my list.
So I’m sending some audio that did not make it on air.

The following comments come from three lawmakers whose districts fall within the WMRA service region:
----------------------

State Senator Emmett Hanger (R-Augusta County) was asked about his argument that current law is unfair to so-called “bricks and mortar” businesses because, while they have to collect sales tax, retailers who sell on the internet do not. Senator Hanger is pushing for legislation that would force internet companies like Amazon to collect Virginia sales tax.

Emmett Hanger:    It’s actually a very important issue. The law of the land, as it currently exists and the Supreme Court has interpreted it, is that if a business has a nexus, that is has some kind of physical presence in your state, then they can be required to collect sales tax. And for me it’s a matter of fairness. We certainly should not allow these large retailers to have a competitive advantage on the internet. Because they’re actually running traditional Mom and Pop, bricks and mortar businesses out of business with that advantage.

One single example, which is somewhat of a focus in the legislation I’m currently working on, is Amazon. Amazon this past holiday season, the 4th quarter of 2009, enjoyed roughly a 42% percent growth in business. Tremendous growth. A lot of people are moving that direction and we are allowing them not to collect sales tax. And they actually have a presence in Virginia. So I’m attempting to tighten up our statutes so that we say to that retailer, you will collect that tax that is already owed. It’s not a tax increase. And I think if we equate that to say WalMart, if we were to not have similar legislation for WalMart and just required everyone who made purchases all year long to compute what they’d saved in a shoe box and remit to the state, it just wouldn’t work. And the same can be said for Amazon and other like retailers. They really do need to be good corporate citizens.

Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah County) was asked why he favors the so-called “guns in bars” measure. This is legislation that would allow gun owners who have concealed carry permits to keep their guns with them when they go into a restaurant where alcohol is served -- as long as that gun owner does not consume any alcohol while in that restaurant.

Todd Gilbert:     I’ve always been a big advocate of the Second Amendment. I’ve always trusted law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, to avail themselves of the means of self-protection. I believe in the Second Amendment; I believe it is a fundamental right. You know while it may seem cavalier or silly to some people to suggest that folks might want to have a gun with them in a restaurant, the fact is that we trust hundreds of thousands each and every day to carry a concealed weapon on their person for themselves or for the protection of their families, and it makes absolutely no sense to me that even though we trust them everywhere else in society, we cease trusting them simply because they want to take their family out to dinner. And I think we’re well on our way to removing that impediment to folks who want to continue to protect themselves if they go out for a nice dinner with their family.

Delegate David Toscano (D-Charlottesville) spoke about his hope that efforts to create a “non-partisan commission in charge of legislative redistricting” might yet succeed. That proposal was killed in a House of Delegates committee again this year. But since the State Senate gave its unanimous approval to the same measure, the proposal is technically still alive.

David Toscano:  The non-partisan redistricting bill that I’ve supported over the years passed the Senate and would get over to the House. This is our last chance to try non-partisan redistricting before the next round. I’ve always taken the position that it shouldn’t be the legislators who are choosing their constituents; it should be constituents who are choosing their legislators.

Tom G: In the campaign, candidate McDonnell supported that. It seems like Governor McDonnell has not been active in supporting that once he got into office. Does that cause thoughts for you?

DT: Governor McDonnell has been invisible on the non-partisan redistricting issue, even though he campaigned on it. You would have thought that this was one of the important issues that he would want to push, and nobody from his administration, he didn’t come over to lobby for the legislation. He knew that the House was likely to kill it, but he did nothing to try to get it passed. That’s unfortunate.


One other note on non-partisan redistricting.

State Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Bath County) is the longtime sponsor of this measure. I spoke to him about it last week.

In past years his proposal has made it through the Senate only to be quashed in the House of Delegates.

Even though a House committee killed the House version of the bill earlier this month, the Senate version will still have to be acted on when it gets sent over to the House.

I asked Senator Deeds if he thought there was any chance that the Senate version of the bill could get approval in the House this year. His response: “Well, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. So I haven’t completely given up hope.”

Made me smile. Hope your day is causing you to do so as well.

Best,

Tom (Graham)

Another note: Tom actually sent me the statements from the Virginia legislators as sound files, but I couldn't figure out a way to post sound on this blog. Anyone out there have a clue if this is possible?  MW

Making radio . . .

Okay, I have to be on the road by 7:30 a.m. today, heading south to Lexington, to give the second of two essay-writing workshops at Boxerwood Gardens. This means I don't have a lot of time to write this morning, so it seemed like a good time to post a picture WMRA's Terry Ward took two days ago. I thought it might be of interest to you, particularly if you've never been to the WMRA studios before.

Yesterday on Morning Edition, we aired what's called a two-way interview (i.e. a conversation) between local ME host Bob Leweke and Virginia Insight host/reporter Tom Graham discussing what's going on in the Virginia General Assembly. Tom had just gotten back from Richmond, covering what's known as cross-over day; the day when all legislative bills under consideration cross over from the House to the Senate or vice-versa.

Sometimes "2-ways" are done live, but since there was some lead time before this one and it wasn't a breaking story, we decided to record it the afternoon before. The red-headed guy in the picture is WMRA  Program Director and production wizard, Matt Bingay. He's in the on-air studio running the board (controlling sound levels and sound balance) and recording Tom Graham and Bob Leweke, whom you can see through the studio window. They are seated in what we call the talk show studio. People in the two soundproof rooms can communicate visually and through microphones.

After Matt digitally records Tom and Bob, he'll trim their conversation to fit a particular time slot in Morning Edition. That done, he'll load the digital audio file into our automation system.

All Bob has to do to air the interview is punch a button on that board in the on-air studio.

Making radio fascinates me. If the process fascinates you, as well, please come by and visit the WMRA studio. We love where we work, are very grateful to you for helping us work there, and would be so proud to show you around.

(By the way, if you look closely, you can see Terry Ward reflected in the talk show studio window.)