Pete Earley - Crazy: A Fathers Search Through Americas Mental Health Madness

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A book as riveting to read as it is important it be read. Pete Earley uses his sons experience to take readers on a harrowing personal journey, exposing how public policies and laws make it difficult for relatives to help loved ones with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and how todays failed system often relegates people overcome by these no-fault conditions to jails and prisons, instead of to treatment. This book is two storiesEarleys frustrating personal experiences trying to help a son stricken by a severe mental illness, and his remarkable journalistic investigations into the dreaded ninth floor psychiatric cell-block at the Miami-Dade County jail. Many of the tragic situations he uncovers were preventable. Maybe, with this book, they can be.

Senator Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) and Nancy Domenici

Crazy is a godsend. It will open the minds of many who make choices for the mentally ill. Countless numbers of us owe Pete Earley and his son Mike a great debt.Patty Duke

Out of the depths of a fathers pain comes a magnificent gift to those of us who love someone who has a mental illness. Propelled by his personal search for healing for his sons bipolar disorder, former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley has used his considerable skills to meticulously research why the mental health system is so profoundly broken. In Crazy , Earley takes us on his compelling journey through psychiatric wards, jails, and urban streets in search of his sons sanity. In the process, this courageous journalist gives us a blueprint for saving minds, healing spirits, and making the mental health system accountable to those it purports to help.

Bebe Moore Campbell

A combination of old-fashioned muckraking and genuine empathy an important manifesto. The Washington Post Book World

Extraordinary. National Post (Canada)

A case for major policy reform a harrowing account of a father trying to obtain treatment for his adult son. San Antonio Express News

Chilling. The Washington Post

BOOKS BY PETE EARLEY

Non fiction

Family of Spies
Prophet of Death
The Hot House
Circumstantial Evidence
Confessions of a Spy
Super Casino
WITSEC

Fiction

The Big Secret
Lethal Secrets

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
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South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites and their contents.

Copyright 2006 by Pete Earley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions. The name BERKLEY and the BERKLEY design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Earley, Pete.
Crazy : a fathers search through Americas mental health madness Pete Earley.
>p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-440-61239-8

1. Mentally illBiography. 2. Mental illnessCase studies. 3. Mentally ill
Family relationships. 4. Mental illness. 5. Parent and child. I. Title.
RC 463.E
362.1092dc22
[B]

Most Berkley Books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs.

For details, write to: Special Markets, The Berkley Publishing Group, 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

http://us.penguingroup.com

This book is dedicated to persons with mental illness and those
who love them. I would like to thank specifically
these individuals who helped my son:

Hossein Bakhtar
Nawathip Boulom
Il Nam Cho
Dr. James F. Dee
Donald Graham
Penny Hinkle
Barbara Hunter
Dr. Don Infeld
Susan Infeld
Andrew Kersey
Patti Luzi
William Luzi
Jay Myerson
Robert Straub
Mike Wallace

I will never forget your kindness.

MAJOR PLAYERS

Mike Earley Authors son Alice Ann Collyer Diagnosis: schizophrenia
April Hernandez Diagnosis: schizoaffective
Ted Jackson Diagnosis: bipolar disorder
Judge Steven Leifman Judicial reformer
Tom Mullen Director, treatment program
Dr. Joseph Poitier Miami jail psychiatrist
Judy Robinson Advocate
Deidra Sanbourne Diagnosis: schizoaffective

PREFACE

I had no idea.

Ive been a journalist for more than thirty years, a reporter for the Washington Post, the author of several nonfiction books about crime and punishment and society, some of them award-winning, even best-selling. Ive interviewed murderers and spies, judges and prosecutors, always seeking the truth and attempting to convey it so that readers can see the people and the events for themselvescan understand not only what happened, but also why.

But I was always on the outside looking in. I had no idea what it was like to be on the inside looking out. Until my son, Mike, was declared mentally ill.

If my son had broken his leg, most doctors would have agreed on the diagnosis and treatment. Sir, your sons leg is broken into two pieces. The bone needs to be reattached, the wound closed, and the body allowed to heal. But that wasnt what happened with Mike. One psychiatrist said he had bipolar disorder, another said he showed early stages of schizophrenia, a third said he had schizoaffective disorder. They prescribed a dizzying range of different drugs and different therapies, and even worse, because he was an adult, I couldnt simply swoop in and make medical decisions for him. An array of incompatible laws about patient rights stood in my way, like a line of trees.

But even that was nothing compared with what happened when Mike, suffering delusions, committed a crime and was arrested. Suddenly, the line of trees became a forest. The contradictions, the disparities, the Catch-22s multiplied, until I began to despair.

I just feel so damn helpless, I told my wife, Patti, one night. I want to do something, but I dont know how to help him.

Then do what you do best, she said. Youre a journalist. You make your living investigating stories. So investigate this. Pete Earley, the journalist, can dig out information that Pete Earley, the father, would never be able to get. If you want to help Mike, and others like him, then write about what he is going through, and find out why the mental health system in this country seems to be in such a mess.

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