Here in southeastern Virginia, one local news station has stirring up paranoia and fear.  Why?  John Hinckley, Jr. is due to be released from the hospital soon.  Mr. Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Reagan in 1981.  I was home sick from school that day, and I was sitting on my parents’ bed with my mom watching television when this happened.  It was a scary thing, seeing this larger-than-life man being shot, and I’m glad this happened before the cable news stations had to try to fill every minute of the day with action.  I was too young to really follow the story of the investigation and the trial. I was far too young to understand what insanity meant; it was a scary word, conjuring up images of Arkham Asylum and other dark places.

Undercover Nun is far better acquainted with insanity now.  In 1998, I was hospitalized three times with severe depression, the third time following a suicide attempt.  I’d heard words like schizophrenic and manic-depressive and multiple personality before, but I hadn’t known what they meant; they were just dark and scary.  But during those weeks in the hospital, I encountered other men and women who suffered with depression, with bipolar disorder, with the hallucinations and delusions of schizophrenia and other psychoses, even one woman who was truly dissociated.  It was still pretty scary to see that we truly can “lose” our minds. It was humbling to realize how tenuous our control over our thoughts and feelings truly is.  I loved my fellow patients, my heart breaking anew to see the suffering.

While I was in the hospital, I also saw some wonderful things.  I saw patients arrive in a complete fog, not responding to anyone around them, so depressed that they were paralyzed.  And then I saw the miracle brought about by ECT, that within 2 or 3 days, these catatonic women and men became engaged in the world around them, cheerful and chatty.  It was resurrection.  I saw hope take fire in that dissociated woman, who had finally found a doctor who had experience helping merge the dissociated pieces.  She arrived under a black cloud, afraid to touch or to let anyone touch her; she left beaming, even giving me a hug.

Mr. Hinckley was ruled to be insane, and he has been confined to St. Elizabeths hospital in DC since his trial.  He has had increasing freedom to leave the hospital for visits with his mom in Williamsburg.  A judge ordered that he get a driver’s license again, and almost a year ago a doctor at the hospital testified that Mr. Hinckley is no longer a danger to himself or to others.  He wants to live with his mother, who lives in a posh gated community in Williamsburg, and his siblings are ready to support him.  But the residents of this community are afraid of the damage to the reputation of their homes, and have the cash to try to fight this. 

This news station has aired “reports” over recent days, stirring up fear that Mr. Hinckley might be sitting in the next booth while you’re out for dinner, or two rows behind you in the movie theater… and you won’t even know it! 

Undercover Nun wonders why it would matter one whit whether you knew that a volunteer librarian who is under treatment for an organic brain disorder was sitting in a movie theater with you.

Undercover Nun wonders how these wealthy Kingsmill residents would feel if their sister had been in a mental hospital for three decades and had the opportunity to be released and return home.

Undercover Nun wonders why a person would think that he or she would have the right to decide who can or cannot move into the neighborhood, particularly if this decision would involve blatant discrimination against people with disabilities.

Undercover Nun wonders why gates around neighborhoods would make anyone feel more safe or secure, because gates keep out only those who follow the rules already.

Undercover Nun wonders when professed Christians (not that I know Mr. Camp or Ms. Michael to be such) will truly believe that healing is possible, that reconciliation can happen in this world, that people can be made new and can have second chances, that forgiveness is not only possible but mandatory, and that even the worst sinner will be redeemed.

Undercover Nun wonders when we will let go of our fears, the fears that lurk behind every anger, the fears that separate us from the abundance of life God has given us, the fears that are not just the opposite of faith but the rejection of it.

And Undercover Nun prays for our immortal souls.  May God have mercy on us all.

Eastern State Hospital’s downsizing last year locked out dozens of fragile behavioral health patients in need of care, according to a new report.

The James City County inpatient behavioral health facility declined to admit 85 patients because it was in the process of downsizing, according to the report by the Office of Inspector General for Behavioral Health and Development Services.

“The behavioral health system cannot credibly claim to be a person-centered system of care, driven by the principles of recovery, if we allow the most fragile of a vulnerable population to receive anything less than the best, most clinically appropriate, treatment available,” the report said.

Undercover Nun is not pleased about this.  Basically, Virginia is downsizing its mental hospitals to promote community behavioral health services, which aren’t ready to handle those patients yet.  Meanwhile, persons facing an immediate acute mental health crisis are being turned away.  I simply do not understand how we can do this to our brothers and sisters who are in such a vulnerable place.

The patients shut out of Eastern State weren’t a danger to society, Hall said. But in many cases, their conditions worsened as they cycled in and out of short-term stays at private behavioral health centers in Hampton and Chesapeake.

“Like a revolving door, they would come out and they would go back in. That was a tremendous waste of public resources,” Hall said.

“When a person has such psychiatric distress over and over again, it damages them. Physically and mentally, they deteriorate. We try to keep people from that psychiatric distress.”

One patient was recommended for Eastern State three times. The patient dropped off the radar until he was found hiding in a shed.

“This individual almost died from renal failure due to an inability to care for self,” the report said. “As a result of mental illness and associated paranoid ideation, the person was refusing to eat or drink. The person had to be tazered by law enforcement to be taken into custody. …(T)he individual’s repeated return to the community from acute care hospitalizations without a period of psychiatric stability has resulted in deterioration in the person’s level of functioning and quality of life.”

You read that right: this man, this frightened man, almost died because no place could be found for him in the hospital.

Want some more stories of the anguish this poorly-planned downsizing has caused?  Okay, here are some more.

“This individual was hospitalized six times until incarcerated.”

“Efforts have been made to secure a longer-term bed at ESH three times this past year. With each denial, the individual’s level of functioning has deteriorated. Treatment staff are very concerned about his safety if the pattern continues.”

“Increasing violent and unpredictable behavior and treatment non-compliance.”

“Most recent suicide attempt resulted in being placed on a respirator for life support, needed a tracheotomy and had a long-term medical rehabilitation as a result.”

“Person has had 30 hospitalizations in the last year, not counting ER contacts. Most recent placements have been at assisted living facilities with intensive CSB outpatient services. At last two assisted living facilities, the person has accessed medications and attempted suicide. She has been removed from assisted living facility settings because of lack of funding for 1:1 supervision, which is necessary for safety.”

That first one is a doozy, and it happens WAY too often.  We don’t take care of our sick, and because we’re frightened by the form of their illness, we let them be incarcerated rather than treated and helped.  Lord, have mercy on us all, for we certainly show no mercy to the vulnerable among us!

There is some good news, thanks be to God.

“To help ensure appropriate community services are in place to support and maintain Eastern State Hospital downsizing, the governor proposed a budget amendment of $2.4 million that would go towards targeted services in the region,” department spokeswoman Meghan McGuire said. “In the meantime, we continue to work with partners in the community, including the community services boards, to make sure only the most appropriate individuals are admitted to Eastern State Hospital and to make sure those ready for discharge have the support in the community they need.”

Jesus said that what we do — or fail to do — to the least of these, we do — or fail to do — to him.  Well, Virginia, we are killing Jesus.  We are sending Jesus into renal failure.  We are shutting the door on Jesus, triggering fear, depression, and suicide attempts.  We are plugging our ears and singing the la-la-I-can’t-hear-you song so that we don’t have to face our own fears.

And this really is about our fears.  We are terrified of the mentally ill.  There but for the grace of God go I, we realize.  And in a world that values intelligence and critical thought, we struggle with the idea that we might not be able to control our own minds, our thoughts.  As a result, we marginalize these vulnerable people.  We try not to notice them, try not to see them.  When confronted with the reality of brain disorder, we try to deny it, saying idiotic things like “Well, isn’t everybody a little bit bipolar?”

Gah! Fear is the opposite of faith.  We need not fear.  Over and over, scripture tells us do not be afraid.  Fear not.  Let not your heart be troubled.  Be not afraid.  Still, we don’t listen, and we fear those who live among us with illness or disability, because they reveal to us our own vulnerability and we don’t like to feel vulnerable.

May God have mercy on our souls.