Ill Person

The column made me weep, not for the author, but for those of us who are "sane," and do not have the compassion to provide programs, money and medicine for the minority of our citizens who suffer from biological brain disorders. We have the resources but not the will to prevent countless tragedies by attending to the medical needs of the brain-disordered. Instead of weapons to guard against the enemy without, our tax dollars must be redirected to eradicate the enemy within. When the organ of thinking, decision-making, and understanding reality is affected by disease, the ill person cannot confront his problem with any kind of attitude or intentional behavior.

Imagine a train wreck that scatters passengers across the landscape. Paramedics arrive and begin loading the injured onto stretchers. But when anyone screams out in pain, "No! Don't touch me!" the medics nod compassionately and leave that person sprawled amid the rocks and cactuses. A similar scene has been unfolding on the urban landscape for the last 40 years. People with severe mental illness, tossed from state hospitals, have landed on public sidewalks and in wretched urban encampments.

Isaac blames the catastrophe of homelessness among mentally ill people on the counterculture and the New Left of the '60s. She is furious that mentally ill people have some rights, such as the right to due process before being subjected to hospitalization or forced to take very strong and potentially dangerous drugs. The evidence is overwhelming that when mentally ill people are offered intensive, comprehensive but voluntary programs that allow them some dignity as people, the vast majority participate.

Ventura County law enforcement officers have fatally shot 32 suspects in the last decade, with more than half the cases involving a mentally ill person, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday. With the elimination of mental health facilities--including the 1997 closure of Camarillo State Hospital--incidents involving mentally ill suspects will continue to rise, the panel concluded.

A mentally disturbed stalker who was shot by deputies as he approached them with a police baton he had taken from one officer deserves $400,000 in compensation for his injuries, a county panel said, even though police were exonerated in the case. The recommendation was made Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Claims Board to county supervisors.

Amid the many things Ventura County's mental health advocates don't agree on, there is one belief shared by all: We need a full spectrum of living situations for local residents with mental disorders. The county took an important step toward solving part of that problem last week when it began construction of Villa Calleguas, an independent living facility for the mentally ill on Lewis Road in Camarillo.

Rosalie Crawford was found wandering around a men's bathroom at San Diego's Lindbergh Field last Aug. 8, saying that witches were after her. The 58-year-old Long Beach grandmother was locked in the psychiatric unit at UC San Diego Medical Center, where doctors say she continued to be delusional for more than a month. Repeatedly, her attorney says, she asked to be released and refused to take medication.

Last March, Ledy Hernandez moved her mentally ill younger brother out of a board-and-care home and into the Pasadena apartment she shares with their mother. "I felt bad that we weren't all living together," the 23-year-old woman explained. But her bid to keep the family intact and happy was shattered when two police officers, responding to a 911 call, smashed in the apartment door.

Imagine a train wreck that scatters passengers across the landscape. Paramedics arrive and begin loading the injured onto stretchers. But when anyone screams out in pain, "No! Don't touch me!" the medics nod compassionately and leave that person sprawled amid the rocks and cactuses. A similar scene has been unfolding on the urban landscape for the last 40 years. People with severe mental illness, tossed from state hospitals, have landed on public sidewalks and in wretched urban encampments.

A million thanks for running your article on chronic Epstein-Barr virus ("Here's Another Illness to Worry About" by Samuel Greengard, Sept. 23). I have been disabled with this illness since July, 1979, when I, like Sonja Aiken, also could not get up from my desk at work. Within a week I was so weak that I could walk only a few feet without collapsing. My life was measured from chair to chair. And, on my bad days, it still is today. I have been very fortunate in that my family and friends have stuck staunchly by me. But what is not mentioned in your article--nor do I see mentioned anywhere in the vast literature sent to me by a CEBV support group--is a discussion of how a person is treated by the medical profession when his illness defies diagnosis.

A sharply divided Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday rejected the recommendation of Chief Bernard C. Parks and found that the fatal police shooting of a frail homeless woman last year violated department policy. Three of the five commissioners sided with their civilian watchdog, Inspector General Jeffrey C.

Amid the many things Ventura County's mental health advocates don't agree on, there is one belief shared by all: We need a full spectrum of living situations for local residents with mental disorders. The county took an important step toward solving part of that problem last week when it began construction of Villa Calleguas, an independent living facility for the mentally ill on Lewis Road in Camarillo.

A mentally disturbed stalker who was shot by deputies as he approached them with a police baton he had taken from one officer deserves $400,000 in compensation for his injuries, a county panel said, even though police were exonerated in the case. The recommendation was made Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Claims Board to county supervisors.

Ora Lee Ingram knew it was time to put her mother in a nursing home when she began wandering away from their home and into the traffic of a busy highway. The nursing home promised to keep close watch over the spry, 80-year-old retired postmaster for Ingram, who was weakened by her own struggle with breast and bone cancer.

The man they call "Dr. Death" has struck again--but it was unclear Thursday whether the state will strike back at him. While Michigan lawmakers still are grappling with issues raised last year by Dr. Jack Kevorkian's so-called suicide machine, the retired pathologist apparently violated a court order Wednesday by helping two more women kill themselves. Prosecutors say it may take six weeks for them to decide whether to file murder charges or contempt of court charges.

Last March, Ledy Hernandez moved her mentally ill younger brother out of a board-and-care home and into the Pasadena apartment she shares with their mother. "I felt bad that we weren't all living together," the 23-year-old woman explained. But her bid to keep the family intact and happy was shattered when two police officers, responding to a 911 call, smashed in the apartment door.

Isaac blames the catastrophe of homelessness among mentally ill people on the counterculture and the New Left of the '60s. She is furious that mentally ill people have some rights, such as the right to due process before being subjected to hospitalization or forced to take very strong and potentially dangerous drugs. The evidence is overwhelming that when mentally ill people are offered intensive, comprehensive but voluntary programs that allow them some dignity as people, the vast majority participate.

Rosalie Crawford was found wandering around a men's bathroom at San Diego's Lindbergh Field last Aug. 8, saying that witches were after her. The 58-year-old Long Beach grandmother was locked in the psychiatric unit at UC San Diego Medical Center, where doctors say she continued to be delusional for more than a month. Repeatedly, her attorney says, she asked to be released and refused to take medication.