(LD10, Sen. Farnsworth, Rep. Parker, Rep. Heap)
Mark was adopted through foreign adoption at 3 years old. He was an energetic and fun-loving child that excelled at karate and swimming. He won awards for his artistic drawings. He loved Sunday school at his church, and he played the snare drum in middle school.
At age 13, Mark started struggling with focus and mood disorder. This played out as social problems. He had to change schools. He started running away, taking his parents’ car, using marijuana, and getting in trouble with police. After several juvenile delinquency interventions, a court placed him in a residential school. With structure and psychiatric medications, he got the highest award for behavior. Mark completed three different residential placements during his teen years, and he excelled.
But when Mark turned 18, he was an adult free to make his own choices. He engaged in heavy marijuana use. In vulnerable individuals, marijuana can induce psychosis and increase the likelihood of developing schizophrenia. Mark’s behavior became increasingly erratic. He eventually landed in jail, and then prison, where he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. This diagnosis was verified by a private psychiatrist hired by his parents.
Because of gaps in Arizona’s SMI system, Mark has been released from psychiatric screening centers multiple times. Mark has been caught in the inhumane and expensive cycle of jail, homelessness, sober living homes, arrests, crisis calls and hospitalizations. His parents have hired mental health advocates and attorneys. They have filed multiple petitions and missing persons reports trying to get him help. Without treatment he is very sick and paranoid. When he takes his antipsychotic medications and is abstinent from drugs and alcohol, he functions well and can even work a job.
His parents have requested SMI designation twice: once while Mark was in jail, and once after he was released from a screening center. Both times he was denied SMI services, with little explanation. Even with his extensive psychiatric history, significant services needed throughout high school, and multiple psychiatrists diagnosing him with schizophrenia, Mark is not currently receiving SMI benefits. Multiple agencies have refused to provide him with appropriate SMI services because they say it is “just drugs.” Yet, Mark’s schizophrenia is a permanent condition that remains, even when his drug tests come back clean.
Mark needs to be on court-ordered outpatient treatment for both SMI and substance use disorders. He needs a stable place to live with supervision. He needs SMI benefits and the community treatment promised by the 2014 Arnold v. Sarn lawsuit agreement. But he continues to fall through gaps in the system, including inherent discrimination in current statutes that exclude individuals with substance use disorders from opportunities for court-ordered treatment.
We must pass Senator Miranda’s bill SB1311, which will mandate oversight and treatment accountability for SMI services, so that individuals like Mark don’t fall through the cracks. We must pass Senator Wadsack’s bill SB1578 to end discrimination against substance use disorders in providing services for acutely ill, dangerous and disabled individuals.
We must pass Representative Hernandez’ bill HB2744 and Senator Wadsack’s bill SB1611 to help families advocate for their seriously ill loved ones who are suffering in streets and basements and are too sick to recognize their illness and seek help.
We must do a better job of caring for the sickest among us. Taxpayers are already paying the enormous costs of NOT providing treatment.
