Sandy Hook Mom Makes A Desperate Plea For Help
by Hugh McQuaid | Jan 29, 2013 4:55pm
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Posted to: Town News, Newtown, Health Care
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Jennifer Maksel
A legislative committee charged with addressing the state’s mental health system after the Sandy Hook shooting heard Tuesday from a Sandy Hook mother who was all too familiar with systemic problems in the state’s mental health system.
Jennifer Maksel’s son, Bryce, was one of the children lucky enough to walk out of teacher Victoria Soto’s classroom without physical injury on Dec. 14 when a shooter blasted his way into the Newtown elementary school killing 20 students and six educators, including Soto.
But Bryce wasn’t the son Maskel came to tell lawmakers about during a public hearing at the Legislative Office Building. Rather, she came to talk about her oldest son, who is in the seventh grade and has a “battery” of mental health diagnoses.
She made an emotional appeal to lawmakers for help in getting her son appropriate services. Maskel said she has been trying for more than nine years to get her son services for his Asperger’s syndrome, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, and a host of other mental illnesses.
“He is abusive to his family. He is abusive to his brothers when he doesn’t get his own way,” she said.
Maksel said that when she lived in Maine, educators put her son in a special preschool that suited him well. However, when she moved back Connecticut she began having trouble getting services.
She said Mary Sherlach, the Sandy Hook school psychologist who was killed in the shooting, attempted to help her get services but she kept facing qualification questions.
“They kept on saying ‘If he qualifies. If he qualifies. If he qualifies for services.’” she said. “I had a stack full of documents from Maine of all the services he got. And you don’t mess with a seven-month pregnant women. I was pregnant with Bryce and I stood up and said ‘It’s not an ‘if,’ it’s a ‘when,’ and don’t mess with me.’”
Later, Maksel said Sherlach told her that her son would qualify but “we’re told to say ‘if.’” She said over the years her son has gotten educational services but not social services. She said he doesn’t know how to talk to people and has no friends.
Maksel said her son behaves himself in school but when he gets home he will hit his younger brothers for no reason.
“He has no empathy when he hits his brother,” she said.
She told lawmakers she was afraid that her son’s condition was getting worse and offered to show lawmakers a bruise he’d given her recently.
“I don’t want another tragedy. Do I think he would do it? I don’t think so. But who knows?” she said.
Maksel said she is constantly hearing that the school system does not have the resources to treat her son’s social conditions.
“I don’t know. I think I just need help. I don’t know what else to say,” she said through tears.
“I think you’ve said it pretty well. Thank you,” Rep. Terrie Wood, the committee’s co-chairwoman, said.
Maksel was one of many to tell lawmakers about the shortcomings of the state’s mental health system as they look to craft a legislative response to the shooting.
At the outset of the hearing Sen. Toni Harp, D-New Haven told the committee they should be sure their eventual recommendations do not further stigmatize mental illness in a way that could discourage people from seeking help.
Harp said statistics show that people suffering from mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence than they are the perpetrators.
The committee will not know about what, if any, mental illness was suffered by the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook shooting. He killed himself after going on a shooting rampage that took the lives of 20 students, six educators, and his mother.
The law enforcement investigation into the incident likely won’t be finished until the summer and the committee is tasked with making recommendations by mid-February.
Hugh McQuaid Photo
Mental Health and Addiction Services Commissioner Patricia Rehmer
Mental Health and Addiction Services Commissioner Patricia Rehmer said that when mass shootings occur, people often make the assumption that the murderer was suffering from some mental illness.
“We do not have any information about the mental health or any mental health issues of the shooter in the Newtown tragedy . . . We know nothing about that and I think it’s really important to say that repeatedly,” she said.
State Healthcare Advocate Vicki Veltri told the committee that mental illness is more common than people tend to believe. She said one in every five people have symptoms of a mental illness and one in 20 have a severe illness.
While people sometimes assume those suffering from severe afflictions like schizophrenia are the most likely group to commit acts of violence, Rehmer said that isn’t the case.
“The people who — interestingly enough, I was shocked — that perpetrate the most violence are individuals who suffer from depression,” she said, adding that substance abuse disorders also raise the risk.
Rehmer said mental health care providers are constantly assessing the risk of violence in their patients but she said it is difficult to predict who might become violent.
“The ability to predict violence is very, very limited. I think if you spoke with our forensic psychiatrists, who are probably doing this the most, they will tell you that you can do a very lengthy risk assessment and still not in any 100 percent way predict risk,” she said.
Several speakers told the committee that people with public health insurance plans like Medicare and Medicaid were far more likely to get the mental health care they require than those with their own private insurance plans.
Hugh McQuaid Photo
State Healthcare Advocate Vicki Veltri
Veltri said that is because private insurers do not cover many of evidence-based programs that are offered by the state, which have been shown to prevent the need for crisis care. She said behavioral health clinical complaints were the most common complaint received by the Office of the Healthcare Advocate.
“It’s been that way as long as I have been there, which is seven years, and every year it increases,” she said.
Veltri said the state has some ability to dictate to insurance companies what sorts of treatments should be covered, but only with regard to the plans the state regulates. She said those plans make up only a fraction of the plans offered in Connecticut.
“Many people in Connecticut are covered by plans that our state just does not regulate. The federal government regulates them. So even if we wanted to have some kind of control over those plans, we can’t,” she said.
Keith Stover, a lobbyist for the Connecticut Association of Health Plans, said the insurance companies want to he a helpful part of the process.
He said the biggest part of that is: How do we improve access?
Also, what works? The substance abuse treatment that works for one person, may not work for another person.
“It’s not an, ‘If we just do this?’” then the person will get better, Stover said. “There are a lot of moving parts to this and we should look at the system as a whole. It’s a systemic problem.”
Tags: Newtown, Sandy Hook shooting, mental health, mental illness, soto, department of mental health and addiction services, healthcare advocate, Hugh McQuaid, dh
(12) Comments
posted by: Joebigjoe | January 29, 2013 10:19pm
Will someone please explain something to me?
Periodically people say that we don’t know if Adam Lanza suffered from any mental illness?
I don’t buy that nor understand that. A criminal is capable of being angry and shooting adults. When it comes to shooting little kids huddled together how is that not guaranteed mental illness. The worst criminals would stop after the first one or two and only a sick person could do what he did.
posted by: lkulmann | January 30, 2013 12:44am
Apples and oranges. This meeting is embarrassingly dysfunctional. The mental healthcare system is nonexistent for kids. We know that. Its dysfunctional for adults. The CT State Medicaid program does not reimburse enough money for doctors to sustain a viable quality business. I believe that the medical professionals need to give the expert opinions on mental healthcare needs in CT. Isn’t there a Department of mental health/public health to manage this issue? Are insurance advocates and lawyers the appropriate consultants. Where are the psychiatrists and psychologists or the school psychologists and nurses and social workers. This is a medical and educational issue. What about a free appropriate public education. Doesn’t that include social skills development. When the experts in these issues make their expert recommendations, then these government personnel can figure out how to pay for the services and all the budget types of issues. Too many chiefs and too many hands in the pot IMO.
posted by: 1 Parent Reader | January 30, 2013 9:05am
The 20 y/o Newtown shooter was a former special needs student out of school though entitled to education until 21. Adam’s aunt says the school would not provide an appropriate program/services. At some point mom pulled Adam out of school for home schooling. Kids who are very bright are often deemed to not need special education as they can obtain a basic education required by Rowley (1972 supreme court decision) on their own. Hence, the school meets basic Rowley requirements by allowing the child to attend regular school, or so the theory goes behind schools that deny services. Adam could still be receiving public school services under IDEA but was not.
Newtown is a town known for denying services to special needs students. Why, is not clear especially given the town’s substantial resources and “good schools.” It may be that what took place is, in some measure, the direct result of Adam denied the appropriate special education services he could and should have received.
Was this tragedy preventable at some point if Adam had had the appropriate evaluations and services? What is the link between any child denied an appropriate education and later outcomes. (This answer is well established in the preamble and the purposes to IDEA and NCLB.) How do we prevent letting a school grow another tragedy. Would merely following existing law, IDEA, and providing help to this kid have somehow have prevented this tragedy? Can we stop the next one?”
posted by: ALD | January 30, 2013 9:37am
We need to bring the entire topic of mental illness “out of the closet” like we did homosexuality. It’s just as real a part of our society as anything else is.
I certainly agree with any common sense gun reforms that could be made, but as Joe points out above me here, clearly mental illness played just as big a role in this matter as any type of killing instrument used.
I also remember hearing but do not know for sure that Lanza was wearing camouflage clothing when he carried out this atrocity. Does anyone know if he actually was?? If yes, that might also suggest to me something else we should also be focusing on. But I’ll hold off on any comment that way until my question is answered.
posted by: Joebigjoe | January 30, 2013 10:10am
I watched about 4 hours of this on TV yesterday, and 6 hours on guns the night before.
Let me try to net this whole situation out bringing in guns and school safety.
There are a hell of a lot of mentally ill people out there with that number growing each year. It seems like almost everyone has a different situation and nuance to their mental illness. There are not enough beds, people trained, and money to deal with all of it whether it be in schools or the community.
This problem is going to get worse regardless of guns. Thats statistically and genetically accurate as quite often people are drawn to partners that they can relate to, so two people with “issues” might be more compatible than a healthy “solid” person and one with issues.
However as it relates to guns, some people have decided that since we cant get control of this problem for many reasons, they feel that mentally ill people have decided they want to play army, using guns that are technically no different than other guns, but have cosmetic features that some of these mentally ill people are drawn to. So even with the facts saying otherwise, they want these guns banned. Magazine size is a feel good number that someone chose and has no factual basis to limit.
As this relates to schools, there is a battle between common sense people and the utopian people about gun free zones. No one I know (other than in Texas) wants a teacher with a holster, but other common sense, well thought out security measures are rejected by the education community because they know, probably better than I do because they see it every day, that there are some real sick kids out there. They cant by that fact in their minds to hear the options that could thwart those sick kids attempts to get at a secured firearm. They just know that even if its in a locked box that little Johnny is going to try to break into that box and the punishment for little Johnny will be expulsion, and they don’t want that. Personally I always thought that the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the one.
The experts just cant predict who will make that jump from being sick to being violent to being a mass murderer. Yes the SSRI’s are a factor but millions took them the same day Lanza did and they didnt hurt a fly.
Therefore, the NRA is right. The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Why? Because we cant control the bad guys and dont know when one of the good guys who is mentally ill will snap.
posted by: Joebigjoe | January 30, 2013 10:22am
Lanza was wearing a vest but not camo from what I heard from a reliable source.
Parent, I dont know about Newtown but there are certain towns in this state that are demographically similar and have provided alot of special needs services. However, with that has come some issues that I havent seen or heard discussed anywhere.
Now these towns have become havens for lack of a better term for families with kids that need it. It’s gotten so bad that it’s stretching the budgets so people in these communities are happy to help a child ,but in the same breath they wish that they would not all flock to the same town(s).
The other issue thats occuring and this comes from friends of mine with a special child is that the needed testing in some cases is very very very expensive. My kid could go to a private high school for almost 4 years for the cost of one of these “screenings” I think they’re called. The town doesnt want to pay for that, so now the parents have to sue to try to get this provided. Multiply this by alot of kids that could use this, with the number getting higher, and people fed up with high property taxes, and it’s not a good combination.
posted by: BMC556 | January 30, 2013 12:33pm
I’d like to know why information regarding what medications Adam Lanza was taking is being withheld from the public.I respect HIPPA privacy regulations, but NOT in this case. The victims families as well as the public have a right to know if psychiatric medications played a role in this tragedy as has been the case in other school shootings. I get the impression that there is so much money involved in antidepressant pharmaceuticals that information regarding potential side effects in children is being covered up.
posted by: lkulmann | January 30, 2013 3:36pm
There are so many people speculating trying to make sense of all this, but the real truth is that this is problem that has been going on for a very long time. Thanswer? CORRUPTION as in CORRUPYI
posted by: Joebigjoe | January 30, 2013 3:50pm
Let me take it a step further.
Why is there no law that says your medical information is kept private, until you are convicted of a felony against another person, or if you commit suicide as part of a crime? Sounds pretty simple but no they wont do that. The left is owned by big pharma and the ACLU.
So before the lefties jump on me for that, lets say that the right is owned by the NRA which is what you say. So to get to my final point….
That would mean the politicians are all owned by outside interests and dont represent what’s right for the country. Yep, time for a revolution.
posted by: lkulmann | January 30, 2013 4:07pm
Honesty is the best policy. Anyone who works with children knows that the kids are not getting the educational services they are entitled to ESPECIALLY SpEd students. By denying services that federal and state dollars pay for in other words taxpayers, you are creating these crisis situations in schools, hospitals, social service programs etc… how do you look into the camera and pretend that this Newtown Tragedy is a shock and was completely unforseeable. This is outrageous and unacceptable.
posted by: NoNonsense2013 | January 30, 2013 6:19pm
@Joebigjoe: in answer to your first post, in which you asked (if I read correctly) how what the Newtown shooter did is “not guaranteed mental illness”. He may or may not have been mentally ill, but there is one other explanation for being able to slaughter little kids. It’s called Evil.
posted by: Joebigjoe | January 30, 2013 6:46pm
No Nonsense, I can get to a few adults and a few kids and say evil, but when the numbers climb I still think its mental illness.
Having said that, I think most people in prison for violent crimes against people they dont know are mentally ill. That doesnt mean insane, but having grown up years ago in Hartford, I knew alot of people that went to prison for hurting people they didnt know before the act, and every one of these people “wasnt right” before they did these acts. In other words they were referred to as “crazy and loco” to use a few terms.