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Bill would ensure
air becomes right for
DMH patients
(May 2006
Issue)
By Jennifer Chase Esposito
If passed by Massachusetts' legislature, House Bill #4757 would
literally change the air breathed by Department of Mental Health
patients in private inpatient facilities.
Co-sponsored by the Coalition for Fresh Air Rights (CFAR), the
Disability Law Center, a Massachusetts organization that fights
for the rights of mentally ill and M-Power, a member-run organization
of mental health consumers and current and former psychiatric patients,
the bill would amend the Five Fundamental Rights of DMH patients
to include verbiage assuring a right to daily access to fresh air
and the outdoors as part of their recovery.
That right does not currently exist. And it wasn't until Jonathan
Dosick heard countless complaints from DMH patients at hospitals
about their limited access to fresh air that he decided to do something
about it.
Dosick is a former advocate at the Disability Law Center in Massachusetts
and former patient at a psychiatric facility in Cambridge, Mass.,
a facility he learned had not been allowing people outside regularly
although he himself, had. "A little light bulb went off in my head,"
says Dosick, who chose not to reveal the hospital's name but says
while advocating at the law center he was "astounded by the number
of former inpatients" who shared stories of being cooped-up in their
facility with little access to the outdoors.
"I had not really thought about how fresh air was so important,
but I went back into notes I'd taken and the diaries I'd kept [and
read] how important fresh air was," he says. "Hospitals are incredibly
insular places, where people sit inside so long; several people
told me they'd not only feel more human, but the focus on going
outside ... I think can be an impetus for people to get better."
Former patients admitted to Dosick they'd begun smoking just to
have outside time because it appeared easier to get a break for
a cigarette fix than a fix to clear their heads. So last fall Dosick
founded CFAR (referred to as "see-far") and organized several public
hearings where consumers testified to state legislators about their
experiences.
The current Five Fundamental Rights of a DMH patient in Massachusetts
include the right to receive private, unopened and uncensored mail;
see visitors of one's choosing at reasonable times; access a telephone
at reasonable times and in privacy; the right to humane psychological
environment such as privacy when bathing; and access to an advocate
and attorney of one's choosing.
But as most of CFAR's literature states: "Access to fresh air is
not only a fundamental human right; it's good treatment." A bill
was drafted and sponsored by Rep. Frank Smizik (D-15th Norfolk District)
and supported by 13 other legislators and passed by the Joint Committee
on Substance Abuse last July.
But like most bills, #4757 met some opposition. The lobbying arm
for private hospitals in Massachusetts argued against the additional
high costs necessary to create enclosed outdoor patient areas and
the inevitable staff that would need to supervise them. Escapes
were also a voiced concern. So when the bill passed through to the
Committee for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, it recommended
that access to fresh air not be added as the hard-and-fast sixth
fundamental right of DMH patients, but that it be highly suggested.
The bill most recently went through the Healthcare Finance Committee.
According to Kelly A. Sullivan, managing attorney at the Disability
Law Center, which works to educate legislators on the needs of mental
health patients and on behalf of the disabled in the state, the
bill will be a greater benefit to patients at private hospitals
rather than state-run facilities.
"The Law Center actually has attorneys who monitor the state facilities
and fresh air access," she says. "We're pleased with the way" state
facilities handle it.
But, says Sullivan, the center has written a letter to the original
committee to add details that a patient could file a grievance procedure
if they are not allowed outdoors.
"We feel [people with mental illness] are not getting everyday
access to something everyone takes for granted," says Sullivan.
Dosick agrees. "I see it as another marginalization toward our population,
whether intentional or not."
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