There’s a story of a man coming in his front door at dawn who tells his wife he worked late and didn’t want to disturb her so he slept in the hammock in the backyard. She advises there’s lipstick on his collar and, besides, she gave away that hammock last month. And he says, “Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
John Colmers, secretary of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, could have heard that line. He’s sticking to his story: “There is a community mental health infrastructure on the Eastern Shore.”
Never mind that mental health professionals have testified that such “infrastructure” is negligible. At present, Upper Shore has 40 beds for psychiatric care — and they are full. When its doors are locked, where will those people go? The nearest such public center is in Cambridge, and its beds are already just as full. The only other nearby option is Union Hospital, a private facility in Elkton with just five beds for mental care. The Chester River Hospital Center here doesn’t have a psychiatric unit.
Yet even today Colmers argues otherwise in a belated reply to an email sent to Gov. Martin O’Malley a couple months ago by a Chestertown resident urging that Upper Shore Community Mental Health Center be kept open.
He does acknowledge, “There are areas that need to be enhanced.” But he does not specify what those enhancements need to be.
It is only fair to the mentally ill that facilities like Upper Shore be closed, Colmers contends.
As he explains it, Maryland’s health care system has resulted in persons receiving care regardless of ability to pay, adding, “The exception to this has been the way mental health has been handled on the Eastern Shore.”
Colmers points out that an individual who has insurance is treated in the private system. But here, one who is uninsured gets referred to a state hospital for in-patient services.
“This is unacceptable,” Colmers writes. “Our plan is to fix this inequity.”
And therefore the Upper Shore Center will close on March 1. After that, the plan is, if you are uninsured and admitted to an emergency room, you will be admitted to the inpatient unit at that hospital, or be transferred to a general hospital with an in- patient psychiatric unit.
“All Maryland citizens should have access to the same care regardless of ability to pay,” Colmers concludes.
It’s a rendering of real world equity that brings to mind the bon mot of Anatole France: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to beg in the streets, steal bread, or sleep under a bridge.”
What if the local hospital, such as Chestertown’s, doesn’t have a psychiatric unit? What if the nearest hospital that does is several counties away, or even in another state, like Delaware? Where do the crazed and indigent go, who have no other place for rest? Except beneath a bridge?
Colmers doesn’t address any of that, but he’s sticking to his story, “There is a community mental health infrastructure on the Eastern Shore.”
Which sounds like a man in need of a hammock.
alee says
Extremely well said!
Joe Cowart says
John,
Keep up the campaign. Given the economy, unemployment, etc., there’s little reason to believe those bed aren’t needed. We are proud of this fight. Hope to see you soon.