He has been a near permanent fixture in the “Park of the Birds” at 16th Street and Columbia Road NW. For years, he waved an American flag as he pulled huge pieces of luggage, no doubt stuffed with his worldly possessions. He talked out loud to people who weren’t there. Sometimes, the agitation in his voice prompted me to glance around, assuring myself there wasn’t anyone else with whom he was speaking.
Walk the District’s sidewalks or visit any park — Franklin Square, Lafayette, Dupont Circle, “Malcolm X” — and hundreds of mentally ill people can be found. Some with flailing arms, or menacing looks, and voices calibrated at high decibels appear violent. Passers-by, sensing danger, have been seen trying to negotiate a safe path around such individuals.
Decades ago, well-meaning advocates filed a lawsuit against the District, forcing the release of thousands of mentally ill people who had called St. Elizabeths Hospital home. Community care was all the rave. I was never a devotee.
Little thought was given, then (or now for that matter), about whether there were enough trained professionals and community facilities that could provide those patients with the attention and services they needed. The fact that today our streets are lined with troubled individuals is evidence of the flaw and failing in the push-them-out movement.
Nevertheless, advocates got what they wanted, even if patients continued to suffer: The population at St. Elizabeths has been reduced to less than 400, according to D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles, who last week filed a motion to remove the District from federal court oversight. He said the delivery system has been “transformed,” and the original “violation of unnecessary hospitalization” has been remedied.
“Structural and legislative changes implemented by the District combined with continuous internal and external quality improvement represent a substantial change of circumstances and ensure the durability of the District’s remedy,” Nickles said, adding that the city, faced with declining revenues, can’t continue to fork over money for a court monitor and attorney fees. Since 2003, the city has paid $3.4 million for the monitor; $865,000 has gone to the plaintiff’s attorneys since 1997.
Nickles plea to the court comes as the District moves to privatize mental health services that professionals on the government’s payroll currently provide. I am a fan of smaller, less costly government with a caveat: There can’t be any injury to the public.
Given the history of this executive, this certainly isn’t the time to remove the monitor. Actually, the growing numbers of mentally ill on city streets suggest this may be the time to rethink the entire community strategy. At the very least, the court may want to appoint a new monitor — one more keenly focused on quality and consistency of care; that move could more tangibly affect mentally ill District citizens like that man in the Park of the Birds.
Jonetta Rose Barras, host of WPFW’s “D.C. Politics with Jonetta,” can be reached at [email protected].
