1 in 6 people has a common mental illness at some point in their life (Psychiatric Morbidity Survey, 2000).
About 1% of the population experience schizophrenia at some point in their lives (Mental Health Foundation, 1999).
About 1% of the population experience manic depression at some point in their lives (Mental Health Foundation, 1999).
1 in 200 people have experienced a psychotic illness in the last year (Singleton, Psychiatric Morbidity, 2000).
The average age of onset of psychotic symptoms is 22 (Department of Health, 2001)
Deprived areas and rural districts have the highest levels of mental health problems and suicides (ONS, 2001).
People from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds are 3-5 times more likely than others to be diagnosed and admitted to hospital for schizophrenia. (Mental Health Foundation, 1999)
About 25% of people diagnosed with schizophrenia will make a full recovery; about 60% of people will have fluctuating symptoms; about 10-15% of people experience long term incapacity (Mental Health Foundation, 1999).
35% of people with mental illness are unemployed but want to work (ONS, 2003), the highest want to work rate of any disability.
Only 1 in 4 employers said that they would knowingly employ someone with a history of mental illness (Manning et al, 1995).
Three quarters of employers say that it would be difficult or impossible to employ someone diagnosed with schizophrenia (DWP, 2003).
Less than 5% of people who kill a stranger have symptoms of mental illness (Department of Health, 2001).
People with mental illness are more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators of violence (Walsh, 2003).
More than 1 in 4 people with severe mental illness report being shunned when seeking help (Rethink, 2003).
30% of GPs’ time is spent with people with mental health problems (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (Maudsley Monograph, 2002).
44% of people with mental health problems report discrimination from general practioners, such as physical health problems not being taken seriously (Mental Health Foundation, 2002).
Almost 80% of carers for someone with a severe mental illness say that caring has had an impact on own their mental health (Rethink, 2003).
Almost 80% of carers for someone with a severe mental illness say that caring has had an impact on their own physical health (Rethink, 2003).
Only 48% of mental health professionals know about local policies on sharing information with carers (Rethink/IoP, 2006).
Mental health problems cost the economy untold billions per year through care costs, economic losses and premature death. (Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2003).
21% of people with schizophrenia have a dual diagnosis (Cantwell, 2003).
Up to half of people dependent on alcohol have a mental health problem (Turning Point, 2003).
People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder die 10 years younger due to physical health problems (British Journal of Psychiatry, 2000) and have double the average rate of heart disease (British Journal of Psychiatry, 2006) and five times the average rate of diabetes (Department of Health, 2004).
People with severe mental illness smoke twice as much as average, do half as much exercise and eat less fruit and vegetables than average (Running on empty report, 2005).
Alien Boy Showtimes
Private Screening
Multnomah County
April 23 - 5:30 PM
“Infuriating, tragic, heartbreaking and incendiary in equal measures... plays out like a horror film and leaves you absolutely breathless.”
~ AP Kryza, Willamette Week
On Friday, January 29, 2010, at 4:22 p.m., Portland Police Officers responded to a 9-1-1 call regarding a suicidal man who was armed with a gun at an apartment complex located in the 12800 Block of NE Sandy Boulevard. The 9-1-1 call was from a friend of the girlfriend of the suicidal man. The caller told 9-1-1 that she thought the man possibly wanted to commit suicide by having the police shoot him. The caller said that she was concerned about her friend and her friend’s children who were possibly with him because she had not been able to contact her.
The first officer arrived at 4:30 p.m., quickly followed by additional officers. They made contact with a woman in the parking lot of the apartment complex. She told officers her boyfriend was inside the apartment with their children and had been despondent over the past few days, threatening suicide with a gun. She said her boyfriend had been carrying the gun with him and she had seen him put it the pocket of his black coat. While talking to the police, the woman sent a text message to her boyfriend asking him to come out. A short time after that, she received a text back from him that made comments about him bringing his gun out with him.
Officers initiated communications with the man via text and cellular telephone. At 5:33 p.m., the three children came out of the apartment and police were able to reunite them with their mother.
At 6:03 p.m., officers observed the man looking out from the back of the apartment. At 6:07 p.m., the man abruptly came out the front door of the apartment and officers began giving him directions in order to take him safely into custody. Initially, it appeared that the man was being compliant but then his actions suddenly changed. The man began making statements to the officers that they were going to have to shoot him.
Due to the man’s actions, one officer at the scene deployed a less lethal bean bag round. The man continued to not comply with the officer’s directions and in response, the officer fired more bean bag rounds. The lethal cover officer fired his AR-15 rifle in response to perceived threatening actions. The actions of the man that was shot will be fully released to the public after all officers and witnesses have been interviewed.
Officers at the scene immediately called for medical assistance but were not able to safely approach the man because they believed that he was still armed with a gun. The Special Emergency Reaction Team, (SERT), was activated and arrived on scene 23 minutes later. SERT is specially trained and equipped to safely approach and disarm potentially armed subjects. SERT medics attended to the man and pronounced him deceased at the scene.
Portland Police Homicide Detectives, as well as investigators from the East County Major Crime Team responded and began investigating this incident. The officer who fired the AR-15 is an eight year veteran of the Portland Police Bureau and is assigned to East Precinct. All officers and witnesses at the scene are being interviewed by investigators.
The man who was shot has been identified as 25-year-old Aaron Marcell Campbell of Portland. An autopsy was performed by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office on Saturday morning. The Medical Examiner’s Officer has determined that the cause of death was a single gunshot wound. Campbell had a history of violent criminal behavior that includes weapons charges, resisting arrest and had an active restraining order that prohibited him from carrying a firearm.
Detectives are continuing their investigation of this incident. In the next few days, all interviews of officers and witnesses will be complete. After those interviews are completed, additional details of this shooting will be released to the public. Suicidal Man Shot by Portland Police, press release PDF
As so often happens when you move in the wake of a gifted reporter, there’s not much to add to Maxine Bernstein‘s Saturday story about the exile of Portland police Officer Thomas Brennan.
Brennan made the mistake of speaking up about the conduct of Sgt. Kyle Nice, one of the sweethearts at the center of James Chasse case. When his precinct commander, Mike Reese, exonerated Nice — who “acted completely and absolutely professionally” — without interviewing the three primary witnesses to Nice’s professionalism, Brennan went public with his complaint.
Portland police Officer Thomas Brennan was worried his sergeant seemed to be under too much stress while working the streets after his involvement in the controversial death of James P. Chasse Jr. in police custody, the ensuing publicity and pending federal trial.
Brennan met with his precinct commander last fall, provided details of a call in which he thought the sergeant “grossly overreacted” and recommended the sergeant be moved to a lower-profile assignment.
From: THOMAS BRENNAN [mailto:PRIVATE@msn.com]
Sent: Saturday, November 21, 2009 2:57 PM
To: Reese, Mike; Commissioner Saltzman; Westerman, Scott; Leonard, Randy; maxinebernstein@news.oregonian.com; jpitkin@wweek.com; Auditor, IPR Mail; PRIVATE@comcast.net
Subject: Dereliction of Duty
Commissioner Saltzman,
Let me start off by saying that as a father of a 12 year old boy, and a Police Officer with 16 years street experience, that the use of force used by Officer Chris Humphreys was more than justified.
We seem to be continually asking how can an Officer bean-bag a 12 year old girl, when we should be asking how can a 12 year old girl already be excluded from mass transit, be out at almost midnight without a parent present, be coming back from an alleged gang party, and most importantly believe that it is appropriate to attack a uniformed Police Officer. If Greg Oden has shown us nothing else, it should be that you can not judge the age of a person by how old they look. Without first checking his birth certificate, most people would guess that Mr. Oden was in his late thirties!!
My real reason for writing you this E-Mail is my belief that Portland Police Bureau Command Staff were derelict in their duties by allowing Humphries, and Sergeant [Kyle] Nice to remain on the street over the past several months. If Bureau leaders had of used due diligence, and even the slightest amount of common sense, both of these Officers would have been reassigned to a lower profile assignment (Neighborhood Response Team, Training, Criminal Intelligence Unit, ETC) months ago, and this latest media debacle would have been avoided. One of the primary jobs of competent leaders is to put their people in positions to succeed, not into no win situations where there is such a high possibility of failure.
It should have been made clear to them and the public that their reassignment was no how punitive in nature, rather an opportunity to be away from the DAILY stress they faced in their current assignments. Both Nice and Humphreys assignments required them to constantly contact unreasonable, drunk, homeless, mentally challenged, and uncooperative citizens; often in a confrontational setting. Just last week, Sergeant Nice was put in charge of a crowd control detail at the Keller Auditorium, which was responsible for dealing with a large, potentially hostile crowd (Al Gore conference). Am I the only one that sees the potential for disaster in this equation?
Needless to say both of these decorated officers would have been reluctant to leave their current assignments, just like a football player does not want to leave the game after being injured, or a soldier does not want to leave his unit after being wounded. In both of thier cases, I am sure they would have looked back and realized that it was the prudent decision, not only for the City of Portland and the Police Bureau, but also for them and their families.
The above reasons are why I entered the Central Precinct Commanders office on the 26th of October. I entered Commander [Mike] Reese’s office not only as 16 year police veteran, and a 25 year military serviceman; but as an officer who has been involved in multiple traumatic incidents, one of which involved having to shoot and kill a violent subject in 2000. At first I was reluctant to enter his office, but after consulting with my wife, I came to the conclusion that it would be remiss of me as a Portland Police Officer to not make my beliefs known to not only Commander Reese, but the Officers assigned over him.
While meeting with Reese, I told him why I thought a change of assignment was necessary. I pleaded to him that we “should fix the potential problem, before we have to fix the blame”. I spent approximately 10 minutes explaining to Reese about the constant negative media barrage that had taken place over the weeks prior to our meeting, and I assured him the barrage would only increase as civil trial date got closer. I am not a psychologist, but as someone who was under similar pressure once, I assured him that the stress they were under would almost push almost any man to the brink. I even provided him with details of a specific incident, in which I thought Sergeant Nice grossly overacted on a routine call for service; which required me to step in to prevent the situation from escalating into a use of force scenario; one of which I wanted no part of.
After speaking with Reese, he assured me that there was no problem with any of the “three officers involved”. He went on to add that he and the “Chiefs Office” were constantly monitoring the “oil levels of all three involved officers”, and that there was no need for concern on my part. I told Commander Reese directly that if the “Oil levels” were in fact fine, I would not have been sitting in his office. Before leaving, he asked for the call information I spoke to him about involving Sergeant Nice, and I provided it to him. My last thought to Commander Reese as I was leaving his office, was that even the most minor of incident involving these officers, had the potential for becoming a major media circus. As most officers are aware, it is not what an officer does, but who the officer is who does it that matters.
If the past few years during the [Rosie] Sizer tenure are any indicator, I fully anticipate retaliation for my raising these concerns; but I fully believe I must do what is right in this situation, and that is to hold the leaders who allowed this current debacle to happen, equally as accountable as they seem to be willing to hold Officers Humphreys. In my 41 years of combined military and police service, I have never encountered such arrogant leaders, as those I have worked for the past 3 years. They are truly adept at fixing the blame for situations, but have continually missed the boat when it come to fixing problems, before fixing blame becomes necessary.
In closing, if I am to have any faith in an agency that professes to “Improving Accountability” and “Developing and Encouraging Personnel” as the core tenants of their value system, then I must ask that a complete and thorough investigation be conducted. I would now like to know who Reese informed about our conversation, and why they did nothing to date to head off future potential problems.
We will all now be left wondering that if action was taken in a timely manor to the concerns that I presented on the 26th of October, would Humphreys and his family be going through the hell they are currently?
Regrettably submitted,
Officer Thomas J. Brennan
Portland Police Bureau
Central Precinct
From: MReese@portlandpolice.org
To: PRIVATE@msn.com, dan@ci.portland.or.us, president@ppavigil.org,rleonard@ci.portland.or.us, maxinebernstein@news.oregonian.com, jpitkin@wweek.com, IPR@ci.portland.or.us, PRIVATE@comcast.net
Cc: RSizer@portlandpolice.org, Bmartinek@portlandpolice.org, MWheat@portlandpolice.org
Sent:Mon Nov 23 05:51:51 UTC 2009
Subject: RE: Dereliction of Duty
I would be happy to discuss this email from Officer Brennan with any of you, in an appropriate setting. Officer Brennan met with me on October 26th, to share his concerns about Sgt. Nice and a specific call that Officer Brennan, Sergeant Nice and another officer handled. This incident was thoroughly investigated, at my direction, by Lt. Ron Alexander.
I also discussed this incident and Officer Brennan’s concerns about Sergeant Nice with Assistant Chief [Brian] Martinek. Officer Brennan and I did not discuss Officer Humphrey or any other officer involved in the Chasse incident, and Officer Humphrey’s does not work for me.
More than two months after Portland police began an internal investigation into Officer Christopher Humphreys‘ Nov. 14 beanbag shotgun shooting of a 12-year-old girl, investigators ordered Humphreys in for his first interview Friday.
Humphreys went off work on stress disability leave, shortly after the Portland Police Bureau announced an investigation into the shooting.
This page holds a fairly comprehensive archive of all media stories and public documents about what happened to Aaron Campbell on January 29, 2010. Now 400 items to 2/24/10.
Our friend Joe Parker once told us, for some people with mental illness, “it’s not a question of whether a person will commit suicide, it is a question of when. We who are on the outside should honor the strength and integrity it took to fight off the demons for so long.”
Here’s a note left for Daniel Schaull of Dodge City, Kansas, who died yesterday, January 28, 2009 in downtown Portland.
Hey man – The universe is a strange and sometimes hurtful place. I hope that you are happier, where ever you are. – DRUGLESSxF.
DODGE CITY, KANSAS – Daniel V. Shaull, 26, died Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital & Health Center, Portland, Oregon. He was born on January 7, 1984 at Dodge City the son of Warren and Donna (McWatters) Shaull.
Daniel was a friendly, outgoing person known and loved by his family and friends. He enjoyed meeting new people and had many friends who knew and respected Daniels continued struggles with mental illness and previous drug dependency. At the end of his short life Daniel had overcome some of his personal problems and we were very proud of him.
Daniel had a great concern for many of the ills of society including mental illness, drug and alcohol dependency, the homeless, and the environment. He had a deep compassion for the down trodden and the forgotten and neglected souls of society. It seemed that Daniel believed he could single handedly solve all these problems. His potential was unlimited as it is with each and everyone that God has given life to. We are thankful for the person Daniel was. He was determined to live his life under his terms and had a tenacity that few possess.
Daniel volunteered and worked at Crew Recycling Center in Dodge City and other organizations, never wanting to be idle. He was determined to regain his health and enjoyed Bicycling and daily exercise. He held a long term goal to bicycle across America to raise funds and awareness for various charities. Daniel loved music in all its varied forms from classic rock to rap. He participated in AA/NA where he enjoyed the encouragement, fellowship and acceptance of others in recovery.
Daniel’s life ended abruptly and his family and friends may never know why. One thing we do know, although Daniel will never return home again to Dodge City, he now has an eternal home in heaven with his Lord and beloved grandmothers. He now is living in that perfect peace that he desired and believed was possible for all. We will remember always the unique and caring son, brother and friend that God gave to us to know and love.
Daniel is survived by his parents, Warren and Donna Shaull of Dodge City; brother, Micah Ian Shaull and sister, Sophie Elizabeth Shaull both of the home; grandfather, Marion Shaull of Tonopah, Arizona; and numerous Aunts, Uncles and Cousins residing across the United States and Canada. He was preceded in death and united in heaven with his beloved grandmothers, Betty Ann Shaull and Mary Elizabeth McWatters; and grandfather, Veron L. McWatters.
Memorial service will be held at the Victory Life Fellowship, 700 S. 14th, on Saturday, February 6, 2010 at 1:30 PM with pastors Carl & Joyce Nance presiding. There will be a fellowship following the servce at the chuch. Memorials can be made to the Victory Life Fellowship for the Legacy Emmanuel Hospital Burn Unit. Thoughts and memories may be shared in the online guest book at www.swaimfuneralhome.com.
Judi Chamberlin, whose involuntary confinement in a mental hospital in the 1960s propelled her into a lifelong leading role in the movement to guarantee basic human rights to psychiatric patients, died on Jan. 16 at her home in Arlington, Mass. She was 65.
Judi Chamberlin
The cause was pulmonary disease, said Martin Federman, her companion since 2006.
“It was not into one of those horror-story-type places” that Ms. Chamberlin was committed in 1966, Mr. Federman said. Still, those five months in a state hospital in New York City for a diagnosis of chronic depression were enough to shock her into action.
She was then Judi Ross, 22 years old, and had suffered a miscarriage. “She didn’t get over that, as people kept telling her she would,” Mr. Federman said. After several voluntary hospitalizations, she was involuntarily committed.
“There are real indignities and real problems when all facets of life are controlled — when to get up, to eat, to shower — and chemicals are put inside our bodies against our will,” Ms. Chamberlin told The New York Times in 1981.
There was a lack of activity, of fresh air. There were seclusion rooms and wards for noncompliant patients, even those who were in no way violent. The drugs, which made her lethargic and affected her memory, seemed more intended to control than cure. And she could not sign herself out.
She had become, she said, “a prisoner of the system.”
After her release, Ms. Chamberlin began working with several organizations in the budding rights movement for mental health patients. She gave speeches and interviews throughout the country. Then, in 1978, her book “On Our Own” (Hawthorne) was published.
“It became the bible of the movement,” Daniel B. Fisher, executive director of the National Empowerment Center, said in an interview. The center, run by people who have experienced mental health issues, is a federally financed organization that provides support, teaches recovery skills and works to reduce the stigma faced by psychiatric patients and those who have recovered.
Ms. Chamberlin’s book “is a set of beliefs and principles,” said Mr. Fisher, who recovered from schizophrenia. “The most fundamental is in the subtitle: ‘Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System.’
“Embodied in that,” he continued, “is consumer control of not only the treatment but of the new paradigm for recovery, which goes beyond what the system provides and encompasses all the support and services needed to lead a full and meaningful life in the community: education, housing, jobs.”
Not surprisingly, Ms. Chamberlin was a critic of the old system, of large institutions in which people were given little hope of recovery and essentially told to accept that they would always lead a limited life.
In 2000, she was a primary author of a federal report by the National Council on Disability called “From Privileges to Rights.” The report made clear that within the traditional system patients had to earn privileges, among them to see visitors, to leave the grounds and to have their own clothes. Those should be basic rights, not earned privileges, the report said.
Ms. Chamberlin was also a member of the team that framed the mental health recommendations in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities. The convention, adopted by the General Assembly in 2006, calls for mental patients to be treated with dignity and for a reduction in forced treatment.
In 1992, President George Bush presented Ms.Chamberlin with the Distinguished Service Award.
Born in Brooklyn on Oct. 30, 1944, Judi Ross was the only child of Harold and Shirley Jaffe Ross. Her father was an advertising executive, her mother a school administrator.
Her marriages to Howard Cahn and Robert Chamberlin ended in divorce. Besides Mr. Federman, she is survived by a daughter, Juli Chamberlin of Medford, Mass., and three grandchildren.
“The public dislikes mental patients, mentally retarded people, the physically disabled, the deformed or disfigured — and often such people are incarcerated in institutions euphemistically called hospitals, schools and homes,” Ms. Chamberlin wrote in her book. “The public’s aversion to people who are different is not sufficient reason to justify locking them up.”
