Criminalized: The Homeless Mentally Ill

Our special guests for March 28, 2014, on "Human Rights Demand" Blogtalkradio show are Bob Darby, an advocate for the homeless mentally ill, and Elizabeth L Gaskins, an elder in the Cherokee Nation.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/03/28/bob-darby-advocate-for-the-homeless-mentally-ill

Call-in number (347) 857-3293. Listen live at 3pm Eastern Time or hear the archived tape using the link above.

Bob Darby has a B.A. in psychology from Emory University and has attended graduate schools in psychology and theology. He is a former employee of Georgia Regional Hospital, Boston State Hospital, and New Hampshire's Hanover-Darthmouth Hospital. In 1994, he founded Atlanta Food Not Bombs and has been an advocate for the homeless mentally ill for more than twenty years.

Elizabeth Gaskins is a human rights advocate who hosts a weekly radio show on Human Rights Demand called "Native American Affairs - Freemen." Her show airs Wednesdays at 3pm. Listen to her debut broadcast, taped at this link
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/03/19/native-american-affairs--freemen

Elizabeth Gaskins will discuss how mentally ill people are subject to wrongful arrests rather than receiving proper care and treatment. We will discuss Jerome Murdough, a homeless Marine Corps veteran who suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who was arrested in Riker's Island jail and died there of overheating in a solitary jail cell in February 2014. Murdough essentially baked. Bob Darby will discuss how deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill during President Regan's term and simultaneous removal (through lack of funding) for the "safety net" of detoxification centers, group homes and outpatient treatment programs contributed to Murdough's avoidable death and the negligence of America's most vulnerable population. Jails and prisons have replaced hospitals for chronic mentally ill Americans.

Dr. Mustafa Ansari, an international human rights attorney and Dean of the American Institute for Human Rights, spoke about Jerome Murdough's death on Riker's Island during his radio show on March 26. Murdough is the homeless, mentally ill veteran who was baked in a solitary confinement cell in February.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/03/25/dr-ansaris-human-rights-updates

The National Alliance on Mental Illness says that if they get the chance, eighty percent of bipolars and sixty percent of schizophrenics could be successfully treated to fully participate in mainstream society. But such treatment and medications are not currently available to many of them, because the new "atypical anti-psychotics" and other new drugs are expensive and must be professionally administered under in-patient supervision.

Repeat of Paragraphs 1 and 2:  Our special guests for March 28, 2014, on "Human Rights Demand" Blogtalkradio show are Bob Darby, an advocate for the homeless mentally ill, and Elizabeth L Gaskins, an elder in the Cherokee Nation.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/03/28/bob-darby-advocate-for-the-homeless-mentally-ill

Call-in number (347) 857-3293. Listen live at 3pm Eastern Time or hear the archived tape using the link above.