University Daily Kansan
Monday, February 26, 1973
3
Kansan Staff Photo by ED LALLO
Planning, Dreaming, Hoping for a Future
The University of Kansas has not determined how much federal aid will be lost in the wake of President Nixon's proposed cut of federal funds for colleges and universities, Chancellor Raymond Nichols said Sunday.
Nichols said he was still waiting for the answer from Center and from the suite and office offices.
A report is being prepared by William A. Report the candidate for research and graduate studies.
Aid Loss Unknown, Nichols Says
Nichols said last week that the University would lose $1 million if the President's budget was cut.
Argeringer said last week that KU would suffer significant cuts in research grants and graduate training programs. Funds for the programs would also be cut, he said.
" that figure is an approximation because these things are so difficult to compute," he said. "Some of the programs have been put through a testing program and already and some are in the 'if' stage."
Nikon's budget would phase out the National Direct Student Loan Program and would cut funds from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health.
It was reported last week that W. Phillip Hefley, regional U.S. education commissioner, said the President's budget contained a rearrangement of funds, not a cut. Hefley's office is a part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Nichols said he disagreed with Hefley's view.
"It may be a rearrangement as far as HEW is concerned, but as far as the universities are concerned, they are cuts," he said.
He said KU had always accounted well for its federal funding.
"If any mistake has been made in accrual,
it should have been made by the
increment," he said.
KU committee drafts bill to protect rights of patients in mental institutions .
WE'RE PLANNING AHEAD TO SERVE YOU BEST J.R. Express Coalition
Rights Proposed for Mental Patients
CHARLIE RHOADES—President MARK SCIMARTZ—Vice Pres.
CHARLA MALLORY—Treasurer SUE CASH—Secretary
Editor's Note: This is the first of a two-part series of stories examining proposed reforms in the state's mental health care system and deal with problems in mental health care.
By JEANNETTE HARTMAN
Kansan Staff Writer
Concern for the 3,500 adults who were committed to the three state hospitals last year has led an informal committee at the University of Kansas to draft a bill that will safeguard the rights of patients in mental institutions.
The council is a loosely-knit group of 15 to 20 KU students, faculty, former mental patients, professionals, paraprofessionals and workers in state supported mental institutions and clinics, according to council Joan Upahwe, Olateh graduate student.
---
The essence of the bill, said Upasha, is to end unnecessary, indefinite and involuntary detention of persons who are considered hostile to the state or confinement to emergency situations in-
The bill is being sponsored in the Kansas Legislature by Sen. Tom West, R-Topke, and was initiated by the Kansas Council for Women, the organization, organized at KU more than a year ago.
This case generated investigations of the laws, involuntary commitment proceedings and interviews with state hospital administrators and probate judges. Such studies have led to the drafting of the bill West is sponsoring in the Kansas Senate.
One case of special interest to the group, said Upshaw, concerned a 19-year-old woman who was involuntarily committed to Osawatime State Hospital by her mother after being threatened with commitment if she didn't stop dating a black man.
' . .mental health depends
on freedom against any coercion or confinement regardless of whether the
coercers mean well or not.'
volving imminent bodily injury. The bill also provides safeguards for individual rights and makes provisions for the prompt removal of a person when human life is endangered, she said.
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The bill also would limit involuntary detention to a maximum of 90 days with an opportunity for a court review after 30 days. The existing laws requiring voluntary paolation would be a five-day notice before leaving an institution would be amended to a one-day notice.
Specifically, the bill would grant mental patients the right to be present at judicial hearings in which they face involuntary commitment, the right to uncensored communications with others, the right to nature and to refuse all prescribed inundation and to receive wages for work performed and the right against self-incrimination.
The bill was submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 2. Sometimes in April, an interim committee will be appointed, which will the bill during the summer, Upsaw said.
Every Wednesday 3-5 p.m.
O'Connor, a native of Omaha, Neb., received his bachelor's degree from the University of Omaha and his master's from Washington University in St. Louis.
--mental problems. Although he didn't have the money to pay for private care, he understood that he could commit himself to a state institution.
KU Award to Washburn Prof
Louis Frydman, KU associate professor of social welfare and council member, said that although the bill would not be acted upon until October 2014, allow time for the formation of a statewide coalition of concerned citizens to generate public interest in the need for institutional reforms to provide a variety of community resources for troubled people and to do so.
Under the existing laws, all that is needed to initiate commitment proceedings is a notarized statement by a "reputable" person. If someone believes in a belief that someone is mentally ill.
Since the person has already been hospitalized and the court-appointed attorney relates himself to the legality of the proceedings rather than to the validity of the allegations, the cases are rarely contested or appealed, he said.
According to West, about 3,500 adults were committed to the three state hospitals last year. Although 2,000 of these are primary, 1,500 (42 per cent) were not. he said.
Although it is the court's discretion to issue an order of protective custody, should the applicant believe that the proposed custody be not detained immediately, this is usually a matter of routine, Frydman said. So much so, Frydman said, that in Johnson county the order of protective custody is incorporated into application for a mental illness examination.
The 1972-73 William King Candin Award was recently presented to Thomas M. Assistant, assistant professor of biology at Washington University for his research on ribonucleic acid (RNA).
"Even though legally the state hospital need not accept a patient on a protective custody order, I have heard that hospitals should evaluate the need for hospitalization prior to admission," Frydman said. "To do otherwise would presumably be embarrassing to the judge."
Frydman said that this was a "Catch 22" situation. The legal definition of mental illness includes "dangerousness," he said, so the probate judge feels bound to order involuntary detention and treatment when a diagnosis of mental illness is made.
*and large, as one council member who wished to remain unidentified put it, there was a system in the hospital system and the hospital system. Each system addressed itself to a different aspect of the commitment process, but neither took full responsibility for the individual, she
At this point, the probate judge sets a date for the hearing to determine whether the person is mentally ill and appoints an attorney for the proposed patient, Frydmann said.
"In essence, we would agree that mental health depends on freedom against any coercion or confinement regardless of whether the coerces mean well or not. Commitment should be based on laws against society and definitive evidence that temporary deprivation of freedom will result in safeguarding the individual's life."
Another council member, Chuck Worden, Topeka attorney, said that because legal proceedings were conducted on behalf of the defense counsel, the adversary process were unavailable.
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"As clinicians, which we mostly are," said Frydman, "we question the therapeutic value of being the patient's warden. The deprivation of freedom, coercion and control works against a trusting relationship between doctor and patient."
Similar loss of proteins occurs in muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune reactions and other human diseases. DNA damage has not been shown that RNA loss is involved.
Using radioactivity and an electron microscope, O'Connor found that nerve cells degenerate and lose their RNA molecules, which govern production of proteins by the cells. When the RNA is lost, the cells die.
The Candlin Award, which includes a $300 stipend, is presented each year by the University of Kansas physiology and cell biology department. Mr. and Mrs. Robert M. Candlin, Lawrence, established the memory in memory of their son in 1968.
Under the existing laws, a person who has voluntarily committed himself must give up his property.
If a patient has to give notice before leaving, said Upshaw he is not a voluntary patient, especially since the hospital can be over the phone to keep him institutionalized.
O'Connor is studying "Cell Degeneration During Embryonic Development of the Chick Spinal Cord" for his doctoral dissertation.
With the amendment that requires only a one-day notice, she said, the hospital would have to more fully respond to the patient and his desires.
One example that West gave of the need for this kind of legislation was the case of a young man who contacted him the day the police said he had been killed by the young man recognized that he had
'...the hospital staff
rately, if ever, even attempts to evaluate the need for hospitalization
prior to admission.
But what he didn't realize. West said, was that because he was a monitor and had no parents to sign the release papers, he didn't leave. He wasn't released until 1966.
Involuntary patients have no five-day notice, according to Upshaw. They must either wait for a staff discharge or wait six months for a probate court review, but they are seldom notified of this right nor held with an attorney to represent them.
The right to avoid self-incrimination is another issue that concerns the council, in a way similar to the one there are no provisions for informing a proposed patient of the charges against him, or his legal rights or that anything he says may be used as a basis for involuntary prosecution.
Frydman said that a common question on institutional mental examinations was "Do you know why you are here?" The patient who had been picked up by the sheriff and told nothing, usually replies, "No," which was interpreted as disorientation he said.
the only way to be dismissed is to say that you were sick, but you're getting better.
Frydman also referred to a recent experiment by D. L. Rosenhan in which nine sane people voluntarily committed themselves. One of the conclusions of this experiment, he said, was that you don't leave a mental institution by claiming to be sane;
Edward Dutton, associate professor of social welfare and a council member, said that he has worked to overcome individual needs. The number of patients, low salaries for employees in state hospitals and the need to maintain control over patients influenced the treatment and care.
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According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there has been an accelerating decrease of patients in state and county hospitals, but over the past 20 years there has been a trend of increasing admissions.
In 1970, for the first time, the number of admission is the number of admissions the institute sees.
Frydman called it a "revolving door syndrome" in which people were discharged because their behavior was no longer troublesome rather than because their serious life problems were resolved. They returned to the hospital, environmental stresses needed itself and the tranquilizing medication no longer sufficed.
The institute attributes this trend to the gradual reduction in the length of stay, increased availability of outpatient and community mental health centers of community mental health centers.
James Stachowiak, professor of psychology, reacting to the same statistics, agreed. It's a paradox, he said, that the overcrowded hospital releases patients too early to make room for them to come back. It's questionable whether a state hospital is really the palce htat could help the placem, he said.
"The commitment process is much too simple in view of the serious potential consequences to the person involved," West said. "Essentially all of us today should be and are concerned with the rights of the individual.
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"But the patient in the mental institution loses many of his constitutional guarantees. When you balance the rights of an inpatient society, you have to be for the individual."1
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BILL SPENCER CANDIDATE FOR CITY COMMISSION SPEAKS TO KU:
The Citizens of Lawrence are Frustrated.
They want to be informed.
There is no way we can determine whether an elected official is representing us the way we want to be represented unless we know whether or not we would have made the same decision with the same set of facts. Secondly, with facts, we can, if we desire, directly present our views and opinions. If we can directly present ourselves, and if we are listened to, then we must be represented.
If the facts are known, and the decisions are known, the whole system of openness is academic, for whether or not it is seen at all times, at all levels, in all phases of government is relatively unimportant and almost impossible if you believe that it is seen at all times.
And they want to be able to tell when their government is making intelligent decisions.
If the people truly feel free and secure in telling government what they feel, based on facts, then it is very obvious whether or not any government or any official is being responsive.
WILLIAM H. SPENCER will make sure the citizens are kept informed.
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