If someone is Gravely Disabled per the psychiatric protocol, especially with schizophrenia, they will refuse to eat or drink even if provided food and water. Some believe they are being poisoned, some that they must "cleanse their soul" to be free of sin, one patient I evaluated in the hospital believed that he had animals inside of him that would eat him if he ate food. Paranoid delusions are powerful, and these patients need medical care in a hospital. Incredibly sad; she had the trifecta of being mentally ill, black, and female. So sad.
It's terrifying, the culture of indifference, the racism and casual inhumanity. Thank you telling us this story, Robyn. I appreciate your strength. We cannot look away.
I know that the state run hospitals and institutions were absolute horror shows, but the jails clearly aren't doing any better. My disabled sister refers to her time in Georgia Regional State Hospital as her "time in prison" and she's in a private group home today that isn't perfect, but actually seems to give a shit about the patients. Unfortunately, finding and retaining staff is difficult even paying almost three times minimum wage. :(
The state run facilities and hospitals eventually got forced to improve. YMMV by state, but it's better than it used to be in most. Prisons aren't subject to nearly anywhere near the level of scrutiny a mental hospital now is.
Geez couldn't the Governors break out some of that sweet sweet "fly immigrants to other States" money and send people needing care to open beds in other States? Asking for anyone with a Conscience.
Unfortunately, even in states with much better funding and organization, there still aren't enough beds. My father was in public mental health for many years, and here in Colorado we're better off than many others, but it sometimes still took days to get someone into a bed. At least here his clients stayed in a hospital setting, albeit usually the ER.
It will likely be quite a while before we know, because the Sheriff’s Office sure as hell ain’t talking.
News19 contacted the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, which helps run the jail, to find out its protocol to ensure people in jail receive food and water. We asked about whether inmates' eating or drinking is monitored and were told the department "will be making no other comments regarding the death of Dinkins."
The department's spokesperson said it will "not engage in any other media inquiries."
That statement is definitely from someone who did absolutely nothing wrong. /S
There are 3.2 million Americans who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but the number of psychiatric beds across private and public sectors has dropped significantly in the past 60 years.
Meanwhile, under current law, treatment provided to adults in an institution for mental diseases with more than 16 beds is not reimbursable under Medicaid; this payment prohibition is known as the Medicaid institution for mental diseases (IMD) exclusion.
Also meanwhile, amendments to the Social Security Act in 1950 excluded patients in mental institutions from receiving Social Security benefits. The same is true of people in prison.
The loophole seems to be having a group home not exclusively for patients with mental illness. My sister lives in an assisted living facility (paid for by Medicaid and SSI-D) with a mixture of retired/elderly and younger disabled folks, none of whom can work any more or really take care of themselves, but who are mobile and lucid enough to speak up for themselves.
She may be the only one diagnosed as schizophrenic in the entire building, for that matter.
She's so lucky. I have a friend living in Mobile, Alabama who has a (mildly) physically and mentally disabled daughter. The friend is 75 and trying to find a group home for the daughter to live in "after she is gone" and has had no luck at all.
We definitely got lucky - we moved her to be closer to me last August, and this home happened to have a bed open. I borrowed $3K from my husband's family to reserve it while we negotiated transferring over all the other paperwork.
Congratulations! My friend's husband was recently diagnosed with Alzheimers, and there's no way she can look after both her husband and her daughter simultaneously, and she's about to pull her hair out trying to find a subsidized apartment for the daughter.
A glucose reading over 600 is very noticeable - you dehydrate because you're constantly drinking water and trying to pee out the excess glucose which screws up your electrolytes. Diabetic ketoacidosis. Your body starts generating ketone bodies from fat because your brain can't process glucose for fuel. I know because when I had DKA, my glucose was 980, which as high as the hospital glucose monitor went. I was in a coma for 2 days. I got a cognition test when I woke up and I didn't ace it. I also hallucinated that the doctors were pirates. Shame on South Carolina
Is that a law suit I smell. Because there should be a big ass one ... and it MUST include the guards and their enablers all getting fired for gross dereliction of duty.
I'm awake and suddenly filled with rage. This is horrifying.
1. The jail staff knew something was wrong. You don't just not notice stuff like this happening (as Robyn correctly pointed out), which points to callous indifference (and maybe negligent manslaughter?).
2. WHY THE FUCK WAS SHE PUT IN A JAIL CELL TO WAIT FOR A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL BED. WHY. WHY. WHY THE FUCK. That should never happen. They should have put her in a regular hospital to wait. Jailing her is the definition of cruel and unusual.
If someone is Gravely Disabled per the psychiatric protocol, especially with schizophrenia, they will refuse to eat or drink even if provided food and water. Some believe they are being poisoned, some that they must "cleanse their soul" to be free of sin, one patient I evaluated in the hospital believed that he had animals inside of him that would eat him if he ate food. Paranoid delusions are powerful, and these patients need medical care in a hospital. Incredibly sad; she had the trifecta of being mentally ill, black, and female. So sad.
It's terrifying, the culture of indifference, the racism and casual inhumanity. Thank you telling us this story, Robyn. I appreciate your strength. We cannot look away.
Maybe we should lock up all her jailors until the next psychiatric bed becomes available and see how they fare.
The name of the jail, Sumter-Lee Detention Center, is a bit too on the nose. Was "Nathan Bedford Forest Memorial Jail" already taken?
Hey didn't Ronald Reagan defund care for mental health?
If he did, he didn't remember doing it.
The department...will "not engage in any other media inquiries."
Ok, then. Let's ask Nikki...
seems on par with the way people with severe mental illness are treated all too often in the land of the free.
I know that the state run hospitals and institutions were absolute horror shows, but the jails clearly aren't doing any better. My disabled sister refers to her time in Georgia Regional State Hospital as her "time in prison" and she's in a private group home today that isn't perfect, but actually seems to give a shit about the patients. Unfortunately, finding and retaining staff is difficult even paying almost three times minimum wage. :(
The state run facilities and hospitals eventually got forced to improve. YMMV by state, but it's better than it used to be in most. Prisons aren't subject to nearly anywhere near the level of scrutiny a mental hospital now is.
Geez couldn't the Governors break out some of that sweet sweet "fly immigrants to other States" money and send people needing care to open beds in other States? Asking for anyone with a Conscience.
Unfortunately, even in states with much better funding and organization, there still aren't enough beds. My father was in public mental health for many years, and here in Colorado we're better off than many others, but it sometimes still took days to get someone into a bed. At least here his clients stayed in a hospital setting, albeit usually the ER.
They should use the dope tax to fund expansion.
I'm sorry, I can't get past the optics of a Black woman dying in a jail named "Sumter-Lee." What the actual fuck?
The simulation is really fucked up now...
It will likely be quite a while before we know, because the Sheriff’s Office sure as hell ain’t talking.
News19 contacted the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, which helps run the jail, to find out its protocol to ensure people in jail receive food and water. We asked about whether inmates' eating or drinking is monitored and were told the department "will be making no other comments regarding the death of Dinkins."
The department's spokesperson said it will "not engage in any other media inquiries."
That statement is definitely from someone who did absolutely nothing wrong. /S
There are 3.2 million Americans who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, but the number of psychiatric beds across private and public sectors has dropped significantly in the past 60 years.
Meanwhile, under current law, treatment provided to adults in an institution for mental diseases with more than 16 beds is not reimbursable under Medicaid; this payment prohibition is known as the Medicaid institution for mental diseases (IMD) exclusion.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IF/IF10222
Also meanwhile, amendments to the Social Security Act in 1950 excluded patients in mental institutions from receiving Social Security benefits. The same is true of people in prison.
Good lord, everything is just so stupid and cruel.
The loophole seems to be having a group home not exclusively for patients with mental illness. My sister lives in an assisted living facility (paid for by Medicaid and SSI-D) with a mixture of retired/elderly and younger disabled folks, none of whom can work any more or really take care of themselves, but who are mobile and lucid enough to speak up for themselves.
She may be the only one diagnosed as schizophrenic in the entire building, for that matter.
She's so lucky. I have a friend living in Mobile, Alabama who has a (mildly) physically and mentally disabled daughter. The friend is 75 and trying to find a group home for the daughter to live in "after she is gone" and has had no luck at all.
We definitely got lucky - we moved her to be closer to me last August, and this home happened to have a bed open. I borrowed $3K from my husband's family to reserve it while we negotiated transferring over all the other paperwork.
Congratulations! My friend's husband was recently diagnosed with Alzheimers, and there's no way she can look after both her husband and her daughter simultaneously, and she's about to pull her hair out trying to find a subsidized apartment for the daughter.
A glucose reading over 600 is very noticeable - you dehydrate because you're constantly drinking water and trying to pee out the excess glucose which screws up your electrolytes. Diabetic ketoacidosis. Your body starts generating ketone bodies from fat because your brain can't process glucose for fuel. I know because when I had DKA, my glucose was 980, which as high as the hospital glucose monitor went. I was in a coma for 2 days. I got a cognition test when I woke up and I didn't ace it. I also hallucinated that the doctors were pirates. Shame on South Carolina
Is that a law suit I smell. Because there should be a big ass one ... and it MUST include the guards and their enablers all getting fired for gross dereliction of duty.
I'm awake and suddenly filled with rage. This is horrifying.
1. The jail staff knew something was wrong. You don't just not notice stuff like this happening (as Robyn correctly pointed out), which points to callous indifference (and maybe negligent manslaughter?).
2. WHY THE FUCK WAS SHE PUT IN A JAIL CELL TO WAIT FOR A PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL BED. WHY. WHY. WHY THE FUCK. That should never happen. They should have put her in a regular hospital to wait. Jailing her is the definition of cruel and unusual.
I'm going to step outside and scream.
Oh Christ, my rage stroke is complete