The Montana Suicide Rate Reduction Council.
Founded in Missoula, Montana. August 06, 2021.
Hate the fate. Reduce the rate.
TIMELINE: December 17, 2021. Highly unqualified health care officials in the state of Montana's system of public health care system has been a central issue in the work of The Montana Suicide Rate Reduction Council (MSRRC) since day one, August 06, 2021.
And thanks to some networking with media resources at the national level, local to Montana media has now reported that this is huge problem in Montana today, and people like Zoe Barnard and Karl Rosston, just have no business working in health care.
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| Karl Rosston |
This is graphically alarming in that data about the issue of COVID's impacts on the mental health of children everywhere has been at the forefront of the national discourse since fall, 2020. And, more recently, a Pew Research report included the following hard data about this specific issue, data that contradicts all aspects of what we have heard from DPHHS to this time.
See: "COVID Harmed Kids' Mental Health- And Schools Are Feeling It. (By Christine Vestal. November 09, 2021.
"According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts among adolescents jumped thirty one percent (31%) in 2020, compared with 2019. In February and March of this year, emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts were 51% higher among girls aged 12–17 than during the same period in 2019.Last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared that the pandemic-related decline in child and adolescent mental health has become a national emergency. On top of social isolation and family instability, the medical groups said, “more than 140,000 children in the United States lost a primary and/or secondary caregiver, with youth of color disproportionately impacted. Nearly every child in the country is suffering to some degree from the psychological effects of the pandemic,” said Sharon Hoover, co-director of the University of Maryland-based National Center for School Mental Health. “Suddenly everyone is talking about mental health. Parents, teachers and students are openly discussing it.”
A national emergency. All states, including Montana. Social isolation and family instability as per the usual, and nearly every child in the country is suffering some degree of the psychological impacts of COVID-19. On its face, any claim such as this, "we really have to look at trends over a 10-year period" is ludicrous. Arguably, when the attitude of Karl Rosston is taken into account, the title of this study could be restated as, "DPPHS is exacerbating known harms of COVID upon Montana children." Our kids are dying by suicide at 2X the national rate, infant vaccines specific to COVID are facing the same challenges that contributes to our suicide crisis, working families with young children are finding it impossible to travel from our more rural areas to any one of our major cities, hours on the road to an from, which is directly reducing the vaccine rate in our rural communities.
The disconnect between DPHHS and the actual life experiences of Montana citizens is chasmic. Fully consistent with any bureaucratic system of public health care, the citizens of Montana have been directly harmed by DPHHS longstanding failure as applies to a suicide crisis that has remained unabated and ever increasing for at least as long as public health statistics have been documented and compiled in the interest of our citizens. The lack of all types of heath care in the states of Montana most definitely contributes to harm specific to any nature of crisis, be those harms emotional or psychological, or be they physical, as well. That Rosston and his associate DPHHS officials can't deduce something so patently obvious and so well established since very early on in this pandemic, in a far more timely manner (vs. ten years!), clarifies that something is greatly amiss in the man's language; in that, any declaration of this nature is inane on its face. At root, ergo, the chasmic disconnect between MT health care officials such as Karl Rosston and the actual life experiences of Montana citizens, including and especially in the interest of our children. Clearly, this man would likely not recognize "reliable" data if it bit him on the ass. This is also on point with Rosston's admitted lack of vision, his refusal to include anything akin to solutions in his official language, and his willingness to reject new ideas and particularly those that suggest actual change. The hopelessness in Rosston's language is exacerbating the suicide crisis itself, this too is evident beyond easy refute.
Montana children are committing suicide at 2X the national rate of youth suicides. Hundreds, even thousands of others, parents, siblings and other family members have been losing their loved ones to suicide for the better part of the last century. The performance of DPHHS as an agency over that extensive period of time, as pertaining to suicide in Montana, has been overwhelmingly dismal. The man now overseeing this matter today has performed no better, this is plain a fact as might exist. His role can be best described as having one objective only, and that is to preserve a perverted status quo that cares not one whit about the health and welfare interests of our citizens, . graphically perverted if one considers the impacts of this issue upon our children.
The work of MSRRC has included a direct consideration of the broader construct specific to DHPPS, and have determined therein that the means by which thus deceit has been protected extends to the MT State Hospital and one Craig Fitch, who likes to call himself the "patient's lawyer", while knowing, in fact, that he works for state administrative interests versus the interests of the patients. Fitch has been provided that position through the state's "governor appointed" Board of Visitors (BOV), which was ostensibly established as means to ensure that Montana citizens who are affected by mental illness and who rely on DPHHS are not subject to anything short of reasonably optimum treatment. At various points in his history as a member of BOV, Fitch has willfully denied the significance of a range of very disturbing issues that have arisen at MSH over the last five years. In 2019, with the emergence of data specific to abuse of MT's elderly at MSH, on the hospital's geriatric "Spratt" unit, Fitch stated that "I am aware that things on the Spratt unit have been a bit below what is expected." Then, in 2020, in response to the increasing level of this specific data, Fitch stated:
“I had no idea that so many individuals were put on hospice or palliative care (status), despite the fact that I was there almost every day, so this wasn’t done officially or transparently,” Fitch said. “I don’t mean to say there wasn’t a piece of paper in peoples’ charts if I had known what to look for and where to look. But people like me, we would not have known it.”
He's there everyday, and yet, is somehow unaware? This shift, from characterizing the matter "as a bit below" the expectations of our citizens, to "I don't mean to say there wasn't a piece of paper in people's charts' if I'd known what look for and where to look" is pronounced beyond easy understanding. One day he effectively denies the significance of the issue itself, the next day he falls into a defensive strategy wherein to protect himself from due scrutiny. All lawyers are expected to exercise due diligence in their given work, and it is Fitch's express responsibility exercise such diligence as means to be reasonably aware of these matters. People like him are people willing to deflect attention from the truth, suggesting that their heads are buried in the sand and that this is why people like him don't know the full story. But our own data since 2015 has verified that Fitch breaches his duty to the public every time something like issues of this nature arise. A man entrusted in this position at the state of Montana's sole long term public mental health care facility, stating "despite the fact that was there almost every day" he somehow had no idea of the issues specifically at stake. He, and people like him, are behind many of the most horrific issues that have for so long defied the expectations of Montana citizens. It's just that plain. Our data also includes Fitch's attitude about retaliation at MSH, as directed onto MSH patients who might choose to report issues that put patients at risk of harm, stating to one such persons "Well, maybe you'll think twice before you make any waves..." (September, 2016). Any degree of retaliation is highly illegal, and in terms of citizens who are committed to the state hospital, well, they have every right to report any of their concerns about issues at MSH. That right includes protection from any threat of retaliation, as per the rights of all consumers in Montana's system of public health care.
These are things that most people couldn't make up if they had to, and yet there it is- right there- and these people are readily identifiable today as being just who they are, in fact. This specific line of expose' will continue in coming days and weeks. We promise you as much.
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| P. Jack Reed. Founder, MSRRC. |
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