Street roots., September 27, 2013, Image 1

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R E U T E R S /B L A IR G A B L E
BY JAKE THOMAS
S T A F F W R IT E R
The Sacramento Bee first reported on the cases of
hey were given a bus ticket along with a few
the Southern Nevada Mental Health Services
days worth of medication and food. They
discharging and busing more than 1,500 patients
traveled long distances to cities in California
to other states. The paper has created an
where they arrived as strangers. Their journeys interactive map that shows where patients were
have sparked outrage and lawsuits. Now there are
bused, including Oregon. You can view the map at
calls to find out if it happened in Oregon.
www.sacbee.com.
T
Following allegations that a psychiatric facility in
Nevada improperly “dumped” patients in cities
throughout California where they had no family
and had no connections, the Mental Health
Association of Portland is calling on the Oregon
attorney general to conduct an investigation to
determine if the Beaver State has also received
improper discharges from the embattled hospital.
Earlier this year, The Sacramento Bee published
a series of articles that alleges that the Rawson-
Neal Psychiatric Hospital, a state-run institution
located in Las Vegas, systematically engaged in
“patient dumping” - euphemistically known as
“Greyhound therapy” — for some of its indigent
patients, shoveling the costs and responsibility of
caring for these individuals onto another state. It’s
the subject of two lawsuits, including the American
Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which claim that
the hospital involuntarily discharged the patients,
bought them bus tickets to cities in California and
sent them off with a supply of food and
medications for several days. Some were instructed
to access social services available in the city,
according to The Bee.
Key evidence in the case are 1,500, one-way bus
tickets to send patients to other cities. Street Roots
has received copies of the tickets and found they
include 29 one-way tickets to Oregon between 2008
and 2012 — 20 of them to Portland. The names of
the passengers have been redacted to protect their
identity, nor is there any information attached
regarding the circumstances surrounding their
trip.
“For a price of a bus ticket, hospitals can get rid
of a difficult patient,” says Jason Renaud,
spokesperson for the Mental Health Association of
Portland, of the practice of patient dumping. The
Mental Health Association has formally requested
that Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum
investigate whether there were any cases of patient
dumping here in Oregon stemming from the
Nevada case.
California’s class action lawsuit focuses on the
case of James Flavy Coy Brown, who arrived in
Sacramento after a 15-hour bus ride from Las
Vegas, confused as to why he had been sent to a
city where he had no contacts, according to The
Bee. The paper’s report says Brown had been
Inside
given instructions from the staff at Rawson-Neal to
call 9-1-1 when he reached his destination. San
Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed the
lawsuit earlier this month against the State of
Nevada and administrators at Rawson-Neal on
behalf of local governments in California.
An investigation by Herrera’s office found that
Rawson-Neal bused at least two-dozen patients to
San Francisco without adequate food, water or
medication and without arrangements for
continued care when they reached the city. Twenty
of these patients required medical care shortly
after arriving in San Francisco, the investigation
found. The suit seeks $500,000 to recoup the costs
associated with providing shelter, medical care and
other necessities for individuals bused to the city.
The suit alleges that Rawson-Neal administrators
imperiled the safety of 500 patients bused to
California, as well their fellow passengers on the
bus rides and the residents of their destinations. It
also alleges that Rawson-Neal administrators
deliberately appropriated resources California had
set aside for its indigent population.
“Rawson-Neal understood and expected that the
bused patients would rely on San Francisco’s public
health resources for continuing medical care, and
specifically directed some of the patients to seek
care at San Francisco public health clinics and
shelter at San Francisco-supported shelter and
care programs,” Herrera states in the complaint.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada
Californians
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See PATIENTS, page 3
■ ■ ■ lì
‘One paper
and gay
Birds of
peace and
New film looks
at the lives - and
challenges -
of gay seniors
prey
A talk with
artist Samir
Khursid
A corner chat
Older, wiser
Page 4
Page 8
a t a time.”
with vendor Keith
Montgomery
Page 6