Mental illness affects many families — even prominent political scientists – Columbia Missourian

Norman Ornstein is a political science “star” whose reaction to a family tragedy will contribute to a growing awareness that America’s mental health requires more of our attention and resources.

Ornstein has been a frequent guest on TV coverage and author of several books on Congress and American politics. He has been a professional colleague (i.e. “I know him, but he probably doesn’t know me”) for more than a quarter century, but I only recently learned of his family’s 15-year experience with mental health.

In 2015, Ornstein’s elder son, Matthew, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a tent with a propane lantern. Ornstein considers his son’s death accidental and preventable if his son had received care. Matthew had struggled with brain disease. He probably had a bipolar disorder for a decade that struck him at 24 after a promising start for a happy and productive life.

It’s estimated that more than 20% of Americans struggle with mental disease, affecting one out of three families at any one time, so Ornstein is not unusual.

Fortunately for American society, Ornstein has used his professional knowledge and contacts to bring attention to how the criminal justice system can be changed to help those citizens dealing with mental illness.

Ornstein did three acts of courage and commitment. First, he wrote an op-ed in the New York Times detailing how his efforts to use the law to find help for his son actually made his son’s welfare worse because it exposed him to negative police treatment. Ornstein learned that a person older than 18 cannot be required to seek treatment based only on family or professional concern. Like many mentally ill, Ornstein’s son was particularly afflicted with anosognosia—the inability for a person to recognize that he or she is ill.

Years earlier while first dealing with his son’s mental issues, Ornstein met Judge Steven Leifman of a Miami-Dade County court in Florida who was shocked to realize the lack of mental health services. As a judge, Leifman faced committing mentally ill to prison rather than medical services. Leifman’s first case involved a young, well-educated defendant, the former head of psychiatry at a Florida hospital who had his first psychotic breakdown and just didn’t show up for work anymore. Eventually he had a minor scrape with the law for stealing a shopping cart that brought him before Judge Leifman. Leifman had expected to easily order the defendant to get mental health care. But the judge was shocked to find that even a judge could not find the proper care in our mental health system. He learned there were 10 times as many people with mental illness in Florida jails than in mental hospitals.

Judge Leifman created the innovative Eleventh Judicial Circuit Criminal Mental Health Project in 2000, which consists of programs to place people with mental illnesses who had committed low-level offenses with community-care centers rather than incarcerating them. In the diversion program, qualified offenders are offered a mental health caseworker rather than going to jail. The caseworker meets often with the offender insuring that he or she is receiving appropriate treatment, avoiding drugs and alcohol and looking for a job.

Leifman describes his judicial experience in “The Definition of Insanity” that was funded and developed by the Matthew Harris Ornstein Memorial. The documentary was broadcast by PBS in 2020 and is available on YouTube.

Many counties, including Boone County, endorsed the “Stepping Up Initiative” aimed at reducing the number of incarcerated mentally ill persons with diversion programs. Miami-Dade County is one of the best in terms of impact on reducing jail populations and jail costs. Miami-Dade expanded its police department’s Crisis Intervention Team and in six years handled 83,427 mental health calls and only made 149 arrests. Recidivism dropped from 72% to 20%, decreasing the demand for jail space and saving $12 million a year. Three of Miami-Dade’s jails have been closed. 

Ornstein and Leifman have set a high standard for citizens to use their own experiences, even while grief-stricken, to focus attention on societal needs and challenges. A state legislator once told me, “I can’t help think that you think we legislators don’t know what we should be doing. It is just like in farming; I already know how to farm better than I farm.”

We already know mental health drives societal drop-outs, domestic abuse, job loss, homelessness, substance abuse and police tragedies. We need to focus on it and commit the resources necessary to reduce it.