 Major sponsors for Abledon On Air are Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health, Al-Israel. Additional sponsors include Geffen Foods Israel, Osam Foods Israel. Major media sponsors for Abledon On Air include Parkchester Times, Muslim Community Report, Associated Press Media Editors, U.S. Press Corps, Domestic and International. Welcome to Abledon On Air, the one and only program that focuses on needs, concerns, and achievements of the definitely-abled. I'm your host, Lauren Seiler. Arlene is off today. Thank you to all our sponsors. What you're about to see is part one of Mental Health Awareness Day at Montpellier State House in Montpellier, Vermont. Let's take a look at speeches from Governor Phil Scott and Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman and others. Let's take a look at this. I'm going to introduce someone, I think, many of you, that's Representative Ann Donahue. The committee, which is so packed with people, actually half the people are spilled out into the hallway. And Mental Health Commissioner Sarah Squirrel, who I think is on her way down here, was just up presenting. And then the committee will be hearing from many folks who are here for Mental Health Advocacy Day in the next hour or so. But on my way in this morning, well, not actually on my way in because I couldn't read and drive, but I happen to be reading this article in the December issue of Counterpoint Disrandomly this morning. And I came across this article in it that said, Reflections on 25 Years of Advocacy. I thought, wow, that's fascinating. I wonder who wrote that article. But I looked at it and it was talking about somebody who said, she first encountered peers as support way back in the early 90s. It was the first place she encountered a peer group of support was actually in the hospital. And that was where she began to understand the power of that and became involved, deeply involved through all those years since then as a leader in peer support, peer advocacy, and the whole consumer movement, the psychiatric survivor movement from that time. She co-led the State Standing Committee for Adult Mental Health Services for some 12 years. She was on the Bermont Psychiatric Survivors Board of Directors for so many years in those past 25, she can't even remember when she started, but recently retired as the chair. She still remains active and sort of trying to calm down a little bit in all of her levels of activity, still on the BCIL Board and on the ELISM Board, but an incredible leader and an incredible force through all those years. So I am thrilled to have been asked to be the one to present this person with this year's Community Advocacy Award, which goes to, of course, Marty Roberts. Lovely, lovely presentation, and I so much appreciate this award. And I accept it on behalf of all of the folks with whom I've worked over the years, you folks in this room, active in the community and people in the wider community, people who have spoken out, people who have advocated, people who have worked to bring us all help, inclusion, and participation in our community. And I'm so proud to be part of it. Thank you. I guess I'll end with a little-known facts about personal history. Okay, it's okay. So Marty and I first met many, many years ago at Central Vermont Medical Center as inpatients. And Anne is working all the time on behalf of our issues. Thank you, Anne, so much. Do we see- No, we don't. Okay? We're going to have a number of state leaders come in and speak today, but I don't think any of them are here yet. So I would like to have someone else come up and tell their story, and I'll try to get this right. How about Richard Bales? Richard? Susannah Yeager? I haven't spoken in a long time to people, and this is my first mental powder. Okay, great, great. I'll preface this with, can you hear me? The state of Alaska in four years is coordinator in Northern Alaska, and then I worked mental health for 11 years on call for 17 years. The state laws of Vermont. For me, August 31, 2018 was when I was asked to go up to Northwest Medical Center by Northwest Counseling and Support Services, NCSS. I went up there of my own recognizance, and when I got there, I was placed under involuntary commitment. I had no idea, I was told that I would get a ride back home if I quickly got up there. NCSS assumed that I was suicidal. I wasn't. I was highly, had high anxiety, but I wasn't suicidal. It was not one evaluation in speaking, I get a bit angry, but I was in Northwest Medical Center seven days in the ER on full display to everybody under armed guards by sheriff's department, deputies who believed I should not be there. I, NCSS assumed I was suicidal. As I say, they had no evaluations, and their critical error is made by, I don't know if I can name names. Better than that. Okay, but by the petitioner, they made a number of critical errors as to place, times, dates, telephone communications. I have the transcripts of those, what people said, what they didn't, and yet nobody ever asked me. They just told me, and they left me there on Friday. The NCSS psychiatrist came in. He told me to sit down. I wasn't going to sit down the way he said that. He stood and he reamed me out for calling crisis so many times, but no mention of suicidality. And that's what I found on a board, high up in the room, little letters, suicide ideation. And so I assumed that's why I was there, but nobody ever told me. I'm exhausted. It's been 17 months that I have my voice. I've been online. I've had 19 visits by law enforcement to my house for welfare safety checks. I've had nine rescue come to my house. I've had eight voluntary hospitalizations. I mean, I went into UVM Medical Center. I don't go to, and I've severed ties with NCSS. I work with the Howard Center now, and thank God for the Howard Center. NCSS did not follow processes as they were not professional, neither was Northwest Medical Center. Northwest Medical said I was clear medically. They didn't ask me one question, nor did they talk with my providers. I have prolonged UT, and many medications could cause cardiac arrest for me, and that's a slight medical problem. I was suicidal in the spring because I was on a medication that made me suicidal, but I realized that I was still calling crisis NCSS. That was my first mistake to call them. But I called them, and I kept calling, and I kept saying I was suicidal, but really what I had was anxiety. I got off the medication. It took three or four weeks to get the medication out of my system, but I just kept on saying I was suicidal when I really wasn't. However, because they never asked me, they never knew. The sheriff deputies, regarding me, knew they didn't know why I was there, and when I was sent to Brattleboro after seven days with no 12-hour state-required evaluations at all, and no initial evaluation as I stated. When I sent the nurses at Brattleboro continuously, I talked with them a lot, and they continuously said, we don't know why you were sent here. This has been a dramatic experience for me. It's 17 months out. My life has deteriorated. I had plans. I was going to refinance my house, go back to choir that started in mid-September. I had signed up for Seneca. I had a safety plan. I had a safety team, and yet the psychiatrist, Vermont psychiatric care hospital said to me that... It was evident. She had made up her mind that I was going involuntary when I got on the little cell phone that NCSS gave me. That is not telemedicine. We had telemedicine in Alaska in their late 70s. That was better than what they provided me. It should be a face-to-face, two-way communication. Instead, she interrogated me. She told me she didn't trust me at all, and that I was confusing her, and that I was going involuntary. I do believe that she had made up her mind before. I could go for months. Negligence and dereliction of duty by Northwest Medical, Northwest Counseling Support, and Vermont psychiatric care. I was sent to the most restrictive environment when the commissioner states that even prisoners should go to the least restrictive environment. Tell me if I... So, five more seconds? Five more seconds, absolutely. Oh my gosh. I'm just... I had this printed out, but then I had it right. Petitioner wrote down that I was found at a bridge. He put this in the petition. That I was found by the sheriff at a bridge in South Hero. And I said that I was going to go off that bridge. Well, if the petitioner had been in South Hero, he would have known that the lake was dry. And there was no... The Thomas Bridge was maybe 15 feet off the dry lake bed. There was never any incident with the bridge. But somebody reading that who didn't know would think I was going to go off the bridge. And of course you're going to send me involuntary. There was no bridge. As I said, there were other critical errors made. There were said no evaluations. And I think... I'll see. My last statement would be that NCSS, Northwest Medical and Vermont Psychiatric Care committed suicide on me. Easier. Or rather, yes. They committed suicide more than I could have ever committed suicide on myself. I don't have a life. I have a voice. I use it online. And I will continue. Because I know if this happened to me, and obviously I know it's happened here, it's happened and it is happening to other people. Thank you. I didn't see you in the back, Mike. I want to introduce the first of our luminous state folks. And he's new to an old job. And how are you liking it so far? It's been interesting. And that is our new secretary of the agency of human services, Mike Smith. So much. The microphone doesn't work very well, so I'll try to project here. I do want to start off by saying thank you for the people who are brave enough to come up and talk about those instances that have happened to them personally. Let's give them a hand and a applause. Second of all, I do want to read a proclamation from the governor. And then I'll get into some of the things I want to talk about. This is from the governor, whereas one in five individuals are living with mental health conditions in the United States, and whereas Vermont, like the rest of the nation, is addressing mental illness and substance use challenges by combining effective promotion, prevention, treatment, and recovery support, focusing on strengths and promoting resilience, and whereas the health, well-being, and quality of life of all Vermonters is impacted by these chronic yet treatable health conditions. And virtually all Vermonters know someone in their network of family or friends who are affected, and whereas Vermont's mental health organizations continue to educate the public and lawmakers about the effects of mental illness and substance abuse and the value of treatment and long-term recovery, building capacity for trauma-informed care and best practice intervention and support for people living with developmental disabilities and whereas Vermont's mental health advocacy day is designed to remind all Vermonters that mental health and substance abuse conditions can respond to proper and timely intervention, treatment, recovery, support services including the support from peers who have had successful recovery experiences and that people living with developmental and intellectual disabilities are equal members and willing contributors of our communities. Now therefore, I, Phillip B. Scott, Governor, hereby proclaim January 29, 2020 as Mental Health Advocacy Day in Vermont. Let's give it up. Thank you very much, and as Peter had mentioned, I'm the new old guy. I had this position 15 years ago. And I've got to tell you, when you have these positions, you go back and you think about your career. Never thinking you're going to be back, of course, but you go back and think about your career. When you're thinking about your career, you think about the best positions you ever had in your career. And I've had a lot of positions in my career. The reason, when I was going back and thinking, you know what? Being Secretary of Human Services is the best and most rewarding experience I ever had. And I never expected to get a phone call and be back here. So you just reflect and say, I wish I would have savored that experience. I wish I would have had more of that experience. And here I am within that opportunity. And the reason why is because we all struggle in life. We all struggle with various things in life. And the one thing that we always have is help sometimes. Now, a lot of Vermonters don't have friends or families that can help them. This agency, the agency of Human Services and what you do and all the organizations, especially in the mental health field, what you do are those friends. You know, you hear oftentimes nowadays that government is the enemy. And in the last 15 years, I've heard more and more of that. I don't buy that. Government is a friend. In many instances, especially in what we do here at Human Services. You know, the issues that we grapple every day are complex. And we've got to be available to respond to the most vulnerable Vermonters and work together in order to do that response. As a community and state partners, advocates, peers, and family members, we must all commit and continue to work together to ensure a strong mental health system of care. I have told Department Heads a couple of things. One, bad news can't wait. And two, good news can wait. So, you know, I've instilled that in the agency that bad news can wait. So I want to talk about bad news and some good news as we move forward. First, the bad news because it can't wait. We've got some challenges here in Vermont that we need to address. Wait times in EDs, and I just heard about a story about this. Wait times in EDs for both adults and children and youth are unacceptable. We need to do better. Current trends in suicide rates in Vermont that are higher than the United States rates, we need to do better there. Or the growing sense of hopelessness and despair that many of our young people and older Vermonters grapple with is something that we need to do better. And I've got to tell you, this shocked me when I saw some of the reports on the youth in Vermont and the pessimism about their future. It just, it really does sort of hit you when you read about that and think, what is going on here? The agency and the administration have clearly underscored the urgent and important need to strengthen our mental health system in Vermont. We've committed to forge a path to ensure fiscal stability to the Brattleboro Retreat. You've heard a lot in the news lately about the Brattleboro Retreat. We are under discussions with them to put some fiscal stability into the Brattleboro Retreat. 12 new level one beds and the development of a 16 bed physical secure residential facility are underway investments in suicide prevention efforts and working with our community mental health agencies to strengthen our proactive community crisis efforts for children, youth and families through the mobile response teams. And this is one of the things we're going to experiment in Rutland with mobile response teams. But you know, there's a lot more work that needs to be done. And we must look strategically at the future of our mental health system. I've said this over and over again as we need to look forward and where do we want to be in the next few years. And we must rethink the system of care and move towards a system where mental health and health care are integrated as we move forward in this effort. DMH the Department of Mental Health's 10 year plan outlines the framework to begin to achieve this and improve quality and access to care for Vermonters. As I've always said we have to keep and then this is something else that I tell the department heads within the agencies. We have to keep our foot on the gas and we can't let up. This is hard work but we're stronger together working together. And it's an honor to rise up to the challenges facing our system of care and working side by side with all of you to strengthen it. So thank you very much. I really appreciate the time. We've got one problem which is that we've got so many people here that it's a challenge. And I want to introduce Sarah from the state, the Capitol Police, right? She's going to talk about that for a second. I'm not even going to use the mic guys. I just want to really briefly let you know it's a really great thing that we're over capacity because of the awareness that we're bringing. However, it's also a danger to the people in the room when it gets so packed that we can't move and we can't open the doors. If something happens, there's a medical emergency or anything like that, we need to be able to gain access. With that being said, we're not allowing anybody to save seats in here. If you leave you need to take your stuff with you because when one goes out one comes in and like I said we're at that capacity level. I am going to be sending in people to take up these seats that are available. So if you do have stuff in seats, please move that stuff. If you leave the room they're to come in. So again, if you leave you're not guaranteed to get back in. There is a line. If you don't mind clearing out those chairs, I'm going to go out and let you know. Who were scheduled to speak have managed to get in the room. If it's all right I'll start with the President Pro Tem of the Senate, Tim Ash, who is standing with yet another important senator. I'll introduce all three of you first and then you can speak and two of them stop talking. I'm going to introduce all three of you. President Pro Tem Tim Ash, Chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Jane Kitchell, also my senator, and Speaker of the House Mitzi Johnson. And one more, who's here? Did I hear one more person here? Everybody happy you're not hearing that metallic noise now? All right. I'm going to speak loudly without the microphone so that you don't hear that weird noise in the background. I might not go on quite as long as the previous speaker. Is that okay? All right. I have to tease him from time to time. So my name is Tim Ash. I'm the President of the Senate. And as you just heard, one of the people who's in the room with me is Jane Kitchell. She is the chair of the Appropriations Committee, which is the committee that writes the budget every year. And the budget is where most of the programs that support our mental health system come from. And I want to say that each of the last three years, while the governor's budget has not proposed increases in mental health services, the legislature originating with Jane Kitchell and then working with our counterparts, the speaker and members of the House, we have made some of the most significant increases in mental health funding in decades. I want to say, first off, I'm so impressed at how many of you have come here today. It's very rare to have a standing room only audience here. It's to say that as you travel through the State House today, you're going to meet many legislators and people who work in state government. And most of them are going to say some version of this. Yeah, we really need to provide the support for people in crisis. We need to support the people who do the work, the people who work for our mental health agencies and work alongside their clients. We support the work, we value it. But the question I want each of you to ask those people is this, okay, then what are you going to do about it? Okay, it's not enough just to value the work and to value the existing system when we know there's so much work to do to build and strengthen and improve it so that we can improve and help people's lives. So that is the question I'm asking each of you to ask your legislator is what are you going to do about it? I have to say on a personal note, this is the last year I'll be here in this capacity. I am not going to be running for a reelection because I'm running for lieutenant governor. So it's my last chance to say to you that ultimately none of this is about the legislators who are here today. Our work is only based on improving the lives of people in this room. So when you talk to legislators, they act like they're too busy sometimes to talk to you. Their work is here to further the benefit of your lives and make sure they hear that loud and clear. Ask them what they're going to do to support you and make sure that when you see legislators like the Speaker and Senator Kitchell, Kitty Toll, the chair of the House Committee, Anne Pugh, Ginny Lyons, and a number of the other champions of the issues that you're here today. For those people who have taken action and done something, they're the ones. Give them a quick thumbs up and a thank you and encourage them to do still more. Thank you so much. Senator Kitchell. You don't want to say a word? It's very shy. We're coming. I'm not going to say very much. I used to be actually secretary of the agency of human services. I've been in human services, social welfare programs, and before many people in this room were actually born. I started in 1967. So I have represented 50 years plus of commitment to improving the lives of homeowners. We do place a high priority on it. It is something that is very important to me personally. We do our best as we ponder and make commitments. And I think our track record, as Tim said, has been pretty good over the last several years. It's a great pleasure to work with you. I serve, actually I'm now on the board of Northeast Kingdom Human Services. I'm experiencing it from many different angles. So thank you all for coming. And we will continue to work and do our very best. Hi, Mary. When the governor's out of town and the lieutenant governor's out of town, the next speaker is the governor. And last year I met with her on a day when that was the case and I got to hug the governor. That's not always what I want to do. It was a treat. And as Mitzi Johnson, our speaker was finished. That's irrelevant. I will talk as loud as my voice will allow me. I'm getting the Statehouse Dreck out of the way early in the session. It is my great pleasure to present another one of the legislative leadership awards to Teresa Wood and Diane Lamper. Diane Lamper is on the Appropriations Committee. She and I served there for a number of years. She has more fortitude than I. She's still there. And Teresa Wood has been a critical member for many years of the Human Services Committee and formerly with what's commissioner, Department of Aging and Independent Living, disabilities, deputy commissioner, excuse me, of Dale, their experience, their passion and the knowledge that they bring to the policy work and the budget work is incredible. And they are lucky to have all of you here helping to feed your ideas and experience to them and you're really lucky to have the two of them. They worked tirelessly this summer studying numerous proposals, attending, I don't know how many meetings, looking at the new federal rules, looking at rewiring the payment model, improving accountability and transparency of the developmental disability system of care. The changes that are proposed are going to have some of the largest on the ground impact since the closure of the Brandon training school and it takes a tremendous amount of volunteer hours is what all of the summer work amounts to to pour through those things and really think about how are these rules and federal laws and intricacies on paper going to affect somebody's life? How is this going to help Vermonters live with dignity and independence and fulfillment? And so all of the work that they do goes way above and beyond the call of duty that they signed up for in this and we're so grateful to both of you for all of your work and want to come on up here. Teresa, you are fierce and knowledgeable and so respectful in your ferocity of the people that you defend and who you keep in your heart every day. Thank you so much for everything. So side note, legislators, many of them come from far away and have a place in Montpelier to stay overnight and whatnot so we don't have to drive an hour or two or more home. Diane and I have been roommates for years. And so in addition to all of her incredible work during the session and every minute that she is in her seat ready to go, books open, mind engaged on the appropriations committee. She is also that at home around the kitchen table in her pajamas, pouring over budget books. I know, things I'm not supposed to say but I do. And you're so intense about all your details of work and you do every minute of it with a smile. Thank you so much. Thanks for being here everybody and thanks for speaking up. I totally support what the pro tem said about reaching out to your legislators, sharing your stories and saying, so what are you going to do about it? These two ladies do it every day. Our next speaker, yet another luminary from our state government is Lieutenant Governor. He's running for something. I can't quite remember what it is. Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman. Here I said, you know, I hug too. Thank you for having me here again this year and I actually, during the day while I'm in this building I'm wearing one hat which is serving as Lieutenant Governor although I appreciate the joke and other remarks. I just want to say that you've heard me say this before but ultimately those of you in this room who either live with care for, support are related to folks who are working with mental health and recovery your experiences are experiences that many people in this building don't know and don't have. Some do, whether it be the two legislators that were just mentioned and honored, which is great. There's some other legislators who have direct first hand experience but the reality is we as policymakers are very knowledgeable about what we know but frankly like everyone else in our society there's a lot we don't know. We know a little bit about many, many other arenas and whatever committee we're on maybe we get to know a little bit more or what issue that we have come here with a passion to work for, we know more. But, and this is to really reinforce the Senate Pro Tem's remarks. We as policymakers, of which I'm no longer a policy maker as Lieutenant Governor but I was for 18 years so I'm going to say we anyway, really rely on you for your experience or your passion or your knowledge that you can contribute to this process. I really want to emphasize this because the joke I often tell is that the whole reason I ran to be Lieutenant Governor is so that I would have one staff person because as legislators they have zero. They have zero staffers to do research, to do constituent outreach, to do anything for them, schedule them. They are trying to juggle their life outside of this building. They only make 12 to 14, maybe it's 15,000 a year which is not an only, that's a real amount of money but it's not enough as many of you know to live on and so they have another job. So they're juggling a lot and their source of information as good as many of the advocates in this building are for these issues is still limited to those few people and others who are advocating for lots of other things and lots of other needs that are needed to be met in this state. And so when they do hear from you which to be perfectly honest is often less frequently than we all want on most issues legislators get two or three phone calls or fewer. On all those bills you hear about in the legislature that go through the news those are only a few high profile ones and maybe those they get five or ten calls on. But honestly people hear from you and others so much less than what a vibrant democracy would have. I'm almost there. And so I'm here as a cheerleader to you and I'm going to ask you a question. And at first folks might go oh no so if you don't raise your hand it's okay because I'm going to tell you why in a minute. But how many people in this room in the last year have talked to your legislator or all of your legislators. Associated Press Media Editors US Press Corps Domestic and International.