Mental health issues land man in jail

Mom of jailed autistic man

By Joe Smydo / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

From childhood, Drake Munger was a loner who flinched at loud noises and didn’t like to be touched.

Today, the 19-year-old is in Washington County Jail on $100,000 straight cash bond — still struggling to cope with life around him and, his mother said, an example of what can happen when mental illness and autism collide with the justice system.

“He looks like a skeleton right now,” Caroline Drury said of her son, estimating he has lost about 25 pounds since he was jailed Aug. 8 for what she called misunderstandings and police called a bicycle theft and attempt to smuggle a shank into a courtroom.

As mental hospitals across the country have closed, jails and prisons have grappled with an influx of mentally ill offenders, and the justice system has struggled to balance treatment and punishment — issues explored last month in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s series “After Mayview.” Mr. Munger’s case underscores those challenges, with a twist.

Ms. Drury of Donora said her son’s schizophrenia and other mental illnesses are compounded by mental retardation and autism, a brain disorder often characterized by repetitive behaviors and difficulties with social interaction. Already, Ms. Drury said, her son’s constant pacing has gotten him into disciplinary problems at the jail.

She hopes her son’s charges will be transferred from regular criminal court to the county’s mental health court, which emphasizes treatment over incarceration for defendants whose offenses stem at least partly from their psychiatric disorders.

She said jail is no place for her son, who has an IQ of less than 70, had been accused of retail theft as a juvenile and is so fascinated with werewolves that he has been known to sharpen his fingernails into points. She has pressed the issue with the public defender’s office, which represents her son.

Chief public defender Glenn Alterio declined to discuss the case. Ms. Drury said she’s trying to raise money for a private attorney.

Counties nationwide are embracing mental health courts, which Washington County Common Pleas President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca launched in her county with the support of other officials in 2008. Defendants may be admitted to mental health court, over which Judge O’Dell Seneca presides, or to similar diversionary programs operated by the county’s district judges.

Common Pleas Judge Katherine B. Emery on Oct. 9. postponed a bond-reduction hearing for Mr. Munger while officials decide whether he would be a candidate for mental health court. Ms. Drury said an error in judgment already cost her son an opportunity to be admitted to the program by a district judge.

On July 5, according to police records, Mr. Munger called 911 and said he was detaining a person who had been breaking into vehicles at a Monongahela park.

In court records, Officer Kevin Harris said he arrived to find Mr. Munger with two juveniles, one of whom he accused of the break-ins. “When I asked him how he knew this, Munger stated that he was told by one of his own family members.”

One juvenile said Mr. Munger took out a knife and slashed his bicycle tire to keep him from leaving the park, and the other said Mr. Munger had stolen the bicycle he rode to the park. According to the officer’s report, Mr. Munger said he got the bike a couple of days earlier from a friend but didn’t know the friend’s name.

Officer Harris charged Mr. Munger with various offenses, including unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and receiving stolen property. Mr. Munger found himself in more trouble Aug. 8, when, Ms. Drury said, he might have been entered into a diversionary program during a hearing before District Judge Mark Wilson.

According to court records, a state trooper noticed that Mr. Munger had slipped something into the waistband of his pants outside Judge Wilson’s office. Police described it as a 7-inch wooden shank; Ms. Drury said it was one of her tomato stakes, which her son cut off and may have taken with him for a suicide attempt.

“He talks about suicide all the time,” she said.

Police charged Mr. Munger with carrying a weapon, and Judge Wilson set a $100,000 straight cash bond.

Mr. Munger’s father, Joseph Munger of Monongahela, also was charged that day with attempting to intimidate one of the juveniles involved in the case. He denied wrongdoing.

Ms. Drury, who is raising two other children, Caleb, 3, and Dakota, 1, said she cannot afford to get her son out of jail.

With limited social and coping skills, a person with autism would have a difficult time adjusting to the stress of jail or prison, said John Carosso, a licensed psychologist and executive director of the Autism Center of Pittsburgh. He said some manifestations of autism, such as fast or constant speech, could annoy other inmates. Kristin Gallagher, the center’s director of family support, said Mr. Munger’s illnesses could make him a target of abuse or exploitation by other inmates.

Depending on his condition, Mr. Munger should not be “in a regular jail” but a treatment facility that can meet his medical needs while his case unfolds, said Daniel Torisky, president and co-founder of the Autism Society of Pittsburgh, which has recommendations for how the justice system should treat offenders with autism. Mr. Torisky said he’s willing to provide advocacy services to Mr. Munger and his family.

At a hearing Sept. 19, officials withdrew the unlawful restraint and false imprisonment charges, and Mr. Munger waived other charges to court. A court-monitored mental health treatment program could be a great benefit to Mr. Munger and his family, Ms. Drury said, asserting it has been difficult to find the right combination of therapy and medication for him.

Judge O’Dell Seneca, who did not discuss specific cases in an interview last week, said a county assessment team reviews candidates for mental health court. Eligible defendants voluntarily commit to a customized regimen of treatment and monitoring. The judge said she believes the defendants’ consent to treatment often yields better results than a court-ordered treatment plan.

Defendants “enter into a contract with me personally. It’s couple of pages long. … They buy into this,” Judge O’Dell Seneca said.

Joe Smydo: jsmydo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1548.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2013/10/28/Mental-health-issues-land-man-in-jail/stories/201310280041#ixzz2naznaiIh

Adult Autism Numbers on the Rise

Autism Numbers
This is a growing problem, and in a few years will be a huge challenge for a multitude of families and for social services. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also has a series chronicling this issue and our prison system:

The number of people with Autism Spectrum Disorder is growing, especially as the children diagnosed in the 1990s reach adulthood.

Parents, health care professionals, and administration met at Penn State Behrend on Saturday for the fifth annual Autism In Our Community conference to discuss new treatment options and trends in the disorder.

An estimated 35,000 people in Pennsylvania are currently diagnosed with the disorder, about double the number of cases from ten years ago.

The first autism diagnosis was made in 1994. Since then, awareness about the disorder has grown, particularly for children. But many of the diagnosed are reaching adulthood, and most communities are not prepared with the services that autistic adults will need.

“I have a son with autism. When he was diagnosed, there wasn’t information about it. So to see the focus on children is extraordinary,” said Nina Wall, a speaker from the Bureau of Autism Services. “But people forget that children grow up.”

“So what we’re now seeing is a huge number of individuals moving to the adult service arena. And that is the challenge for our system, which is already very strained,” Wall said.

Adding to the numbers are the people who are diagnosed with autism as adults, and may previously have received incorrect diagnoses.

Autistic Teenagers Learning To Drive Can Be A Reality

Learning to drive is one of those milestones in any young adult’s life. It’s a gateway to independence and freedom, which most of us take for granted. It’s a dream for most 15-17 year olds to aspire to, and having a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) should not dampen that aspiration.

Can a high functioning Asperger’s or Autistic individual learn to drive? The answer to that question from the experts is most definitely, yes.

A recent survey of parents with children aged 15-17 diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) published by the Journal of Development and Behavioural Pediatrics shows that 63% of the young people were driving or planned to drive as soon as they were old enough. A significant number of those teens who had passed their driving test were taught by their parents. And what more is that their accident rates in the first year after gaining their licences were significantly lower than their peers.

Patty Huang, lead development paediatrician at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and lead author of the study said: “Over the past decade, the rate of children diagnosed with ASDs has increased, meaning that more of those kids are now approaching driving age. Car crashes are the number one cause of death for teenagers, so it is important that we understand how ASDs impact driving and how to develop appropriate educational and evaluation tools.”

An earlier study led by Daniel J. Cox of the University of Virginia found levels of concerns among parents high. They stated they were worried about their teenager’s concentration, understanding of non-verbal communication and tolerance.

Driving is a Social act.

According to Dr Jaime Dow, the medical adviser for safety issues for Quebec’s auto-insurance agency.

It involves obeying rules and cooperating with other drivers.

According to The National Autistic Society of Great Britain, the diagnosis of ASD should not be a barrier, some individuals will find the skill difficult to grasp due to introduction of new language, and direction, but a significant percentage will make highly competent drivers.

All medical conditions are expected to be declared when a provision driving licence is applied for. Not doing so can lead to a fine, or having the licence rejected. There are certain areas of medical history that they will need to know about, for example individuals with a history of epileptic fits, blackouts, hearing problems and vision disorders, may be asked to go for a medical, or a road suitability test.

Kathleen Ryan, an instructor at Driving MBA, Scottsdale Arizona said:

Keeping an open mind is important. If you don’t go in thinking about their limits but think about their opportunity, they will never cease to surprise you.

Instructors of individuals with ASDs can slow down the pace of teaching providing time for role play situations which might fluster an ASD individual. Getting a ticket, or being pulled over by the police for example.

Young Adults With Autism Need More Services, Families, Advocates Say

Mara Geiger of Birmingham listens to an original composition by her daughter Tabby Geiger, 14, during a program called Music and Media, teaching higher functioning autistic children learn how to use various Apple software programs at the Wish Upon A Teen office in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013. Gary Malerba/Special to the Detroit News (Gary Malerba / Special to the Detroit News)

Dave Meador’s daughter just began her senior year at Troy Athens High School, and Meador, like most parents, has started to worry about what will happen when she graduates.

Complicating the transition process is the fact that his 17-year-old daughter Maribel is on the autism spectrum, which means she will probably need assistance getting to the point where she can attend college or other postsecondary schooling, find a job or secure housing for herself.

“There’s not a lot of programs out there to get young adults trained, get the skills they need and get placed in a job,” said Meador, a father of four who is chairman of the board for the Autism Alliance of Michigan.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a range of developmental disorders of the brain leading to social, communication and behavioral challenges. As the number of cases surges in Michigan, the demand for services to help teenagers and young adults is climbing as well.

The number of people in Michigan with autism from birth to age 26 receiving special education services soared from 1,203 in 1990 to 15,976 in 2011, according to state data. Nationally, the number of affected children is up 78 percent since 2002, affecting 1 in 88 kids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A report this year by the state Department of Community Health called for the creation of a state resource center for adults. Nearly half of parents of austistic individuals ages 13 to 25 said they needed better access to higher education and employment services to supplement programs offered to public schoolchildren, according to the report.

“As you go along the lifespan, there’s tons and tons of programs for kids and then as you get older, there are less and less,” said Kathy Johnson, president of the board of the Autism Society of Michigan. “They still need the same kind of support, but there’s a gap for teens and another gap for adults.”

Preparing for the workplace

There has been a shift lately toward greater emphasis on working with people on the spectrum to try to prepare them for the workplace. Michelle Soto, president of the Bloomfield Hills-based nonprofit Wish Upon a Teen, says her organization offers opportunities for teens and young adults to learn social and technical skills that would lead to jobs.

Last month, the nonprofit moved into a larger facility, setting it up to expand services such as the music and media training program. Held every other Saturday, it teaches 14 to 19-year-olds Apple software so they can eventually get certified in the programs.

“That way, they can go and try to get a job or internship using that software,” Soto said. “It’s geared toward building self-esteem and social skills, which are so vital for them to survive in the real world.”

On the education side, Michigan has few programs for young adults. For the past eight years, Oakland University has had a program called OUCARES to assist students with autism, while Eastern Michigan University’s Autism Collaborative Center developed its program five years ago.

Even as programs and services grow, many can’t get the assistance they need, said Kathy Sweeney, director of OUCARES.

“The gap is probably getting wider in that more and more individuals are getting diagnosed with autism,” she said. “This is a community issue, and we need to make it a more autism-friendly community.”

But training and teaching skills is only one part of the equation, says Cindy Burdi, an employment development coordinator with the Macomb Oakland Regional Center. A bigger challenge is overcoming the hesitation some employers may have about hiring a person with disabilities.

Burdi’s center provides job coaches for employers to help those with autism perform work. She even goes to job interviews to help clarify employers’ questions for her clients.

“One of the biggest things is employers are afraid of the adjustments they might have to make and they don’t realize they’re very minor things. They’re nervous to employ someone,” Burdi said.

Educating employers

Rhonda McGrath of Farmington, whose son Nick Welday, 19, is on the autism spectrum, says she is concerned about his job prospects. He goes to school and works part-time cleaning an office, but she says “the employment picture is pretty dismal.”

“The most important thing is educating employers on how these individuals are employable and how they do have skills,” she said.

Dr. Pamela Lemerand, clinical director of the Autism Collaborative Center at Eastern Michigan Univeristy, says employable teens and young adults are getting more help than in the past.

“At some point, there are going to be so many adults on the spectrum and they are going to cost so much to society if they are all dependent on Medicaid, and that’s not sustainable,” she said. “So there will be calls by government officials, by politicians, human services agencies to create better programs to allow them to engage in citizenship.”

Lifetime costs for a person on the autism spectrum are estimated at $3.2 million, according to the Michigan Autism Spectrum Disorders State Plan.

Meador, the chief financial officer at DTE Energy, says he and other employees are working to launch a program to provide jobs for people on the autism spectrum. In the meantime, Meador, who also has three older boys, says he’s focusing on seeing his daughter get to where she wants to be.

“My hope for her is the same as my other children,” he said. “That they reach their full potential, whatever that is for them.”

About autism spectrum disorder

■ In 2011, 15,976 students diagnosed with ASD were enrolled in Michigan schools.
■ About 50,000 individuals living in Michigan have ASD.
■ One in 88 children in the United States is diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum.
■ Boys are almost five (one in 54) times likely to be diagnosed with ADS than girls (one in 252).
Source: Michigan Department of Education, Centers for Disease Control