Case's scope has changed over time

The trial starting today involving G. Pierce Wood mental facility focuses on patients, not the hospital's future.

By CURTIS KRUEGER

Revised August 31, 2000

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 7, 2000

Donald Martin was a "vibrant, outgoing, never-a-dull-moment" son to LaVelle Noble. He graduated from Pinellas Park High School, got a job in a photo processing studio and planned to go into management.

Then one day, a camera broke.

"That was just the straw that broke the camel's back," Mrs. Noble said. Martin took off in a car to who knows where, landing in a Georgia jail two weeks later. He later returned to Florida and eventually was diagnosed as bipolar, and suffering from another mental illness, schizoaffective disorder.

On Oct. 1, 1998, he was taken to G. Pierce Wood hospital in Arcadia, the state mental hospital for the Tampa Bay area and southwest Florida.

Within a day, he was dead.

Mrs. Noble says her 21-year-old son should never have died that day, in the state's care. His death certificate says her son developed "toxic levels of fluphenazine (medication) during treatment." The probable manner of death is listed as "accident."

Cases like Martin's -- and there are others -- have led critics to demand the closing of the state hospital. They also led to a legal battle that began with a lawsuit 15 years ago against the state over treatment of patients at G. Pierce Wood that goes to trial today in U.S. District Court.

But much on the landscape has changed as the suit, originally aimed at improving inhumane conditions at the hospital, winded its way through the courts.

After years of fighting, those who would shut down the hospital have won. The state this year announced it would close the hospital within two years.

But Mrs. Noble is not among those cheering. As shocking as her son's death was, she strongly believes there needs to be a state hospital, though hopefully much improved. Otherwise, she's afraid of what will happen to the mentally ill people who stay there now.

"There'll just be a lot of sick people on the streets, or nine-tenths of the time, they'll be in jail," she said. "They'll be trying to medicate themselves, and it's just so sad."

Because of the state's decision to close the hospital, the battle in federal court today over what to do with G. Pierce Wood, is becoming a battle of how to help the people who get out.

Jim Green, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney from West Palm Beach, filed a lawsuit on behalf of patients nearly 15 years ago, seeking to improve inhumane conditions.

Since then it has become a class action lawsuit. The U.S. Department of Justice decided to add its formidable might to the case. Its attorneys will work alongside Green, making him look considerably less like the David attacking Goliath that he appeared to be at the start.

Green said he intends to show that "the Constitution protects people, not places."

Which is his way of saying that just because you take the people out of an awful hospital doesn't mean you have treated them well.

Someone needs to make sure the government doesn't simply do what has been done to other mentally ill people: toss them out of an institution and onto the street, he says, sounding now like Mrs. Noble.

"We have a duty to ensure that these people are not just dumped on the streets to join the thousands of homeless and the thousands of people who end up in jail because there's no place else to go."

Bob Williams, director of programs for the state Department of Children and Families, said the state's plan for the residents now at G. Pierce Wood is to:

Send some residents, who have committed crimes and thus are under supervision of the courts, to a different state hospital.

Create programs throughout southwest Florida that will house and supervise 100 people on a short-term basis, roughly four months apiece.

Create 10 "assertive community treatment" teams of doctors, nurses and other professionals who will monitor, assist and give medical treatment to a total of 1,000 people.

Obtain funding for 200 other residences for mentally ill people in the region.

Williams said it's important to have these services in the community, because without them, people with mental conditions will see their diseases worsen, and they'll end up back in a state hospital.

About 50 percent of the people discharged from the state hospital later come back, and "that's largely due to the fact that there are no appropriate services in the community right now," Williams acknowledged.

Except for the people who will move to another state hospital, all this will cost roughly $20-million per year, Williams says, less than the roughly $45-million the state now pays to operate the facility. Green scoffs at the idea that the state can do more with less.

"They're going to need $40- to $50-million just to begin providing constitutionally mandated care and treatment in the community. At least for the time being, they're going to need to spend more money, not less."

He is pushing for more treatment teams and other measures to make sure people are properly cared for in communities throughout southwest Florida.

The trial is expected to last four weeks.

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