(cross-posted from Vermont Watch, here)

Below is a copy of Joseph Gainza‘s e-mailed letter to Governor Peter Shumlin concerning the Vermont State Hospital (posted with direct permission from its author):

Dear Governor Shumlin,

I am the former director of the Vermont Coalition of the Handicapped (VCH), now named the Vermont Coalition for Disability Rights. In that capacity I became familiar with the mental health community in Vermont and learned about the negative impact on patients of extended institutionalization. VCH worked closely with the State to close Brandon Training School and develop a more decentralized system which better served the former residents of the School.

I am writing to request that you rethink your decision to build a new facility to replace the Vermont State Hospital. That decision represents traditional thinking about how best to treat people with mental and emotional disabilities, thinking which has been shown to be detrimental to the people served and to the state’s ability to adequately serve them.

You have shown yourself to be an innovator and risk taker in other areas of your responsibility. I admire and support the direction you are taking Vermont in the areas of health care, Vermont Yankee and the future of Vermont’s working landscape. I also appreciate your recognition that, in light of global warming, we must take bold steps to reduce Vermont’s carbon footprint.

I ask you to take similar bold action regarding the way Vermont cares for and supports people with mental or emotional disabilities. Rather than spend scarce resources on re-creating a failed institution, our tax dollars would be better spent creating local, peer run drop-in centers, affordable housing and other services and support programs across Vermont. Experience with the Brandon Training School shows us how to avoid many mistakes in designing this new system and the innovation which arises when many methods of providing serves are tried.

If Vermont is successful in creating a reformed health care system as you envision it, we will be in a much better position to direct dollars toward building a mental health care system which truly respects people and supports them with a rich variety of services available throughout the state.

Thank you for your consideration. Joseph Gainza

Joseph Gainza

Vermont Action for Peace

Plainfield, Vermont

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The above letter was written and sent in response to an e-mailed advocacy action alert by yours truly, a version of which was blogged to the Beyond VSH blog, here.