Bridging the gap in mental health care: Howland mom calls for better care, mourns son's death
It was a night of complete and utter shock for the Fife family. Their loved one, Randall Fife, struggled for years with mental health issues, and on the night of August 22nd was shot to death after a stand-off with police.
"They blew up the door and they came rushing in and I heard them say 'officer hit! officer hit," said Kerri Fife, mother of Randall. "Next thing it was just...I said oh they just killed your brother," she said.
This was the result of an episode Randall was having, thinking his family were imposters and pointing a gun at them. Kerri sought help for years trying to get him into different psychiatric hospitals.
"They hold him for like three days because that's the law and then they just send him out...well or not," Kerri said.
At one point, Randall left a message for his mom while inside of a psychiatric facility during another episode he was having,
"Hey mom, there's a bunch of people in here that wanna kill me. They're gonna make it look like a riot and then they're gonna make it look like I committed suicide and they're about to kill me. I just wanted to let you know I love you. Alright, bye."
Days later, they released him.
It was like a revolving door. Ohio does not warehouse mentally ill individuals as they once have. So when psychiatric institutions like Woodside Hospital closed down in 1996, that lack of care created a gap in the system.
"We don't have anywhere to commit individuals long term," said Mahoning County Probate Judge Robert Rusu. "It's just the state of affairs in Ohio. It's extremely costly to do in-patient hospitalization," he said.
While there are mental health resources available, there aren't very many for a person Resisting care. Kerri says her son didn't Want help - and since he's an adult and was never diagnosed as "incompetent," he wasn't forced to receive it. So what can be done?
"A person can go down sit down with the staff of Judge Rusu and they'll walk them through the steps to see if they qualify for any type of guardianship or protective services," said Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board Director Duane Piccarelli.
That means having a designated person legally responsible for the care of an individual, unable to manage their own affairs. But Judge Rusu says, even that wouldn't have been an option in this case.
"That doesn't solve any problems because the individual still has their own autonomy," said Judge Rusu. "If they don't want the treatment and they don't want the help, no guardian is going to be able to force that upon them," he said.
Judge Rusu says his Fresh Start program might be the way to go.
"We bring them in every two weeks, we see how they're doing their case manger comes in with them and we talk it out and we try to get them to see why its important to stay healthy and to stay on their mental health meds," Judge Rusu said.
The process begins with an affidavit of mental illness, listing examples that meet the criteria in order to qualify for the program, and then a court hearing will take place.
"The mental health and recovery board, we provide expert testimony, we provide an expert witness so that individual will meet with the client," said Michelle Werth, Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board Clinical Director.
After hearing their testimony, Judge Rusu decides if the client belongs in the program.
So far, 140 people have been enrolled in this program and of that 113 have successfully completed it. There were 15 that needed to be reinstated and the rest are still enrolled.
This is a program that is available to anyone 18 and older, and you can find the details on how to enroll by contacting the Mahoning County Mental Health and Recovery Board or Mahoning County probate court.
