Sylvia Mignon
Appearances
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And I like Springer as a publisher because not only do they like the academic stuff, they like the real world stories of what it means to have mental illness, what it means to be a family member of someone with mental illness. Most people as you know, just don't know.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
It's hard to say what's the most important, but I would recommend going online. There's a lot of good information on schizophrenia and bipolar disorder online. There are books written by family members, even those who have someone with schizophrenia in their family. There are books. And articles written by people who have schizophrenia. So there's the education piece.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And then the next piece is the support. Locating the people who understand you. Locating the people who have been where you are. I'm the queen of support groups. I've been doing four groups. So people who helped me when I started five years ago. Now, I'm a facilitator for the Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Now, I can pass on the wisdom I've acquired from others, and that's of critical importance. Today, there are support groups for people who have schizophrenia and bipolar. Schizophrenia and Psychosis Action Alliance has really ramped up They're support groups. They have groups for families. Now they're working to get a sibling support group.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Well, I grew up in a dysfunctional home. I chose a career of social work to try and help other people, and I was unable to help my father, who was a chronic alcoholic. So after social work school and during social work school, I worked in the field of substance abuse treatment. My husband and I are both clinicians specializing in substance abuse.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
The National Alliance on Mental Illness offers support groups. There are local vendors of mental health services that offer support groups, and they're free of charge. So that's huge.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
My son is 27. He's been sick for nine years. Our family has had nine years of help. trying to help him, Tony. And just last week from jail, he said, you know, mom, I don't think all you're doing is really helping me. And I had to say, I agree. I think you're right. I have worked tirelessly, the equivalent of more than a full-time job.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And as ill as my son is, he came forth with what I thought was an extremely meaningful insight.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Well, I'm in between now. We were in court recently. I had a beautiful letter from Ann Corcoran to the judge about the importance of treatment. I was encouraged to write a letter to the judge myself, just one page, which I did. And when we went to court, my efforts were refused. I was not allowed to submit Ann's letter.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
I was not allowed to submit my own letter asking for mental health treatment for my son. Now, why do you think a judge would refuse to get more information? Spending most of my career as an academic and a professor, I think having information is really important. Having facts, different points of view. Isn't that something that we want to equate with justice and even-handedness and equity?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
I thought that was a pretty profound message there. And it's a strong reminder, as Anne's letter pointed out, the importance of educating judges. about mental illness, of educating defense attorneys, assistant district attorneys, prosecutors. The need is enormous.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
but may not want it and may make a conscious choice to reject. It's painful, extremely painful. You know, of course, it's very painful to be in court with your child who's so ill, who's in shackles and handcuffs, looking horrific, and being told what you have to say is not important.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And I've always appreciated the power of extending a hand to someone in need to see the severity of mental illness, to see the severity of substance abuse among people. And I also had the experience of living for a year in Mexico and seeing extreme poverty there when I was 15. So I enjoy teaching college courses in prisons, some of the most capable students I've ever had.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
I think we've made the point, and I'm sure most of your guests have, the importance of educating yourself. The importance of picking and choosing what you choose to share with others, especially family. You know, most people, I say my son has severe mental illness. I don't give the diagnosis because people find that frightening. They think someone with severe mental illness is going to be violent.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
So we need to pick and choose, decide what we will share. and do our real sharing with the support groups we choose to participate in. And let's remember that these national organizations, such as the National Shattering Silence Coalition, the word is spreading, the advocacy. When we can come together and work together, I'm working with a woman who's a dear friend now I met on the support group.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
We are trying to see whether it will be possible to bring a class action lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health that failed so many clients. so many of their families. And I have to say, working in criminal justice, Tony, I'm the least litigious person I know. But we know what we need to do.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
We know the importance of bringing people together who have been impacted, sharing the stories.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Yes, and you know, oftentimes experts say it's a broken system. Well, in reality, it never worked. No one ever cared enough to have a smooth working system. If we did, we would have an adequate number of psychiatric beds in every state. There is no state that has an adequate number of for those with severe mental illness, those who experience psychosis.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Now we discriminate in terms of the availability of medications. Some of these medications, a shot can cost thousands of dollars. How many people have access to that? My son is one of those who needs to be medicated against his will. In Massachusetts, while he did well in the group home for two years, he decided not to take the medication anymore.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Seventy-five percent of people with severe mental illness come off the medication on their own. And you know what they said in his group poem? It's his basic human right to refuse medication. We met with them, my husband and I begged them, said, you don't know what can happen. Basic human right?
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Well, I appreciate you, Tony. You have so many skills. I enjoyed reading about you.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And you are doing that, and that's much appreciated.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Thank you very much.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And a lot of my career has been about talking about things that most people typically don't want to talk about.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Well, there's so much to be done, and my son, who has a schizoaffective disorder, is an example of someone with severe mental illness that even those who work in the field can Mental health professionals stigmatize people at the most severe end of mental illness. That's a huge problem.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
So we have stigma among the general public, and we have stigma among those psychiatrists and others who purport to want to help the severely mentally ill. We've created bureaucracies that do not work on behalf of clients and families. The bureaucracies we create are designed to work for those who work within those systems.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
As a professor of criminal justice, I can easily attest to how the criminal justice system worked on behalf of judges, attorneys, probation officers. People who work in the system and don't have enormous or much regard for defendants and those who must come into contact with the system. I hark back to the work of a sociologist, Max Weber. who did a lot of work on bureaucracy.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And the idea of developing bureaucracy is about making work more efficient, how to get things done. Well, what's happened in the mental health field and criminal justice is that the bureaucracies work on behalf of themselves, leaving defendants, clients, and their families without the help they need. So yes, we need more education of how people who are different, people who need extra help.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And I fear we're going to see families without the help they need.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Well, we do that by modeling interventions and behaviors. I'm happy to say there are still a number of people working in criminal justice and in the mental health field who are committed to to working with individuals and families. So we do that one client at a time. We do that by speaking out about the things that are not working well. I'll give you an example in Massachusetts.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
The governor has decided to close a 16-bed psychiatric unit on Cape Cod called Potassant Mental Health. I worked with people who worked there over 40 years ago, and now it's too expensive, and now they want to cut the staffing. It shows incredible ignorance. to think that Massachusetts can do with fewer psychiatric beds when many more are needed. And the other day, there was the opportunity to
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
to come before officials and talk about what should happen. A lot of people came. They stood up. They spoke against this. They told the stories of clients and families who need these services. There were people who came in the flesh, people who came via Zoom. I was one of the Zoom folks. That's how I know. So standing up is a critical part of getting attention.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
But I've also seen politically when people are so concerned about their own needs, when they don't have enough to eat, when they don't have adequate housing. It's very difficult to be concerned about problems of others. And that's what we seem to be doing in politics today, rather than focusing on all that we have in common. Some of the other things we do is we promote programs that
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
that look to identify the things we have in common. For example, I've practiced yoga for 39 years and I teach yoga at my local senior center. Yoga practices Talk about the importance of coming together, of supporting one another, of being aware of what's happening around the world and staying engaged. Too easy these days to say, I've got my, I've got what I need, see you, bye.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
I'm not optimistic about that happening in the current political climate. Those who are politicians could be willing to learn more about mental illness. Recently, when my son was in the hospital and they were not treating him appropriately, they began to charge him with assault and battery against other patients and staff.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
They were doing that intentionally, Tony, to rid themselves of a patient they thought was very difficult. This, my son, belonged at the state Worcester Recovery Center, where they had the staff to handle him. And this hospital could not arrange for him to be transferred. I worked for months there. I called the Commissioner of Mental Health of Massachusetts. I called the medical directors there.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
I worked very, very hard. Did I call my legislator? Absolutely. Nobody cared enough. They looked the other way. Bringing 14 assault battery charges against someone in psychosis is a real attention getter. It has resulted in my son being put in jail. when he has severe mental illness. He had no history of violence prior to his stay in the hospital.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
So we're pointing out that this particular hospital was not willing or able to treat my son appropriately. They were not able to provide care. They were not able to get him to a place that could provide care. And so we need to work more at educating people who work with the mentally ill
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Each time I went to visit my son, I ended up saying to the staff, your staff is undereducated and undertrained to know what psychosis is. So that's a really important place to start. Historically, psychiatrists have not looked forward to treating the most severely mentally ill. The most severely mentally ill are those with bipolar disorder and those with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Those who have a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, about 1%, of the global population. That means a lot of mental health professionals do not regularly come in contact with people with schizophrenia unless they choose that as a specialty, unless they have that as a special interest. Same is true for psychiatric hospitals, the smaller private places. They want to treat depression.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
They want to treat anxiety with pills. And they are not prepared for the most severely mentally ill. So we need to do more to prepare people. those mental health professionals. And you may be aware, Tony, that the field of mental health treatment is moving in the direction of training more psychiatric nurse practitioners. They are much more willing to engage in
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
with a severely mentally ill than the typical psychiatrist. It's become a sad joke. What's the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychiatric nurse practitioner? The psychiatric nurse practitioner is willing to call you back. You know, they're willing to engage and be helpful.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Absolutely.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
Yes, we need people to step up and help and who know how to help. I'm the author of five textbooks. I'd love to have been a novelist, but I don't know how to do that. So I have two textbooks on substance abuse. I have a textbook on child welfare. And my most recent book is called Social Work. and mental health, evidence-based policy and practice. And it's with Springer. So my book won an award.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
I'm a social worker. I'm a professor of merit of criminal justice. Pretty unbelievable that this is the work I do and how little I've been able to help my sons.
Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Sylvia Mignon: When Your Expertise Can't Save Your Child
And now I've just signed a contract to write a second edition of that. So as a textbook, it will be used in social work courses, BSW and MSW courses. I feel it's very important to put information out there.