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Four
years after an Anchorage couple started pushing for a psychiatric
patient rights bill, the Legislature finally approved the measure -- in
the last hours of the session. The
bill says adult psychiatric patients have the right to request the
gender of the staff member providing intimate care in a hospital. That
includes help with bathing, dressing and using the bathroom. In the Senate, the bill passed unanimously last week while it cleared the House on Sunday, the last day, by a 23-12 vote. "I am just on top of the world," said Faith Myers, an advocate for patient rights, after Senate Bill 8 passed. Patients
sometimes need personal care because psychiatric drugs can knock them
out for long stretches, or they may have injuries that prevent them
from doing for themselves, she said. "You
might be too groggy to change your clothes. Some people are even in
kind of a coma and have to have diapers changed. This would give them a
chance to request their choice of gender," Myers said. In extreme
cases, their guardian can explain, or maybe they've given wishes ahead
of time. "We
just want to make sure patients are in on the conversation regarding
their own personal care," said her partner, Dorrance Collins. Myers
and Collins have reputations as tireless fighters on Alaska mental
health issues. Myers, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia,
learned from her own experiences as a patient at Alaska Psychiatric
Institute and elsewhere. A
big case involving Myers went to the Alaska Supreme Court, which ruled
in 2006 that before a psychiatric patient can be forced to take
mind-altering drugs against his or her will, a judge must rule that the
medication is in the patient's best interest and that a less-intrusive
option doesn't exist. Myers
and Collins spent years working on evolving versions of the new
legislation, and they still are working on other issues, including
strengthening an existing law that gives psychiatric patients the right
to file a grievance. "They
are very diligent in what they do," said Sen. Bettye Davis,
D-Anchorage, one of the prime sponsors of Senate Bill 8 and chair of
the Senate Health, Education and Social Services Committee. If they hadn't pushed so hard, narrowly focused Senate Bill 8 wouldn't have passed during the 90-day session, she said. "Nobody was giving it much attention," Davis said. Myers
and Collins testified at every hearing and drummed up support from
groups including the Disability Law Center, the Alaska Mental Health
Board and the Law Project for Psychiatric Rights. They emphasized how
people who have been abused sexually or physically may end up
hospitalized for mental problems and said the victims should not be
traumatized again in the hospital. Davis
said some legislators were concerned about whether psychiatric patients
were capable of deciding who should provide personal care. Some thought
the measure might force hospitals to hire extra staff. "And
that's not necessarily true, either," said Davis, who worked as a nurse
and a social worker at API when she first came to Alaska. "If you were
short-staffed and needed somebody to come down, you pulled somebody
from another floor." The bill applies not only to API but also to any Alaska hospital that provides mental health treatment to adults. It
says adult psychiatric patients have the right to ask for the gender of
the staff providing help with bathing, dressing and the like, and if
the hospital for some reason can't comply, that must be noted in the
patient's record. In addition, routine safety checks of bedrooms,
bathrooms and shower areas need to be done by a staff member who is the
same gender as the patient, under the bill. API
was against the bill, because its staff members already follow such a
policy, at least since the institute moved into its new building on
Providence Drive in 2005, said Ron Adler, API's chief executive
officer. Patients stayed in dorms at API's fomer home next door, and it
was harder to ensure privacy. There's only been one complaint about the
issue over many years, he said. "Why are we legislating things that don't need to be fixed?" Adler said. But
policies can change in a flash, and other hospitals may not have one,
Myers said. The bill ensures that this right can't be taken away, she
said. Now it's up to the governor, whose office said she hasn't yet been briefed on the bill. Myers and Collins are waiting.
Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.