Hundreds of Montana families have been torn apart and their children won't be home for Christmas. Public Comment from Disabiity Rights Montana Aimee Brunckhorst
From: David Carlson <Communications@DisabilityRightsMT.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2024 8:30 AM
To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment
Subject: EXTERNAL Hundreds of Montana families have been torn apart and their children
won't be home for Christmas.
HI
ry.Mo�aoeo,�„.� ,.Fom.....�...
Dear Kalispell city council,
The holiday season can be hard on many of us. The stress of getting everything right,
remembering those who have passed, looking for stability in a busy time can all
negatively impact our mental health. But for hundreds of youth, this time is even
harder than for most because they are spending it in a psychiatric facility hundreds of
miles from their family and friends.
About 240 Montana youth are currently placed out-of-state to get mental health
services and hundreds more are in-state getting mental health services in inpatient
and residential settings out of their family homes. That's HUNDREDS of Montana
families torn apart because we do not have more intensive in-home and in-school
services or sufficient local crisis and high acuity services.
Disability Rights Montana wants this to change. We want to hear from you about your
experiences. Please fill out the survey at the link below to tell us how you, your child,
or patient have been or are currently forced to leave home to get needed mental
health care.
Survey for youth, families, and providers
*A note about the title of this email - It is taken form a photo essay of people with intellectual disabilities held
in institutions in the 1960s called "Christmas in Purgatory."As I thought about youth with significant mental
illness who cannot be home this Christmas, I thought of this haunting book. You can look at an electronic
version below. I am not suggesting that the conditions of those old facilities are in any way similar to what is
going on today in the settings youth are being held in. But youth are not with family and that can change, that
must change.
The introduction of"Christmas in Purgatory" starts:
"`They cover a dung hill with a piece of tapestry when a procession goes by.'Miguel de Cervantes
There is a hell on earth, and in America there is a special inferno. We were visitors there during Christmas,
1965."
The book consist of pictures taken in four bad institutions and then followed with pictures from a good
institution.
I used to review this book every year right before Christmas. I thought it was a good reminder of why I do this
work, and the impact of protection and advocacy systems like Disability Rights Montana. I still think that is true
and therefore am sharing it for those of you who are interested in seeing it. However, I don't review it every
year anymore. I decided to stop, because it is traumatizing,just as I think the work of Disability Rights
Montana is traumatizing, and I don't think it is healthy to wallow in trauma. So please only take a look at the
book at this link if you are in a good headspace for it and think it might be informative or
motivating. II Up Wwww canonsodaaWerk uf1 966 KerstrNs/ im II Iurgatoi,y,pdf
I sincerely thank each of you for your
support this year. Let's work together so Donate to transform Montana
Montanans with disabilities can have
healthy and fulfilling lives of their own
choosing alongside the people they care
about and who care about them. Please
donate today to help our ongoing
advocacy.
2
Follow Us
Illllill II � � � � w w � � III III � w II � w II III III IIIIII III III � � IIII IIII�IIII� w w
Having trouble viewing this email?
3