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ANOTHER SAD TALE OF HOMELESSNESS, PRISON, AND DEATH FOR AN ACUTE MENTAL PATIENT - Schizophrenic Georgia woman Na Yong Yak burned her mother to death 12 days after Na Yong was released from a mental hospital against her family's protests that she needed more treatment.

Why must there be a smoking gun or dripping knife for mentally ill persons to be treated (in prison)?

Photo depicts a person under stress (not Na Yong).  Mental illness is a problem faced by 1 in 5 Americans.

IS THAT WHY THERE ARE LAWS AGAINST ENFORCED TREATMENT?  See the photos of Na Yong with her family at the link below.

FOX 5 Special:  A Family Failed
http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/FOX_5_Special_A_Family_Failed_051309

ATLANTA (MyFOX ATLANTA) - On February 10, 2008, police said a Norcross woman threw gasoline on her mother and lit her on fire. Na Yong Pak's family said they saw the violence coming and tried for months to get help to for the mentally ill woman.

In family photos Pak, is a smiling little girl, untouched by the mental illness that would come later.
Pak's brother Chris said his 32-year-old sister's life started to unravel.

Chris Pak said his sister moved home and it was clear she was troubled.

"I could hear her talking to herself in her room, you know, yelling," said Pak. "When I saw that, I was very frightened."

Chris Pak was even more frightened by his sister's belief that their mother Myong Hui was trying to poison her.

"My sister lived in fear. She lived in fear every day, she feared that even though it was her mother, her own mother was killing her every day," Pak said.

Pak said his sister started lashing out at their mother.

Last summer Pak said his sister attacked their mother so the family went to court to have Nay Yong Pak involuntarily hospitalized. The woman was only hospitalized for two weeks and by September, Chris Pak said Nay Yong Pak was attacking their mom again.

"She had a gash in her head, in the back of her head, about a couple of inches long, and she went to the hospital and told them that she fell by herself. And I told my mom, 'Don't say that!'" recalled Chris Pak.

Pak said his mother didn't want her daughter in jail, but she wanted her to get help.

"You have to protect yourself. And although I understand the reluctance to involve law enforcement, they really need to," said Eric Spencer.

Spencer runs the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Georgia . The organization offers support groups and classes for families struggling with mental illness.

Spencer said NAMI encourages families to set clear boundaries that cannot be crossed.

[ANSWER?  HOMELESSNESS]

"That's a hard thing for a family member to do, is to tell a loved one, a daughter or a son to get out of the house, but in many cases, that has been the one thing that made all the difference in the world," said Spencer [of Georgia NAMI].

Myong Hui was reluctant to confront her daughter and by late November, Chris Pak said his sister had attacked their mother again.

Once more the Paks went back to court to have Na Yong Pak involuntarily hospitalized.

Na Yong Pak was taken to Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta, a state mental health facility where Chris Pak said his family asked a judge and psychiatrist to keep her she was stable.

"We told them she's [going to] kill somebody, kill herself or kill my mother," said Pak.

Seven weeks later, Pak said the family was told to pick up his sister because she was being sent home.

The discharge papers described Na Yong Pak as "calm and passive" but Chris Pak said when a nurse tried to hand his sister her prescriptions she cursed at her.

A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Human Resources, which runs Georgia Regional Hospital, said the agency couldn't discuss Na Yong Pak's treatment or discharge because of privacy restrictions.

Chris Pak said the day after his sister returned home, problems started once more.

[ANSWER?  DEATH]

Twelve days after Na Yong Pak's release from the hospital, she launched her worst attack on her mother.

Pak said his sister threw a cup of gasoline on his mother and then lit her on fire. When the paramedics arrived Myong Hui was outside waiting.

"She had this, holding on her, putting herself out like this," said Chris Pak of the water hose his mother used to put out the flames.

Pak's 58-year-old mother was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital's burn unit.

"When I got there, they told me my mother, she was going to die. I saw her, was like burned all the way," said Chris Pak.
Myong Hui defended her daughter to the very end of her life.

"She told me, 'take care of your sister because she's sick,'" recalled Chris Pak.

[ANSWER?  PRISON]

Na Yong Pak was taken to the Gwinnett County jail and has been charged with murder.

"I feel sad for my sister because of the fact she's in there and she's sick," Pak said.

Pak and his father, Gold Pak, moved away from their Norcross neighborhood because they said the memories were too painful.

Pak said he visited his sister several times.

"She was frightened and confused. She didn't know why she was in jail. She was crying her eyes out," said Pak.

Each night Pak said he and his father light a candle for his mother. Pak said he and father believe that they lost two family members that day in a tragedy they feel could have been prevented.

"How many more people are going to die before they do anything?" asked Pak.

*******************************

QUESTION:  HOW MUCH MONEY DID GEORGIA TAXPAYERS SAVE BY REFUSING TO KEEP PAK LONGER INSTEAD OF DISCHARGING HER EARLY?
 
Remember, the discharge papers falsely claimed Ms. Pak was "stable," although she cussed at the discharge nurse before leaving the facility.  The hospital personnel no more believed Na Yong to be stable than her family did.  Her discharge probably was ordered for financial reasons and/or lack of space, which is still a financial reason. 

So how much money was saved at the expense of Myong Hui's life?  The answer is  ZERO.  Money that should have gone to Na Yong's mental health care is now doubled or tripled because of court costs and prison fees.  Georgia saved nothing by ignoring this family’s protests and dismissing Na Yong from the hospital earlier than needed, which resulted in her mom’s death and a felony murder arrest for Na Yong.
http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/18683942/detail.html

STATE BUDGETS TAKE A BIG HIT WITH EVERY MENTALLY ILL PERSON WHO GOES TO PRISON INSTEAD OF GETTING TIMELY TREATMENT.  PRISONS COST UP TO $50,000 PER YEAR PER PRISONER AND MUCH MORE FOR INMATES WHO NEED CONTINUOUS MENTAL OR PHYSICAL HEALTH CARE.

The family is devastated, another sick person was charged and probably sentenced to a lengthy, expensive prison term, and the only people who might benefit are prison owners.  Private prison profiteers benefit even when people go to public prisons because until public correctional facilities are full, they get no inmates.  This is probably why mental hospitals are closed, community care limited, and mandatory treatment largely outlawed.

Chronic mental patients exiting institutions should be placed in an Assisted Outpatient Treatment program like Kendra’s Law that combines subsistence assistance with mandatory outpatient treatment.  Assisted Outpatient Treatment Programs reduce homelessness, recidivism, and future hospitalizations by 85% or better.  Furthermore, fewer arrests occur because there are fewer crimes by mental patients.  This mean safer communities and less expense to taxpayers. 

HOMELESSNESS, PRISON, AND DEATH MUST CEASE BEING AMERICA'S ANSWER TO ACUTE MENTAL ILLNESS. 

It is much less expensive and more humane to treat mentally ill Americans than it is to allow the public to be at risk, the patients to be at risk, and taxpayers to pay exorbitant court fees, lawyer fees for indigent clients, and prison fees that include mental health care - usually much more expensive than hospitalization, and always more costly than assistant outpatient treatment.  My guess is that Na Yong stopped taking her meds soon after leaving the hospital, if not immediately.  By the 12th day, she was ready to kill, and she did.

If she gets life in prison at age 32, Yak's incarceration will cost taxpayers over $3 million dollars.  Who benefited by Na Yong's early release from Georgia regional?  Not many taxpayers have prison stock. 

Enforced treatment works to prevent needless suffering and imprisonment.

Is that why there are laws against it?

Elected officials, prison profiteering is hell on your constituents.  Please help.

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

JAIL IS THE LAST THING MENTAL PATIENTS NEED ... AND TOO OFTEN, JAIL IS THE L-A-S-T THING THEY
EXPERIENCE. Please join us in our  quest to
decriminalize mental illness in America. No one should
be punished for having a disability.