Life inside Hudson County Meadowview Psychiatric Hospital (HCMPH) has become a series of setbacks and stalemates to rehabilitation, according to resident patient Donald Taylor.
He said after filing a class action lawsuit with the Superior Court in Jersey City against the hospital on April 28, his status went from getting much better to getting much worse. He said he had been at the County Avenue facility voluntarily for the last year and a half until the course of events in the last month resulted in a reclassification to involuntary status and 24-hour surveillance in a lock up unit.The class action number L-2219-05 filed by Taylor’s sister, Margaret, at Donald’s request, states the HCMPH administration violated New Jersey law by not providing sufficient training and rehabilitation, by implementing unreasonable policies and accommodations for making and receiving confidential phone calls. The document also states patients at Meadowview cannot access mental health information and the complaint hotline at NJ Division of Mental Health Services. Statements supplied by HCMPH spokesperson James Kennelly said Taylor knew he faced discharge in early May. Hospital staff, including CEO Dr. Nuzhat Iqbal, said they only learned of the suit when they were served on May 2. Taylor said the staff was about to force him out of the facility. The HCMPH statement says that Taylor “did not precipitate his discharge, rather we believe the trauma of discharge precipitated Taylor’s suit.”
Who is Donald Taylor?
Taylor has a history of long-term depression. The soft-spoken 52-year-old said he always had trouble with psychological problems. Taylor graduated eighth grade at 16 years old and did not go to high school. He says he lead a sheltered life living near his family while receiving Social Security income for his disability.
“I taught myself to read in my 20s since I couldn’t learn at school,” said Taylor. “Nobody ever tried to help me at school. I guess they thought I was retarded.”
After the death of his father and sister in 1988, Taylor said he made his first suicide attempt. Mary Taylor, 48, died of breast cancer, and a continuing series of heart attacks eventually killed his 88-year-old father. In 1994, he made another attempt after his 94-year-old mother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, died. Both times, Taylor was taken to Jersey City Medical Center and discharged. Margaret Taylor said he did not stay more than four weeks before he was discharged. Margaret also said Taylor went to HCMPH “a few years ago but was discharged after three weeks because the psychiatrist said he was OK to leave.
Taylor said he has been mostly in outpatient situations for his mental illness in the last 15 years. According to the document supplied by Kennelly, Meadowview staff spent months attempting to place Taylor in outpatient situations, such as group homes, shelters and apartments through Section 8 housing prior to his commitment to HCMPH. The document alleges Taylor refused to cooperate in those efforts.
Taylor said he did not feel he could successfully survive in a group home or shelter. He also said when he entered HCMPH he was told he could receive Section 8 housing for an apartment in Bayonne. Margaret Taylor said that several months ago, staff told her that the application was never submitted.
Brushing up on patient rights
Taylor said he had been the elected spokesperson for the patient government council while at HCMPH. He said he was able to obtain Secaucus residency to take a computer course offered at the library on Paterson Plank Road.
While learning how to use the computer system at the library, Taylor did research on N.J. Mental Illness laws, he considered the hospital to be in violation of them. Taylor said once he began questioning the administration and other personnel, he was not received favorably. He eventually wrote up a class action suit and had it filed. Three days after the suit was presented to the staff, Taylor said he was told he had to leave the hospital.
Taylor also alleges that urine samples taken at HCMPH and sent to Bio-Labs in North Bergen were coming back with false positive reports since February. He said when he tried to get copies of these reports, he was denied. Kennelly said HCMPH was aware of the problem and has taken action to correct it.
“They wanted me to leave. I told them if they did I would kill myself,” said Taylor. “They are labeling me as a troublemaker and are trying to sabotage my efforts.”
HCMPH reclassified Taylor as involuntary since he presented a danger to himself by saying he would commit suicide.
Help from the outside
Taylor’s advocate, Lila Steele, public defender for the Mental Health Division in Newark, said the HCMPH administration should be “working on issues with cooperation and resolve instead of focusing on the patient.” “On the surface, there appear to be a lot of problems Ð there’s no easy answer. I believe Mr. Taylor has some valid issues,” said Steele. “This is the first case at HCMPH where a patient would be put on the street without a discharge plan.”
According to New Jersey Statute [30:4-27.18], “a person discharged either by the court or administratively from a short-term care facility [such as HCMPH] shall have a discharge plan prepared by the treatment team at the facility pursuant to this section. The treatment team shall give the patient an opportunity to participate in the formulation of the discharge plan.”
Virtua Health in Malta, a multi-hospital health care system that provides information on patient rights and responsibilities, further states the patient is allowed “to present questions or grievances to a designated hospital staff member and to receive a response in a reasonable period of time. The hospital must provide patients with the address and telephone number of the New Jersey Department of Health agency that handles questions and complaints. The New Jersey Department of Health Complaint Hotline by an 800 number.” (When this reporter tried the 800-hotline number on the third floor corridor where Taylor was staying last week, a recording said the number was blocked.)
More trouble
On May 17, Taylor said he wanted to post his class action documents in a public place for the other patients to see. Hospital staff said this was against hospital policy. Statements sent by Kennelly said “No patient is allowed to post materials in common areas without first getting consent from hospital staff.”
Documents from staff state that Iqbal and/or nursing staff had on a number of occasions removed improperly posted materials displayed by Taylor. Iqbal removed the copy of the suit on the 17th and reminded Taylor of the policy regarding posted materials, prompting his later demand at the nurse’s station for a confidential phone call. When Taylor went to call his lawyer from the pay phone in the corridor, Taylor said it was turned off. He said when he told floor nurse he needed to make a call, she put him off. He began to insist he had a right to use the phone.
Taylor said the nurse then accused him of threatening her while he was “demanding his rights.” She allegedly called a “code gray,” where staff are summoned to subdue a violent patient. Taylor was put in the Quiet Room for 30 minutes, according to staff accounts, until his assignment to the more restricted fourth floor. Taylor said along with his wallet and other small items, hospital staff took two tapes he recorded Ð one during the ruckus about the phone call and another of a conversation he had with his lawyer about Bio-Labs. The documents said Taylor refused to empty his pockets. Eventually the staff persuaded Taylor to relent, said the documents. Taylor said staff told his sister, Margaret, that she could come in the next day and get his belongings. She brought a signed note from Donald stating his belongings included two tapes.
Margaret said she signed into HCMPH at 8 a.m. on May 18 in order to collect Taylor’s personal items and was not told until 1 p.m. that she would not receive the tapes. Clinical Director Dr. Robert Stern said he agreed to turn over the materials to her except for the audiotape, according to documents supplied by Kennelly. The documents stated Stern “was concerned about the possibility that the tape might contain recordings that could violate other patient’s confidentiality rights. He wished to keep the tape for review in the presence of a county attorney and Steele.” Taylor said the tape proved he was not being violent when asking to use the phone.
Margaret Taylor said Stern wanted her brother Donald to rewrite the signed note to say there was only one tape. Stern insists that at the time the materials were placed in the sealed envelope, there was only one tape. Once he saw the letter claiming there were two tapes, he became concerned about opening the envelope without the presence of witnesses from the County Law Department. He explained this to Taylor’s sister and warned her that it would be several hours until law department staff was available to move forward with the opening of the envelope and review of the tape. The missing tape is alleged to be a recording of Steele and Taylor talking about his allegations against Bio-Labs. The tape has been released to Taylor’s advocate, Lila Steele.
Conflict of statements
According to Kennelly, Stern told Margaret Taylor she could go home and return once legal council reviewed the contents of the tapes, but she refused. Margaret Taylor said Stern told her she could wait for the tape but that he saw no reason to. She still has not received any of the tapes.
As a last desperate measure, Taylor said he went on a hunger strike. He said he felt his life was “closing in on him and no one would help.” Steele was informed of the hunger strike by this reporter and went to HCMPH to get Taylor to eat on May 19. She said she has the tape of the Quiet Room incident and it is clear that Taylor was only asking for his rights.
“My main concern is to get Donald back on track. We take his case and allegations very seriously,” said Steele. “I brought him some lunch and he is eating again.”
HCMPH staff involved in the incident met with Kennelly on May 20 and did not have a response until late Wednesday. Kennelly said issues raised in Taylor’s suit will be decided by a judge “in about three weeks.”
Celeste Regal can be reached at cregal@hudsonreporter.com.