Putting the Mental in Mental Hospital

You've got to love the latest in state mental health news.  Not only did the director of the new soon-to-be-opened-though-it's-not-safe-for-patients state hospital commission this portrait – from a subordinate – but she paid for it with state money.  Well, she tried, but DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton put the kibosh on that.  That's all, literally, yesterday's news.  Here's what I really love:

Public condemnation of the portrait deal was swift. More than 100 e-mails and online posts about the issue were sent to the newspaper and so many calls were received that the voice mailbox for the reporter who wrote the story was filled."

People freaked about this alleged artwork in a way that they apparently did not over a spate of recent stories detailing our failing community mental health system, a number of suspicious deaths at state facilities, the demotion of a state hospital director for spending funds on himself, or the revocation of another hospital's accreditation after it lost federal funding.  Okay.  Granted this is a really bad portrait – that giant head on the tiny body is freaking me out – but it's hardly the worst aspect of our mental health crisis, is it? 

Maybe it's just emblematic of the whole morass.  It's one picture that sums up all the crazy in this crazy situation.  It is that bad, I'll admit.  I just wish the outrage could have started a little sooner and been as effective as it was this week.  Maybe we can still save Dix, and keep Umstead from opening until it's safe and fully staffed, while reforming community services so vulnerable people can get the help they truly need.  But that's hard and ridiculing this hideous creation is so, so easy!