In the same week that state officials and patient advocates gathered to remember more than 11,000 people who died in the state’s mental hospital, legislators and the state’s top health administrator battled over current problems in the state mental health system. Known by many names, but most recently as the Augusta Mental Health Institute, or […]

It is frustrating and infuriating to read the Legislature’s Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability report on Gov. Paul LePage’s threat to withhold Department of Education funding from the Good Will-Hinckley program for at-risk students. It’s frustrating because it is just a fact-finding investigation, not an indictment, and it’s infuriating because it details just […]

My sisters and I woke up early that day. We went to the family room to watch television while our parents slept. Suddenly, our father arrived in a barely controlled panic. He sat, not too far away, but he didn’t talk to us. He focused on putting on his shoes and socks as if it […]