The ills of the system cannot be neglected any longer

The Globe’s front-page story about failures at Arbour Health System psychiatric hospitals (“Pushing for profit, failing at care,’’ June 11) is one of an impressive number of Globe reports recently documenting the shocking gaps and abuses in Massachusetts mental health care for those with serious illnesses. While advocates disagree on the details, there is no question that there is a stunning shortage of services — hospital beds and community resources — and that people are suffering daily, even dying, as a result. Three generations of cherished members of my family are among them.

When I was young, there was a longer list of conditions for which this level of shunning and neglect were common, including child sexual abuse, alcoholism, even cancer. Victims were avoided, discussion veiled, diagnoses unspoken.

But we have largely stopped stigmatizing many of these conditions, setting a standard for care in which people are expected to get effective and compassionate treatment. It’s past time to add serious mental illnesses to that list.

Rae Simpson

Cambridge

The writer is a mental health writer and consultant.

Profit motive has no place in providing care to the most vulnerable among us

Liz Kowalczyk’s article provides yet another glaring and horrifying example of the disastrous, cruel, and inhumane situations that result when the government farms out essential services to companies for whom reaping ever higher profits is the prime value that governs their behavior.

The public and nonprofit sectors often suffer from problems such as chronic underfunding, often at the behest of those who push so hard for privatization. But in areas such as education and health care, which should operate for the common good, the unbridled pursuit of profit has no place.

Margo Custer

Roslindale

The tragedies described in “Pushing for profit, failing at care’’ are the direct result of turning the care of some of the most vulnerable members of society into a profit opportunity. While Arbour Health System compensated its chief executive with $20 million last year, understaffed units at the company’s facilities put patients and staff at serious risk. Since Arbour’s primary concern is ostensibly its patients, shouldn’t it be focused on proper care instead of maximizing profit?

Would Arbour executives put their own family members into one of these facilities?

Let’s hope Liz Kowalczyk’s brilliant expose stops the dangers posed to mentally ill patients admitted to for-profit facilities.

Edwin and Marilyn Andrews

Malden

How can lawmakers let this travesty go on?

How in God’s name can the Commonwealth allow such a travesty in the care of those who need help and compassion?

More than 150 years ago, Dorothea Dix, a Massachusetts-bred reformer, caused a revolution in the care of the mentally ill and was considered at the time to be more than just compassionate but also forward-looking.

Those today who are responsible for the mess reported in the article about Arbour Health System are the political leaders who have failed to fund services from the day mental hospitals were shuttered. The promised local services never materialized except in name only.

That children entrusted to the care of Arbour and other facilities should be so treated should result in such organizations having contracts voided and, if possible, being made to refund to the state those funds already expended.

Micheal P. Lombardo

Fairhaven

For one family, a tough decision at a moment of crisis

Our son, who suffers from bipolar disorder, had a crisis at Christmastime this year, and per the current procedures associated with mental health protocols, he waited at the Cambridge Hospital emergency room until a bed could be found. At that time, we asked if he could go to anywhere except the Arbour network, which we had heard negative stories about.

It turned out that Westwood Lodge had the only available bed, and our son was in crisis, so he was sent there. While his experience was not as horrific as some of the stories in Liz Kowalczyk’s excellent article, we had many concerns about adequate professional care. Suffice it to say, he came out of it OK but heavily medicated. It took him a long time to recover.

Please keep up the good work with your reporting. These are some of the most vulnerable people, and poor care exacerbates an already impossibly difficult situation that affects the entire family, and indeed the community.

John Doucet

Cambridge