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• February 3, 2015
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Citizens: Child Mental Health Services Lacking NATHAN BROWN nbrown@magicvalley.com
B OISE • Pleas for Medicaid expansion and criticism of Idaho’s child mental health services dominated the testimony at a public hearing on health and welfare issues Friday morning. Several people said their children haven’t been getting needed mental health services from
Optum, the for-profit company that administers Idaho’s outpatient Medicaid behavioral health programs. When they try to appeal, the parents said, they’re ignored. Several people lamented the cuts in community-based rehabilitation services, a form of counseling in which therapists go into the community to help clients build situational coping skills.
“I want to know the company I’m trusting my family members to are truly doing the best things for them.” — Cameron McCown of Meridian
Optum officials told the TimesNews in July that they believed CBRS was being overused in cases where it wasn’t proven effective.
But Rebekah Casey, of Coeur d’Alene, testified that the services worked for her children, and now they’re not getting approved.
A Search for Help
“My life is affected,” said Casey, who is on the Idaho Council on Developmental Disabilities. “The lives of my children are affected.” Cameron McCown, of Meridian, said the state should break its contract with Optum. “I want to know the company I’m trusting my family members to are truly doing the best things
Future Jump Site Events to Require Paperwork TETONA DUNLAP tdunlap@magicvalley.com
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Erik Lundgrin, 31, embraces his grandmother Denece Malone while she talks about how manic he can become at times Monday in Twin Falls.
Missing man shares story of manic episode in hope of helping others ALISON GENE SMITH alismith@magicvalley.com
WIN FALLS • T When Erik Lundgren went missing in early December, police from Cassia, Jerome and Twin Falls counties joined the search, combing the South Hills by ground and helicopter. On Dec. 7, after four days alone and hallucinating, Lundgren went to Oakley and called his mother. The 31-year-old has suffered four full-blown manic episodes since he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder 11 years ago, lapses filled with delusions of grandeur, paranoia and “flights of ideas” that seem brilliant at the time. He becomes a man on a mission, he says, but the mission is devoid of reality. Lundgren, who now lives in Boise, reached out to the Times-News after reading about his disappearance in a news story. He hopes others can learn from his experiences. His story is a classic scenario of a missing person suffering a mental problem, say police, who undergo special training to handle cases like Lundgren’s. “The lost person, they want to be found,” said Lt. Daron Brown of the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Office. “A lot of times, the person with the mental health issue does not want to be found.” In another episode in 2011, Lundgren recognized that police officers who approached him as he wandered a field in Jerome were trying to help. But during the conversation Lundgren felt threatened and told one of the officers he would stab him with a ballpoint pen he had rubber-banded to his wrist. The officer unhooked his gun’s holster and Lundgren told him to get his hand off the gun. The officers eventually convinced Lundgren to go to his mother, who was waiting nearby, he said.
DREW NASH, TIMES-NEWS
Erik Lundgrin, 31, answers questions during an interview Monday in Twin Falls.
“The hard part is, unless they’ve done something to cause danger to themselves or someone else, (police) can’t do anything. It’s frustrating.” — Kathy Lungdren
The most recent episode in Oakley was less tense. His mother called police, the police asked for his ID and they left before his mother arrived. Both Lundgren and his mother, Kathy Lungdren, said they thought the officers should have stayed until family arrived.
I f You Do One Thing: Teen Movie Tuesday will begin at 4 p.m. at Twin Falls Public Library, 201 Fourth Ave. E. Free. 208-733-2964.
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Contact Erik
Erik Lundgren requested people interested in discussing bipolar disorder contact him via email at sciswing@gmail.com. “The hard part is, unless they’ve done something to cause danger to themselves or someone else, (police) can’t do anything,” she said. “It’s frustrating.” Several local agencies, including Twin Falls and Jerome police, have sent officers to Crisis Intervention Training so they may better help those with mental illness. Twin Falls Police Officer Dallan Hall went through the training a few years ago. Some of the advice seemed like common sense, but other lessons were invaluable, he Please see MISSING, A10
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“There was a lot of work done with previous jump and we would be building off of that,” said city spokesman Josh Palmer. Rothweiler said Monday night that no one has submitted any plans for a jump. Council members voted 5-2 last Feb. 10 to deny “Big Ed” Beckley’s jump across the canyon. The two sides had spent months hammering out a lease of Knievel’s city-owned dirt ramp for the Texas stuntman to use. But Beckley submitted an inadequate safety plan for the event, expected to have drawn 40,000 to 70,000 people, the council decided. Councilwoman Rebecca Mills Sojka expressed some concern that the application process might make wouldbe jumpers feel like they couldn’t bring their ideas to the city council. “I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to anyone that wants to be heard,” Mills Sojka said. V i c e M ayo r S u za n n e Hawkins agreed with the process of filling out a completed application first. “You wouldn’t bring us a half completed application for any event,” she said.
Bills on Background Checks, Uninsured Drivers Move in Senate nbrown@magicvalley.com
The National Alliance for Mental Illness can be found online at www.nami.org. Its information hotline is (800) 950-NAMI.
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W I N FA L L S T • If any groups or individuals want to hold any type of event at the Evel Knievel jump site, they will need to fill out the proper paperwork. T h e c i t y ’s o n e - ye a r moratorium on events at the jump site expired this month. And, instead of instituting another ban, the City Council decided Monday to require more stringent application rules of any would-be daredevil. City Council members decided Monday night to allow City Manager Travis Rothweiler and his staff to deny incomplete applications for any event held at the jump site. Proper paperwork would ensure parties are ready to move forwarding with discussions with City Council. It would require filling out a modified special events application. This application will be a combination of a special events permit and concerns that came up between City Council and “Big Ed” Beckley more than a year ago.
NATHAN BROWN
For More Information
Please see HEALTH, A10
BOISE • Bills to tighten up background checks for teachers, foster parents and others and to raise the fine for uninsured drivers cleared their first hurdle Monday in the Senate Judiciary and Rules Committee. After a background check is done on someone who is required to have one, such as someone who works with children or a Realtor, the prints aren’t kept after the check is done, said Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise. Burgoyne’s bill would allow the state police to keep the prints if an agency, such as a school district, so desires their employees’ prints to be retained. That way, he said, employers could be alerted if that person were to get arrested after having passed a background check. Now, he said, a teacher would only be checked again if they were to change districts, meaning arrests can fall through the cracks. If a person leaves the job for which they had to be
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fingerprinted — a teacher who changes careers, for example — their prints could be destroyed if the person makes a written request, under Burgoyne’s bill. Dawn Peck, head of the Bureau of Criminal Identification for the Idaho State Police, said there have been cases, under the current regulations, where a school district learned about a teacher’s arrest in Idaho some other way, and then found out that they had been arrested out-of-state while employed as a teacher for that district. The committee voted to print this bill, as well as another bill Burgoyne is sponsoring that would hike the fine for driving without insurance from $75 to $300, moving the legislation to committee hearings. Burgoyne said the fine an uninsured vehicle is too low to encourage people who get caught to spend the hundreds of dollars a year on insurance. “I really think what we’ve got is a fine scheme that probably incentivizes some things we do not want to incentivize — like not carrying insurance,” he said.
Obituaries A4 Opinion A8
A10 • Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Idaho Auctions off 32 Payette Lake Cabin Sites leaseholders are unconstitutional. The court ruled that because the land around Priest and Payette lakes is owned by the state’s endowment, the state has the obligation to manage the property for maximum long-term returns to the endowment’s beneficiaries, including public schools. One Priest Lake leaseholder challenged the rules for the process, but a 1st District Court judge concluded that cabin owners who lease state land have no right to continue leases once they expire. In December, the Land Board approved auctioning another 180 leased lots at Priest Lake and Payette Lake before the end of 2017.
Police Cite TV Show Violence to Explain Rights to Idaho Boy OEUR D’ALENE (AP) • C Police turned away a defense attorney and referenced television show violence during their midnight interrogation of a 14-year-old boy authorities say confessed to killing his father and brother, court documents state. The documents were obtained by the Coeur d’Alene Press after 1st District Court Judge Benjamin Simpson refused a defense motion to suppress statements made by defendant Eldon Gale Samuel III, now 15. Kootenai County Public Defender John Adams sought to suppress the statements based on his believe the teen might not have fully understood his rights when he spoke to police in March. “I didn’t believe there would be anybody at the police department who would be looking out for his best interests,” Adams told the newspaper in a story on Saturday. “They were all there as an arm of the
government, building evidence against him, not to help him.” Records say Samuel called police about 9 p.m. on March 24 to report having killed his father and brother. Samuel is charged as an adult with shooting 46-year-old Eldon Samuel Jr. and shooting and stabbing 13-year-old Jonathan Samuel. Samuel that evening was taken to a police station where, court documents say, a police detective explained Miranda rights to the boy by referencing police television shows, the documents show. “This is a Miranda warning,” Coeur d’Alene Police Detective Jay Wilhelm told Samuel, according to a transcript. “You know how you see on TV, you see like these cop shows? ... They’re slamming them up against the car and they read these rights to them. And it’s kind of at the same time, sometimes they slam up against the car, put them in jail, then they read his rights. And so that’s not anything like this. Alright.”
The transcript notes that Samuel nods his head to indicate a yes answer. Wilhelm said “these are just some rights that everyone is entitled to.” He then read the Miranda rights. Samuel is twice asked if he understands, and both times replies “um-hum.” Court documents say that Samuel then signs two documents agreeing to waive his Miranda rights. Coeur d’Alene Police Lt. Rob Turner said the interview was recorded with video and audio. “There was no point we were trying to intimidate him,” Turner said Monday. He said the intent of the officer mentioning the police shows was to let Samuel know that was on TV and wouldn’t occur at the police station. Adams told the newspaper he went to the police station after hearing about the killings and that police had someone in custody. Turner met Adams, according to court documents.
Health
which almost everyone testifying supports. Aaron White, president of Idaho’s AFL-CIO, said the state could save money on other programs by expanding Medicaid to cover people in the “coverage gap.” An estimated 78,000 Idahoans are in that category. They don’t qualify for Medicaid but also don’t make enough income to qualify for tax credits to buy insurance on the state’s exchange. “Many hardworking Idahoans lack access to affordable health care,” he said. Terri Sterling, who works with the nonprofit Idaho Community Action Network, told the committee about a friend’s daughter who doesn’t qualify for Medicaid and can’t afford her kidney medication. “If you decide to expand Medicaid, that would bring the jobs into the state that she’s really looking for” and “the health care she needs,” Sterling said. At a hearing at 9 a.m. Thursday, the House Health and Welfare Committee will hear a presentation on the recommendations of the Medicaid Redesign Workgroup that Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter appointed in 2012. The Workgroup has voted three times to recommend expanding Medicaid, most recently in November, when it backed a plan to expand Medicaid to cover everyone below the poverty level and give subsidies to people earning 100 percent to 138 percent of the poverty level to buy insurance on the exchange. Otter asked for a hearing on those recommendations. Idaho so far has resisted expanding Medicaid, with opponents concerned about future costs to the state.
Some legislators have said they doubt the votes are there to do it. Otter said last month that he likes some of the Workgroup’s recommendations. He wouldn’t say whether he would back Medicaid expansion should the Legislature recommend it.
Missing Continued from A1
said in a July interview. Police methods have to change when dealing with a person in a mental-health crisis. Officers are encouraged to move slower, use less aggressive body language and give the person space. Hall learned officers should never give into a person’s delusion and to use statements to help build trust. “You can say, ‘I’m worried about you. How can I make you safe?’” he said. When Lundgren was first diagnosed and disappeared it was difficult to explain to police how they should approach him, his mother said. Even though family members know the person needs help, police often must wait until someone does something drastic, like
take off the way her son did. Now, Kathy said, she tells police her son’s symptoms, like his racing thoughts and rapid speech. “You just don’t really know if they realize how serious it is,” she said. Preventing run-ins with police would be ideal, but talking to her son about getting help when he is already in a manic state is difficult, she said. “When (people with bipolar disorder) are manic, you cannot reason with them,” she said. Lundgren is beginning to learn when it’s crucial for him to get help. In a shorter January episode in Boise, he agreed to go to the hospital. Looking back on the South Hills case, Lundgren should have listened to his family, he said. Instead, he and his dog ended up wading in the freezing Boise River and later racing across southern Idaho.
“Had I just gone in when they wanted me to, I could have avoided the whole thing,” he said. Lundgren’s manic episodes end only when he’s in the hospital, back on medication, he said. He knows going to the hospital is the best possible outcome to a manic episode, but sometimes he resists. He’s getting better at recognizing when his mood is elevating and when he should seek help. “Right now I’m in a very good spot,” he said. Learning to develop attributes and creativity outside of the manic “flight of ideas” stage is key, Lundgren said. People with bipolar disorder can be innovative and ingenious and can learn from each other. “Here’s where you belong now, there’s a community of us,” Lundgren said. “We have value in society because of our attributes.”
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for them,” he said. McCown cited Idaho’s per-capita spending on mental health — the lowest in the nation — as evidence of the problem. “Our state is becoming a state of denial,” he said. Idaho contracted with Optum in September 2013 and will pay it $300 million over three years, 85 percent of which is for claims. Mental health providers in the Magic Valley and elsewhere have been complaining for more than a year about Optum, saying services have been cut and wait times for approving care have increased. Friday, Optum officials said they are focused on getting people the right services, providing “evidence-based therapy” -– i.e., treatments with independent evidence of effectiveness -– even when a provider recommends something different. “We’re not cutting services,” Executive Director Rebecca diVittorio said Friday. “Our goal is to get people the care that is known to work for them, based on the national behavioral health and medical community.” Jeffrey Berlant, Optum’s chief medical officer, said Optum is bringing “national standards and good clinical practice” to mental health treatment in Idaho. “We don’t agree treatment is being cut,” he said. “We believe treatment is being bolstered, enhanced, enriched,” and that Optum is “moving away from treatments that are not known to work.” The other recurring topic was Medicaid expansion,
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DREW NASH,
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million, about $73,000 above the appraised value. Three unleased lots didn’t receive bids. The bids must be at least the appraised value of the lots. The state has now sold 127 cottage-site lots at Priest Lake and Payette Lake, about a fourth of the lots to be sold. For decades, state policy protected cabin owners, who own the structures they have built on land leased from the state, from competitive auctions when the lease expires. But the state and the State Board of Land Commissioners have been trying to get out of the cabin-site rental business, especially after the Idaho Supreme Court ruled that the policies set up to protect
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BOISE (AP) • The Idaho Department of Lands has auctioned off 32 more lots at Payette Lake in northern Idaho as it continues its plan to divest itself of the lucrative but difficult-tomanage assets, state officials said. The auction Saturday in Boise generated $13.5 million for education and State Hospital South, a psychiatric inpatient treatment facility for adults and adolescents. The agency said 29 incumbent leaseholders submitted winning bids. Only one lot had competitive bidding, and that lot sold for $8,000 above the appraised value. Three unleased lots were auctioned for about $2.1
Erik Lundgrin, 31, talks about his life Monday in Twin Falls.
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