Bus Stop to Nowhere

Bus Stop to Nowhere published in Huffington Post 
By  Raquel Regalado

Posted: 02/06/2013 4:47 pm

In Florida we spend a considerable amount of time discussing transportation, or better yet the lack of transportation. And as the legislative session draws near we hope to hear about ways to promote infrastructure investment. At the county and municipal levels we hope to hear about bridges, road resurfacing, bike paths, walkways, trollies, shade trees on pedestrian paths and weather conscious bus stops. But while listening to our state leaders in several subcommittees recently I couldn't help but think of a series bus stops in Germany.

The bus stops, which were memorialized in Timo Klos's series "To Mark Time," are noteworthy because rather than transit points, they are the destination. An unconventional way to deal with wandering residents the bus stops were built outside medical facilities that house Alzheimer patients. Rather than locking the doors, the replicas of functioning bus stops, tap into the patients' long term memory and lull then into thinking that they could leave if they just waited for a bus. After a short time a staff member tells the patients the bus will be there later and asks them to go inside. Time after time, the patients who were once forcibly escorted back to the facility by the local police, walk willingly back inside.

Meanwhile in Tallahassee at a committee presentation on mental health it was announced that "one in five children in Florida have mental health issues." The following day the quote was a headline. Upon reading I considered the impact that the data, without context could have on mental health programs and thought about our obligation as policy makers to educate our community on mental health. I wished that rather than generalize statistics we would speak in terms of temporary emotional mental health issues vs. severe persistent mental illness. While mental health labels are necessary to determine diagnosis and treatment, the very same labels can have an almost Pygmalion effect on children and their families who believe their lives are forever defined by their condition, which in many cases can, with intervention and assistance, be overcome or successfully managed.

In the following months we will discuss school security at the national, state and school board levels and work to safeguard not just the physical safety but also the mental health of our students. At Miami-Dade County Public Schools we have taken a first step by partnering with the American Psychiatric Foundation but more is needed. Specifically, we need to work with the state and establish a meaningful partnership with the Department of Children and Families, their affiliates and the Juvenile Justice System, the ultimate providers of mental health services and together create a system of coordinated care with an emphasis on prevention and early intervention. On the legislative front we need to consider serious changes, such as expanding the right to assessment and intervention, finding ways to curtail the misuse of restraints and the Backer Act and insuring a continuum of service after diagnosis.

If, however, we opt to focus on socially acceptable band aides and photo opportunities, it will be as if we built our very own version of a bus stop to nowhere; a bus stop where we can sit, chat and wait until a staff member escorts use willingly back into the Capitol.