The pictures posted are from a secretly videotaped meeting with my care manager and his director at a non-profit agency in Westchester NY. For three months, I have been calling and trying to reach my care manager. I left message after message for weeks for this person.

It’s the same old story in mental health and systems of care. The consumer is always in the wrong, “difficult” or problematic.

In the case of the meeting I am going to discuss, I was the consumer, and desperately trying to explain to staff that I had been making every effort to connect with my care manager without success. After, I was threatened repeatedly with discharge from the program and/or referral to another agency who could serve my needs better.

Prior to this meeting, I got a call saying I have not been in contact with him or the agency and my case would be terminated. After this outrageous claim, and outright lie, I went ahead and videotaped the meeting out of fear of future mishandling of my case and care and to push back on a system and program that has consistently been negligent and out of bounds with state regulations with OMH.