NAMI North Carolina Mental Health Advocates Criticize Critics of Williamson Verdict

News Release

Mental Health Advocates Criticize Critics of Williamson Verdict

Released October 1, 1998

For more than 70,000 North Carolina families coping with a loved one’s schizophrenia, the story of the January 1995 shooting in Chapel Hill in which two men died, resonates deeply. Most know, despite the cruel stereotypes, violence is rare among schizophrenics. Still, as they picture UNC law student Wendell Williamson dressed in fatigues and firing randomly from the M-1 rifle he carried down Franklin Street that day, they can’t help thinking, “That could have been my child.”

In November 1995, a jury agreed, because Williamson was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, he was not guilty of the two murders. Another jury’s September 21 decision to award Williamson $500,000 in a malpractice suit against his Student Health Service psychiatrist Dr. Myron Liptzin has again focused attention on the sad story of the shootings.

Critics Speak Out Against Verdict

Since the malpractice verdict, dozens of columnists, victims’ family members, psychiatrists and citizens have expressed outrage at the jurors’ decision, calling it “crazy,” “inexplicable,” and “totally shocking and offensive.” In a letter to the editor of Raleigh’s News & Observer, one writer said she was, “absolutely appalled by the abject stupidity displayed by the jury.”

In another letter, a psychiatrist noted the care Williamson received “met or exceeded the standard of care that most psychotic people receive” and said, “No one has gained from this verdict.”

“But that’s just the point,” said Executive Director Beth Melcher of NAMI North Carolina, a 1,200-member grassroots advocacy group for families coping with mental illness. “Our standards of care for people with severe and persistent mental illnesses aren’t high enough.”

Research into brain disorders has progressed substantially during the past decade, but advances in treatment have lagged far behind current knowledge. “Patients with cancer, heart disease or diabetes demand access to—and receive—the latest, most advanced information and treatment,” noted Melcher. “Even in our smallest communities, stroke and heart attack victims also have access to good rehabilitation services. But victims of brain disorders are lucky if they receive anything approaching state-of-the-art treatment or appropriate aftercare.”

Hundreds of Calls

Melcher said NAMI North Carolina’s Raleigh office has received hundreds of calls from its members—most of whom have family members with severe and persistent brain disorders—since the recent Williamson verdict. “They’re hurt by all the harsh criticism,” Melcher said. “They understand far better than most of these critics just how hard it is for people with serious brain disorders to get the care and supervision they need, even though effective treatments are available.”

In a statement issued after their September 26 meeting, the NAMI North Carolina Board of Directors—including one who sat in on the malpractice trial—outlined key testimony heard by the jury but not widely reported to the public. The board also emphasized the serious and sometimes disastrous consequences that can result from inadequate treatment.

“During the trial, the jurors gained an understanding of mental illness well beyond what the average person knows,” said Melcher. “Maybe if more people knew as much as the jurors learned about mental illness during the trial, or as much as our members have learned through personal experience, their opinions about the case might be a bit more enlightened.”

Hope for a Better Mental Health Care System

Melcher said she hopes mental health care providers will recognize the verdict applies to one clinician’s negligence in one case. If any generalization can be drawn from the case, it is that brain disorders need to be taken seriously and treated properly through an adequate mental health care system.

Consistent with the positions of other state affiliates and their national parent organization, NAMI North Carolina board members believe at least four critical elements must be in place before North Carolina’s mental health care system can effectively serve the full range of citizens suffering from disabling brain disorders:

• Community-based care including ongoing medical treatment, housing, rehabilitation and other support for those able to recognize their need for care and manage their own illness.
• Assertive community treatment programs that provide 24-hour-a-day outreach and crisis support for those less able to maintain their own treatment requirements.
• Outpatient treatment orders that require participation in treatment as a condition for living in the community for those who do not respond to outreach and resist treatment.
• Involuntary inpatient commitment that provides short-term hospitalization to treat and stabilize acute psychiatric symptoms for those whose symptoms make them unable to recognize their need for treatment.

“Criticizing someone with paranoid schizophrenia for not taking responsibility for his actions is like blaming a diabetic for not producing enough insulin,” said Melcher. “As long as we blame the person instead of understanding and treating the disease, we’re not addressing the fundamental problems with our mental health care system.”