The Business of Making Money off the Mentally Ill

May 21, 2005 (Press Release) -- TLS and Bell Therapy are two huge companies who are in the business of making money off the mentally ill in Milwaukee. Wisconsin. These are two of the ones I learned about first hand.

I, temporarily moved into a Transitional Living Services property, TLS, across from a Forge Factory, who possibly is forging steel. The pounding makes the furniture and the whole building shake, with loud pounding which does not stop until the factory closes. This is on 62nd and Burnham. This happens to be a building owned and managed by TLS for people who are high functioning mentally ill people, as they say. Pounding which gives me a headache every day, which I never had before, must really be great for people with neurological disorders, called mental illnesses. I am sure every doctor would prescribe that noise level for any person with Bipolar, Schizophrenia, OCD, ADD etc.that he or she should live in such a horrific loud environment.

Not only is it loud, but the black smoke coming out of the building, which causes me to clean my computer, not just dust, but clean as it clings the monitor and the computer itself. This is a great place to house the "mentally ill". After all, they are so drugged, they have no idea there is pollution here, high functioning or not.

Every tenant living in this building has a TLS social worker who comes to make sure the high functioning mentally ill people are taking their medications, as he or she doles it out. These medications are of course filled by the TLS, and in the case of Bell Therapy, by their own respective pharmacies. Believe me, Wallgreens and Osco are out of the picture. This is a mandatory rule.

I thought at first, that monitoring medications was not so bad. However, making the medications mandatory is bad. By living in this house and the many other properties owned by TLS and Bell Therapy, no one has a choice as to whether they can take or not take medications.

In addition to the medication monitoring, the social worker's responsibility is also to help the person shop for groceries, keep their houses clean, and provide many social activities,or help with jobs for their clients. I have yet to see one social worker in this building do more than provide the medications to their clients.

The additional very interesting part of this making money off the mentally ill, is each client is encouraged to have the social worker become their Payee for benefits from Social Security for the disabled. However, they neglect to tell their clients that the reason they would like to become the Payee, whether the client can or can't manage their money, is because the social workers get $30 - $50 dollars from each client.

In fact the social worker is in charge of all spending, security deposits, rent, and whatever is left for that person to live on for the week.
The amount I was told by a couple of the tenants is around $50 dollars a week. This is to cover groceries, cleaning material, cigarettes, as most of them smoke because it's been noted that smoking relaxes people inflicted with these illnesses.

Drugged and poor, these people either do not complain and when they do, no one hears them. I have been living in an apartment, where if I take a bath, the water drips into the lower apartment.
I called the manager of Residential Facilities to complain about it, because the young man below, already complained many times, and nothing was done to fix the problem. The manager's response was, "don't worry about it". I just stopped taking baths.

Another young lady found a property which was not owned by TLS, and although TLS always paid her security deposit and rent, she was suddenly not able to receive the security deposit for the non owned TLS property. Unfortunately, when she first gave notice, a month ago, her social worker neglected to tell her that she will not have the money for the security deposit. She spent a whole month looking, and filling out applications, and finally found a place, which she really liked, and the social worker informed her then that there is no money for a security deposit. The fact that she was allowed to borrow $725 for a Christmas fund, repaid it in full did not matter.

She has never seen a statement of her finances, nor does she get to keep the check stub when she gets her weekly $55.00. When she called TLS's accounts payable department, she was read the riot act by her social worker. Why would a person paying rent not be allowed to see a statement of her spending???? Is it because she is mentally ill or is the social worker hiding something? I really have no knowledge, but I have my suspicions.

This young lady is fully responsible and there is no reason for her to have a payee. However, each person that I have met in this building is drugged and weak, and do not stand up for their rights. The social worker in this case can be compared to the Gestapo, as he tells her what she can and cannot do.

Mind you this is not a prison, but a residential facility for the "mentally ill".

I find this kind of treatment, the environment and the noise level criminal. These are human beings who happened to be ill, and this is what they deserve???? These illnesses are horrific in themselves, and this is what they have to put up with?

There are over fifty million Americans who have illnesses which are brain illnesses, that can be seen in brain scans, PET and MRIs. Yet for the reasons of profits by the pharmaceuticals and in this case the Community Service Providers, as stated above, they are continued to be called mentally ill.

Alzheimer's, Epilepsy and Parkinson's disease, not only share the same part of the brain, but the medications designed for one illness, i.e. Zypraxa for Epilepsy, is also taken by the "mentally ill." Yet none of the three illnesses are called mental illnesses. Why?

As far as Bell Therapy, I have only been exposed to their service for a short time. However, from all I have heard so far, their services are very similar to TLS. The psychiatrist must be a Bell Therapy psychiatrist, the medications are filled by Bell Therapy's pharmacy, their social workers are also Payees for their clients, and as in TLS, they are offering to take care of all the services their client needs to function in society. I have not had as much one on one experience with Bell, but I may soon and then can report about their services. Bell Therapy is also a for profit company and Milwaukee County Mental Health division, contracts with these Community Service Providers to help in servicing the many people in Milwaukee who are in need of assistance to become a functioning person in society.

This is a small segment of the business of making money off the mentally ill, and I would be plan.

to pick this story up and do a follow up. What is going on in Wisconsin is similar to what other states do. For instance in California, a Board and Care, or group home, which it is called in Milwaukee, does not only receive the social security benefits from their patients, but the government adds another $3,000 - $5,000 for each patient, depending on the level of their illness. This again I know first hand, and will be happy to continue to write about in my next release.