AMHI was originally built in 1840, across the river and in sight of the Capitol so that the governor and the Legislature would never forget.

As far as I can tell, Mary Mayhew and her boss have done their best to forget and to dismantle the Department of Health and Human Services. It should now be called the Department of Inhumane Services. If Mayhew had any integrity, she would have resigned long ago and let her boss take over, since he seems to be running things anyway.

According to the consent decree governing the treatment of the mentally ill, there should be no wait list for services. Anyone needing case management should be assigned within 24 hours.

But, as we all know, the consent decree went out the window with the bath water. Closing the Waterville Social Club, cutting case management, sending our most severely ill to the Maine State Prison and giving tax cuts to the rich, yeah, that’s how you run a Department of Health and Human Services.

We will not be judged by the skyscrapers we build or by monuments to the rich and famous or great generals or by our great libraries or who we elect president or by the great books we have written. We will, ultimately, be judged by how we cared for “the least of them.”

Wallace Seavey

retired mental health worker/case manager

Canaan


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