Community Corner

Former Mayor: His Generation's Legislative Policies 'Broke' Mental Health System

In a new essay, onetime Middletown Mayor Paul Gionfriddo says his homeless adult son suffered, like countless others with mental health issues, at the hands of shortsighted health care policy reforms of the 1980s.

 

Editor’s Note: Former Middletown Mayor Paul Gionfriddo led the city from 1989-91 and was State Rep. for the 33rd House Assembly District from 1979-89.

In a brave new essay, former Middletown Mayor Paul Gionfriddo looks back on his career as a Connecticut state legislator who unknowingly made policy changes that adversely affected the mentally ill, including his now homeless adult son.

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Now 27 and living on the street in San Francisco, Tim, who grew up in Middletown and attended city schools, is at the heart of an Oct. 15 Washington Post piece, a portion of Gionfriddo’s September essay, How I Helped Create A Flawed Mental Health System That’s Failed Millions—And My Son, which ran in a nationally recognized health journal.

From his home in Lake Worth, Fla., Gionfriddo tells Middletown Patch, “I actually wrote the original piece for Health Affairs last month as a Narrative Matters essay; this is a lengthy, edited excerpt from that,” — My son is schizophrenic. The ‘reforms’ that I worked for have worsened his life.

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In his role as a six-term state legislator, policy consultant, and nonprofit executive, Gionfriddo has focused his work on public health, mental health, children's health, community health, primary care and long-term care policy.

It’s his role as a father to a schizophrenic son that allowed him a larger understanding of what a large undertaking advocating for a special education child in the public school system really is.

In the essay, Gionfriddo postures what he would have done differently as a lawmaker. Today, he tells Middletown Patch, there is much more he would have also done as a parent — had he known.

“I would enter every single bit of clinical data I could into the record of every [Planning and Placement Team] I attended, and make sure that every individualized education plan that is written incorporates that clinical information into the plan’s goals, objectives, and instructional modifications. 

“I would do this to promote the integration of health, behavioral health, and educational services for my child, because children cannot learn and teachers cannot teach if they only have some of the tools they need to succeed.”

Gionfriddo, who has been a member of the adjunct faculties of Wesleyan University and Trinity College, criticizes himself and other legislators. “It’s the policies of my generation of policymakers that put that formerly adorable toddler — now a troubled 6-foot-5 adult — on the street. And unless something changes, the policies of today’s generation of policymakers will keep him there,” he writes in the Post.

This is a fact those who have lived in Middletown for decades know — and remember. The 1980s, Gionfriddo says, “was the decade when many of the state’s large mental hospitals were emptied.”

In his Health Affairs article, he writes, “In my new legislative role, I jumped at the opportunity to move people out of “those places.” I initiated funding for community mental health and substance abuse treatment programs for adults, returned young people from institution-based ‘special school districts’ to schools in their home towns and provided for care coordinators to help manage the transition of people back into the community.”

Are you a Middletown Patch user? Connect today by clicking here.  Follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Get Middletown Patch breaking and daily newsletters here.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here