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Sunday, November 14, 2004
'Timmy's death will not be in vain'
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||
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CAPE ELIZABETH — Four months after Timmy Thompson took his life, his parents are left with concerns and questions about his psychiatric treatment. Still grieving the loss of their son, the Thompsons search for answers about how they and Timmy's doctors could have prevented his suicide. "We feel there were some balls dropped during his care and we don't want other kids to go through this," says his father, Tim Thompson. "We may have a lot of good resources in Maine, but if families don't know how to access them or they aren't given the proper information, it doesn't do a whole lot of good." The Thompsons have vowed to push for better psychiatric services in Maine, where teen suicide is the second-leading cause of death and is higher than the national average. Since their son's death July 24, the Thompsons have begun talking publicly to teens and families in their community about suicide and mental illness. They hope to continue that conversation with local and state counseling agencies. "Timmy's death will not be in vain," Nancy Thompson says. "There are so many kids who are depressed or trying to kill themselves in Maine. The system needs to get better. It has to." As Timmy's mental health deteriorated last summer, the Thompsons were frightened as they sought answers and help for their son. They now understand that Timmy likely suffered from bipolar disease and deep depression when he died. They also learned that a person is most at risk for suicide during the onset of a severe mental illness. Young people like their son, who was 18, are especially vulnerable. They understand now, too, how critical it was for Timmy to stay on mood-stabilizing drugs to control his depression. The month before his death, Timmy stopped taking medication prescribed to ease his severe mood swings. His parents say he chose to restart medication at the advice of a counselor just before his suicide. "Timmy was probably terrified of what was happening to him," his father says. "As parents, we were scared to death, too. We were racing as fast as we could to get him help. But it wasn't enough." As far as his family can tell, Timmy never disclosed to anyone - not his doctors, family or friends - that he was considering suicide. His parents now say they wish they had received more advice from Timmy's psychiatrists on the importance of mood-stabilizing drugs for their son, who had suffered psychosis, manic behavior and serious depression. In the months after their son's suicide, the Thompsons have met with Timmy's counselors and the chief of psychiatry at Spring Harbor Hospital, where Timmy was evaluated. None of the counselors, psychiatrists or the hospital staff who treated Timmy will comment on his care, citing confidentiality laws. But they agreed to speak in general about procedures they follow when treating patients. Parents of patients admitted to Spring Harbor routinely learn results and any medication recommendations for young adults, 18 or older, as long as the patient grants permission. "Generally speaking, we'd want to try and include parents as long as we have permission to do so," said Dr. Girard Robinson, chief medical officer for Spring Harbor and Maine Medical's psychiatry department. "Families can be an important part of support." Young patients experiencing their first bouts of mental illness are often the most complicated to treat and diagnose, Robinson said. "It's a very challenging time for young people," Robinson said. "They're coping with the fact they have an illness and it can be frightening. They can feel out of control." A psychiatrist's initial visits with patients are critical, Robinson said. Building trust and an alliance is important if the psychiatrist wants to succeed in treating a patient. "Someone early on who is reluctant to take medication is often a dilemma for clinicians," Robinson said. "You may be talking to an individual who may have to be medicated lifelong and be relating to the mental health system for a long time. "You're always balancing not wanting to alienate them from the system or their medication." The Thompsons' son expressed some reluctance to take medications for his illness. When he turned 18, Timmy stopped taking the medication he had been prescribed since childhood to manage his attention deficit disorder symptoms. After suffering a psychotic break last summer, Timmy was placed on Zyprexia, a mood-stabilizing drug. He took the drug for a little over a week and then decided to discontinue it after his stay at Spring Harbor the weekend of June 25. Timmy eventually went back on Zyprexia nearly a month after he was released from the hospital. But he only began taking the drug a few days before his suicide. "The drug never got the chance to work," Tim Thompson says. Three weeks after he was discharged from the hospital, Timmy was accepted into The PIER Program. The Maine Medical Center-based psychiatric program attempts to prevent serious mental illnesses from progressing in adolescents and young adults. Though the family was relieved their son was going to receive treatment, they question whether Timmy was bombarded with too many questions at a fragile point in his life. The day before he died, Timmy spent three hours alone with PIER staff, who asked Timmy several questions about his family mental health history. Timmy came home with questions of his own about relatives who suffered from serious mental illnesses. "All these questions were stirring up things in his mind," Tim Thompson says. "And at the time I'm not sure that was a good thing for Timmy. His head was already spinning. As parents, I wish we had known more about what they were asking him, so we could have given him more support." Family support does play an important role in the PIER Program, says its director, William McFarlane, who is a psychiatrist. "We put a huge amount of emphasis on training and guiding the family," McFarlane said. "Families can become a powerful force in preventing psychosis." Created in 2001 with grant funding and private money, PIER offers help to Cumberland County and northern York County young people who may be having early symptoms of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or psychosis. If a young person has a genetic risk to these illnesses, it can be triggered by stress, McFarlane said. Often these mental diseases strike young people when they're graduating from high school or leaving home for college or the military. PIER teaches patients how to reduce and manage stress, along with offering them counseling and medication advice. "These disorders strike people at the prime of life," McFarlane said. "A lot of the theory is, if you can prevent the onset of psychosis, you can prevent a lot of the disability. . . . If you wait, the disease progresses and it's like trying to stop a freight train." The PIER Program now has 70 patients and many of them, like Timmy, suffer from deep depression and thoughts of suicide, McFarlane said. "We do everything we can in this very vulnerable period to prevent that from happening," McFarlane said. "But this is our business, trying to deal with people who are at high risk for suicide and psychosis." Staff Writer Barbara Walsh can be contacted at 791-6382 or at:
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