I estimate that there are 10,000 people that rotate in and out of locked psychiatric facilities or units each year in Alaska for a forced evaluation or treatment. State agencies, and that includes the Mental Health Trust Authority, do not know the number or the type of patient complaints, injuries, and traumatic events experienced by psychiatric patients. That lack of curiosity by state agencies of the conditions that patients with a disability face sets the table for psychiatric patient mistreatment.
The Alaska legislature delegated the state’s responsibility of protecting psychiatric patients with a disability during the grievance process. The legislature in 1992 put the owners of psychiatric hospitals in charge of writing the patient grievance procedure and helping patients fill out the grievance forms. With the passing of the patient grievance law AS47.30.847, the fox was put in charge of guarding the henhouse. The owners of psychiatric facilities by the same law were also put in charge of informing psychiatric patients of their grievance rights—big mistake.
In Alaska, 98% of acute care psychiatric patient complaint forms are filled out or revised by hospital employees that have a vested interest in not helping to file an effective complaint against the hospital they work for. It is the same percentage for community care. Because of decades of psychiatric patient mistreatment, most large psychiatric facilities in the lower 48 have done away with primarily hospital employees filling out or revising patient complaints and grievance forms.
The 23-year-old investigative reporter, Nellie Bly, spent 10 days locked in New York’s Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum for Women 138 years ago. Bly asked and answered the following question: “Do the women pine for home? Excepting the most violent cases, they are conscious that they are confined in an asylum. An only desire that never dies is the one for release, for home.”
In the months I spent locked up in psychiatric facilities in Alaska and talking to fellow patients, from my point-of-view, not much has changed in 138 years. Psychiatric patients in a locked facility still want to recover and go back home and the state of Alaska is not giving patients the best opportunity to do that. It has been my experience that psychiatric patients in locked facilities have not been given a voice and are poorly protected.
Alaska state law AS47.30.847 gives psychiatric patients the right to file grievance. But there is no mention in the law of an administrative appeal process past the walls of a locked psychiatric facility. Alaska may be the only state that depends heavily on the federal government and hospital certification regulations to protect acute care psychiatric patients and not state laws, regulations, and oversight. Especially in the patient grievance process.
Psychiatric patients in Alaska have rights that are 40 years behind best practice and that can have serious consequences for a person with a severe mental illness that ends up being locked in a psychiatric facility or unit. As an example: patients with poor rights are more vulnerable to institutional abuse, recidivism and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Alaska is a newcomer at protecting patients in locked psychiatric facilities and providing care that gives patients the best opportunity for recovery and rejoining society. It was not until March 1st, l962, that the state-run Alaska Psychiatric Institute opened its doors with 50 beds. The first CEO was Dr. Stanley J. Rogers. By 1964, there were 157 patients at API.
By contrast psychiatric hospitalization in the lower 48 dates to the late 1700’s. Early hospitals were called “asylums.” Twelve asylums banded together to attempt to provide treatment for people with a mental illness and established what is now known as the American Psychiatric Association. Some of the state psychiatric facilities had as many as 5,000 patients.
The lower 48 has a 3-century headstart on figuring out how to provide protection for people in locked psychiatric facilities. To save psychiatric patients from mistreatment, Alaska state agencies and the legislature can adopt in laws and regulations what has been established over a 3-century period through trial and error as best practice in psychiatric patient rights and care.
The health of a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. In 2026, the Alaska Legislature will have an opportunity to update antiquated psychiatric patient protection laws and regulations to best practice. A good place to start is to hold a hearing on the subject.
Faith J. Myers is the author of the book, “Going Crazy in Alaska.” She has spent more than seven months locked in psychiatric facilities in Alaska.
