New questions plague DMH's records refusal
A growing number of people now claim the Mississippi Department of Mental Health didn't disclose its intentions to keep confidential a study whose participants believed it would be made public.
One of them, special-needs advocate Joy Hogge of Jackson-based Families As Allies, wants to retroactively withdraw her consent and have her information redacted from the report. She also wants the same courtesy extended to other participants who now feel deceived.
"In my opinion, negotiations should be suspended until this issue is resolved because right now the negotiations are based on a document created through deception," Hogge said. "I don't understand how the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice can justify that — it seems beyond ironic given the division's mission."
At issue is a recently completed study on children's mental health services conducted by Boston-based Technical Assistance Collaborative, a nonprofit organization with extensive experience in the area of mental health.
The Department of Mental Health entered into a $300,000 grant agreement with TAC to investigate and make recommendations on issues raised by a federal lawsuit against Mississippi on behalf of children with behavioral or emotional disorders.
That lawsuit, Troupe v. Barbour, triggered the 2011 Justice Department investigation that supported the plaintiff's assertion that the state fails to meet the needs of children and discriminates against those with mental health issues.
The Justice Department threatened its own legal action unless the state overhauled its mental health system.
The study started Oct. 1 and solicited interviews with parents of children with mental health issues along with other stakeholders. Participants said they were told the report would be public and that they wouldn't have participated otherwise.
"As one of the families who volunteered information for this study, I can assure you I was told many times the report would be available to the public," said Ramona Russum of Beaumont. "I was not 'under the assumption' the information would be publicly available; I was directly told that."
Russum said those statements came from TAC researcher Suzanne Fields and Justice Department trial attorney Ryan C. Wilson. Wilson would neither confirm nor deny that information but instead referred questions to the agency's public information office, which did not return a message.
Fields said she only recently learned the Department of Mental Health decided to withhold the report, which was delivered to the agency March 6.
"It was our understanding that the children's behavioral health assessment would be made publicly available," she said.
But the Department of Mental Health spokesman Adam Moore said the study was conducted "with the express understanding that it would be kept confidential and be protected by Rule 408 of the Federal Rules of Evidence."
Rule 408 exempts statements and settlement offers made during settlement negotiations from becoming evidence should the parties end up in court. It doesn't exempt public records from disclosure.
Only the Mississippi Public Records Act allows state agencies to withhold documents from the public under certain circumstances. Moore said at least one such circumstance applies: The report, he claims, is the product of an attorney representing a public body related to prospective litigation.
"Disclosure of sensitive settlement communications between parties while the mediation is on-going," Moore said, "would have a chilling effect on settlement negotiations and would be inconsistent with the core purpose of federal and state law promoting resolution of civil disputes short of litigation."
A second study — on adult mental health services — also included in the same grant agreement will be withheld, too. At least for now, Moore said.
"Any settlement agreements," he said, "reached as a result of TAC's involvement in the mediation will be publicly available and widely distributed."
Contact Emily Le Coz at (601) 961-7249 or elecoz@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @emily_lecoz on Twitter.