Content Warning: This petition discusses patient deaths, medical neglect, physical violence, and sexual harassment.

You can sign this petition regardless of location. Your voice matters because national attention pressures Massachusetts leaders to act and protects everyone who enters this state's mental health system.

My name is And Steiner. I am a Queer, gender-diverse patient that has been hospitalized in Massachusetts' (MA) Department of Mental Health (DMH) hospitals for four years because of severe suicidality with suicide attempts.

During that time, I have endured three attempts by DMH to suddenly discharge me from treatment without appropriate support, a practice known as “patient dumping”. It usually occurs when insurance has denied coverage or a patient has become a legal liability. It is dangerous, and it is often deadly. 

While under DMH’s care, I have learned of at least two patient deaths from serious medical neglect, and one suspected death.

Haywood Earl was a Black (pictured below)  man who died "a painful and untimely death" from medical neglect at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, according to an investigation by Disability Law Center. Disability Law Center also investigated the death of CaSonya King (pictured above), a Black woman who they concluded “died needlessly” from being "patient dumped" from a psychiatric hospital.

It is suspected that Jean Bash, a transgender patient at Lemuel Shattuck, died similarly. All minorities. All died needlessly.

When I learned of their deaths I was devastated. I reported Jean's death to DMH Authority, Attorney General Campbell and Governor Maura Healey in Jan 2023. 

After I made that report, I was transferred to a dangerous forensic ward without due process. I was under no criminal investigation. There, I spent fifteen months enduring relentless physical assaults, as well as verbal and sexual harassment, often directly related to my sexual orientation and gender identity.

Here's a picture of my injuries from one of the many assaults I endured during my time in the forensic ward. A patient tried to gouge out my right eye. DMH didn't even transfer the patient to another floor.

Because of my own experiences with abuse and neglect at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, and their own attempts to patient dump me, I was not shocked when I learned that Haywood Earl was died due to neglect here. I was not shocked that Jean Bash, in this same hospital, was abused and patient dumped into a dangerous living environment where she killed herself shortly afterwards. 

Nor was I shocked when a staff member at Lemuel Shattuck alleged that they have evidence of systemic abuse against Queer people at this facility.

- Note: specific names have of staff members who have reported abuse and neglect at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital from this public petition. I am prepared to share their identities and detailed accounts directly with the MCAD, the District Attorney, the Attorney General, or Governor Healey's office upon request.

Massachusetts prides itself on being a haven for Queer, Black, Brown, and Indigenous people. These documented deaths, alongside staff allegations and my own abuse, raise a serious question: Are Black, Brown, Queer, and Indigenous patients in MA DMH hospitals facing neglect and abuse at statistically higher rates? We deserve an independent investigation, because concern is not enough and one needless death is too many. indep

Immediate Demands

• We call on the District Attorney with jurisdiction over Lemuel Shattuck Hospital to conduct a full investigation into the deaths of Jean Bash and Haywood Earl. We call on the District Attorney with jurisdiction over CaSonya King’s death to conduct a full investigation into the patient dumping that led to her death.

 

• We call on Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell to investigate whether patient dumping and medical neglect at DMH hospitals constitute a pattern of civil rights violations, and whether these practices disproportionately harm Black, Brown, Queer, and Indigenous patients.

 

• We call on Governor Maura Healey—Massachusetts' first openly Queer governor—to direct DMH and the Department of Public Health to cooperate fully with these independent investigations, and to issue policy guidance protecting racial, sexual orientation, and gender minorities from medical neglect in state psychiatric facilities.

 

• If warranted, we urge the Governor and the legislature to create laws and policies providing enforceable protections for racial, sexual orientation, and gender minorities against medical neglect in Massachusetts hospital systems.

Our Vision

We are fighting to improve the quality of life for all psychiatric patients in Massachusetts. We want all DMH hospitals to become models of safe, respectful and culturally competent care. 

To make that happen we hope to build a patient-led, community-driven grassroots organization that monitors healthcare providers, promotes accountability, and ensures safe, culturally competent care for Black Brown, Queer and Indigenous populations. 

CLICK HERE to read an article about Haywood Earl, a 60 year old Black man who an investigation concluded was killed by neglect at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital.

CLICK HERE to read an article about CaSonya King. A black woman who died by being "patient dumped", similarly to a transgender woman, Jean Busch.

CLICK HERE to read a message to supporters from Antonia Nagy, filmmaker and owner of CaveLight Productions.     

If you would like to get involved or have you or your loved one's story of medical neglect or psychiatric abuse in Massachusetts featured in an update please email MAmedicalneglect@pm.me

Please consider posting about this petition on social media and donating. All donations go directly to change.org to promote the petition. Please consider sharing and commenting.