I took this photo of myself voicelessly whistling. Even though I am a whistleblower, I cannot actually whistle. My family can attest to this fact. The letter below is what we wrote today to Carl Clark, the current CEO of Mental Health Center of Denver as a follow up to a previous letter that I will also put here in my personal website where I get to write whatever I want.

Our suicidal children have not received good care, if any at all, as private and medicaid insurance paid patients of Mental Health Center of Denver and I want my friends to know. I want the whole world to know. That’s an understatement, but the truth is I’m trying to tone it down. That’s the directive I’ve gotten used to while working inside Colorado’s state education agency. And it’s also really upsetting to have to bare my soul and air my dirty laundry just to raise awareness. It’s sickening and maddening to realize that LinkedIn is a more effective way to get the attention of human service business owners and most of them are just out for themselves anyway. In the mental health business this seems to be the only way. Engaging willingly and advocating vigorously for your healthcare gets you tossed out or retaliated against or neglected. It also requires hiring lots of attorneys and wasting a lot of time, so this is what I wrote. Have a 1m3s PEACE full weekend ✌🏼✌🏼

Dear MHCD CEO Carl Clark MD ,

I can’t believe we have to keep writing you publicly, but it is clear to us that what our family has uncovered about your mental health business practice is true. Your staff that has been responsible for caring for our children told us that they did not know how to request prior authorization from Colorado Access Medicaid for different levels of care outside of Mental Health Center of Denver until we advocated for it. Now at least these few people who work for you do.

What is also clear is that your staff does not respect or understand the mental health issues for which their patients are seeking treatment. We do not believe this is limited to Deaf and hard of hearing patients or our children. This may be an MHCD policy and practice issue, but regardless it is a human services issue and a human rights issue. It’s wrong.

We hope to be able to work through your internal complaint/public relations process and obtain records more easily than obtaining the mental health services we still need. That was an impossibly long wait and a battle that we wouldn’t wish on any human being, especially a child! Our only regret is that we actually encouraged our children to give your mental health business another try. Lesson learned. Thankfully, not too late.

Answer this one question, please. What does “not really suicidal”mean? Is that a medical industry standard?

Respectfully,
Lisa and Jason Rudofsky

Parents