by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
Pat and Wayne Hogan have increased their determination, and their contribution, to help those who are often out of sight . . . and almost always out of mind.
Because of additional financial support from the Hogan Family Foundation, a fellowship has been established at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid to hire an attorney to help the mentally ill.
“This will be a plum job,” said Michael Figgins, JALA’s executive director. “There are not many jobs out there where a lawyer can actually work on behalf of the mentally ill in this type of context — to be an advocate and do what they can to implement change.
“We’re excited about the kind of talent we’re going to attract and what we’ll do with that talent once we get it on board at Legal Aid.”
Since 1999, the Hogan Family Foundation, along with a $60,000 public services grant from the City, has supported the Mental Health Advocacy Project at JALA. The director is Mary Kathryn Brennan, who runs the program with a paralegal and support staff.
“Pat, with her experience and background as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor, and me, in the practice of law, wondered whether there was something we could do that would join our practices and interests,” said Hogan. “We asked ourselves the question — who deals with the problems of people with mental health as it relates to law?
“Legal Aid was the natural answer.”
Pat Hogan, who is also a guardian ad litem, was motivated to get the project moving because of her case with a man who had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
“He had been an exemplary parent and had a stable life,” she said. “He worked very, very diligently, and his children were everything to him. But he came down horribly with this very, very bad chronic illness.”
When his wife divorced him, she told the court that he was a danger; she was afraid of him. He was court-ordered not to see his children.
“It was heart-breaking to me, because this man was having problems, but he was stabilized,” said Pat Hogan. “He had not been allowed to see his children for over two years.”
She also had been appointed by former Sheriff Nat Glover to serve on a committee to critique the way police officers deal with the mentally ill.
“There had been some shootings where the person was out of control,” Wayne Hogan said. “The police thought he was a criminal when he was acting out because of the mental illness.”
About 200 officers have now been trained to be better attuned to the possibility that a person causing a disturbance may be mentally ill.
“It’s designed to prevent a developing problem from getting out of control,” he said. “When that happens, it endangers the person having the problem, it endangers the police and it can endanger bystanders.”
The committee was chaired by former Mayor Tommy Hazouri.
Pat Hogan works for Corporate Care Works, a national employee assistance company. The business has contracts with hundreds of clients across the country, providing employee assistance services.
The nature of her job gives her an even greater appreciation than most have for the Byzantine maze of the health care system.
“I sit in my office sometimes,” she said, “and I’m with capable people. I have to help them make appointments to see their provider and their HMO.
“It’s very difficult to wade through that whole process. They can get confused. You can imagine what it would be like for someone who has a chronic psychosis, how difficult it is for people like that.”
Helping poor people work through difficult times is a JALA speciality.
“Legal Aid provides services to the underserved population generally,” Hogan pointed out. “A subset of that are those people who are mentally ill and don’t self-identify themselves as mentally ill.
“So you have a population that is already underserved and, within that, an additional population that is even less served because they don’t know to come in. They don’t recognize the source of their problem or who might be able to help.”
Earlier this year, the Hogans were recognized as Champions of Mental Health by the Mental Health Association of Northeast Florida for “selfless contributions to the community.”
The MHAP program helps adults and children who are in need.
“Many of the adults you see on the streets, most of the unfortunate ones, don’t even receive Social Security benefits, which not only provide a source of income but provide necessary medical treatment,” said Figgins.
Many children who are in foster care have mental health problems, he added. They’re often in court, “with nobody advocating for them.”
“Now, Mental Health Advocacy attorneys, particularly Mary Kay Brennan, is in the courthouse every day, in trial, representing these kids,” said Figgins. “She’s making sure they get the most suitable placement, which then will result in, hopefully, a recovery and a return to a lifestyle that is productive or, at least, independent.”
JALA also goes to the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless every week to determine who needs legal help.
JALA helps an estimated 250 people a year, through Social Security advocacy and representing children.
“For these people to all of a sudden find someone who is truly advocating for their best interest, that’s probably something they haven’t seen in a while,” said Figgins. “This is sort of the last frontier of civil rights injustices.”