'Victim of the system': Protest demands change after death of ex-Slater Hospital patient
CRANSTON — Friends and family of the late Charlene Liberty — including her mother, sister, brother and 22-year-old daughter — gathered outside the Rhode Island state hospital in grief and anger on Saturday morning.
In their words and in their hand-painted signs, they asked how a patient placed on one-on-one observation — the highest level of observation for any patient "until they day of her release" — was able to stockpile the pills she used to overdose while she was still in the hospital, get hold of — and swallow — the top of a razor and then get "released into society."
"Neglect," said the sign carried by her aunt, Jo Ann Liberty.
"R.I.P. Charlene Liberty," said the sign her daughter Breanna Liberty Policastro, of Pawtucket, carried.
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"We will continue your fight for JUSTICE against inhumane treatment from the system. Your death will not be in vain."
Charlene Liberty died on April 7, 2022, less than two months after she was discharged from the psychiatric wing of Eleanor Slater Hospital under circumstances that are being investigated by Disability Rights Rhode Island.
There has been no official ruling on the cause of Liberty's death.
But based on the known history so far, Disability Rights Rhode Island opened an investigation into "Ms. Liberty’s treatment, discharge, and death.”
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Hospital officials stand by discharge plan
In an opinion piece that ran in Saturday's Journal, Elinore McCance-Katz, the chief medical officer of the hospital, and Barry Wall, the director of forensic services, disputed "recently reported public statements [that] have suggested that the hospital ... releases patients without plans for continued treatment or an established network to provide continued care."
"This could not be further from the truth," they wrote.
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"The court must approve the discharge of all court-ordered patients and include discharge plans with ongoing recommended treatment," they wrote.
But the family and friends of the late Charlene Liberty — and Disability Rights Rhode Island, a watchdog group with federally authorized investigative powers — contend that the 38-year-old Liberty died a "victim of the system."
Days before her release, a psychiatrist signed a statement warning that Liberty's "unsupervised presence in the community would create a likelihood of ... substantial harm to herself or others."
The psychiatrist's Feb. 1 statement — independently obtained by The Journal — was based on her history of self-harm and "suicidal behaviors, including swallowing razor blades, hitting her head against walls, and overdosing on medications."
“Charlene Liberty was hospitalized at Eleanor Slater Hospital and was abruptly discharged on February 10, 2022," Morna Murray, director of Disability Rights Rhode Island, said in a statement to The Journal on May 11.
She was released to her mother's care in Cranston "without sufficient community supports," according to the watchdog group.
"We vow to not let her death be in vain as we investigate the failures of the systems that are intended to protect the most vulnerable among us, and instead too often lead to harm and even death," Murray wrote.
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A prisoner before she was a patient
Charlene Liberty had a troubled history.
She was a prisoner before she was a patient and the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit Liberty v. Rhode Island Department of Corrections, according to Murray.
The lawsuit pending in U.S. District Court alleges that the state prison system "subject(s) hundreds of people to prolonged solitary confinement in tiny, frequently filthy cells where they are kept locked down for 22 to 24 hours a day for weeks, months, and even years at a time ... (with) little human contact or access to exercise, fresh air and sunlight."
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In Liberty's case, the lawsuit alleges: "The conditions in solitary confinement [drove] Ms. Liberty to engage in serious self-injurious behaviors, including multiple suicide attempts."
"Exacerbating her mental health problems, Defendants ... ordered that she be placed in leg shackles and belly chains, as well as a restraint chair, and that pepper-spray be used to address self-harm behaviors."
From the prison she was sent to the state hospital, which the family initially welcomed, according to her sister, Elisha Liberty.
Elisha Liberty said the family was largely unaware of the severity of the problems her sister faced until after she died, because they were all very careful about what they said, out of concern about being overheard.
But she said they were aware Charlene felt she was overmedicated, "and didn't feel right in her head. She couldn't think straight. And it made her feel, like fuzzy and careless."
'Those who cannot speak for themselves depend on us'
Elisha Liberty organized the protest that brought more than a dozen people to the sidewalk outside the Benton Center, on the Eleanor Slater Hospital's Cranston campus.
"Let's stop the abuse and neglect that happens at Eleanor Slater Hospital," she wrote in a Facebook post, announcing the event in advance.
"May Charlene’s death bring change to the future treatments by the doctors, nurses and staff that work there. Those who cannot speak for themselves depend on us."
Paul Rianna, an outspoken activist against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers, was among those who turned out. He has mounted an independent campaign for governor.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Charlene Liberty's family alleges neglect at hospital led to her death
