Tuscaloosa man whose case changed mental health care in U.S. has died

[The Straight Story]

Tuscaloosa man whose case changed mental health care in U.S. has died


MONTGOMERY | Ricky Wyatt, the man whose lawsuit over mental health conditions in Alabama led to landmark changes in treatment nationwide, died Tuesday at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa. He was 57 and had lived in Cottondale.

Wyatt was 15 years old in 1970 when he became the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed against the Alabama Department of Mental Health over conditions at Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa. The case, Wyatt v. Stickney, became a class action that took more than 30 years to resolve. Stonewall Stickney was the state’s mental health commissioner when the suit was filed.

Wyatt, who had no diagnosis of mental illness, had been a patient at Bryce, a state-run psychiatric hospital. His testimony brought to light conditions and abuses at Bryce that were designed to house patients and make them more manageable, rather than provide rehabilitation or medical treatment. In 1971, the case widened to include two other state mental health facilities, Searcy Hospital and Camp Partlow.

On March 12, 1971, U.S. District Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. ruled that Alabama’s failure to provide adequate medical treatment to several thousand patients was a violation of their civil liberty and due process. The ruling — and the court-ordered agreements that followed — became the basis for federal minimum standards for those with mental illness in institutional settings.

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20111103/NEWS/111109961