Elmer Smith: It's time for the mentally impaired to be full citizens

JEFFREY BOHEN watched Russell Crowe's portrayal of schizophrenic scientist John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind" and saw himself.

Not just himself, but the thousands of people whose struggles with mental illness or retardation are complicated by the fact that people refuse to see them as functioning members of society.

"I thought, '[Nash] is not the exception. He's not an anomaly,' " Bohen said.

"There are thousands of us who live normal lives. We go beyond our illness. It doesn't define us."

Bohen is bipolar and a recovering addict. That doesn't define him. But he doesn't live a normal life either.

He is driven. He is a journalism student at Temple University, a member of the Bucks County Mental Health/Mental Retardation Advisory Board and a certified peer specialist who works with people who have dual diagnoses or other forms of mental and emotional disabilities.

And, lately, he has become active in efforts to get mentally disabled people back on the voter rolls.

"It started as a suggestion at the end of a meeting of the Bucks County Mental Health/Mental Retardation board," Bohen recalled. "The idea came up that some of the nonprofits may want to make voter registration and turnout a priority in the future."

It set off a chain reaction in his thinking. He had been influenced by the New Freedom Commission's 2003 report on integrating people with mental illnesses into the general community. He couldn't think of a better way for his peers to establish their place in the community than for them to become voters.

"We are about 14 percent of the [Pennsylvania] population," Bohen said, "maybe a million people.

"I deal on a daily basis with the whole continuum of people with co-occurring diagnoses who are in recovery.

"We are just like everybody else, but we are dealing with different challenges. It's across the spectrum, people with severe, persistent mental illness to people with personality disorders, depression, substance abuse and other disorders.

"About 1,200 of us [in Pennsylvania] are certified peer specialists. We are evidence that you can succeed despite the stigma.

"At the local level, we help people with disabilities to register. Becoming part of their communities can be a huge step in their recovery.

"Part of our community-support program is to go and talk to them. One thing we run into is these myths. They hear that it's illegal for people with mental illnesses to vote."

Kay Shriner, a research fellow at the Fulbright Institute, argues that those "myths" are based in reality.

"The only other group of Americans who are still disenfranchised," she argued in a 2005 report, "are convicted felons."

As recently as 2006, 44 states had laws that restricted or prohibited voting by people with serious mental disorders.

Pennsylvania law does not specifically prohibit those who are mentally disabled or who are confined to mental institutions from voting. But a person confined to an institution may not vote by absentee ballot.

For Bohen, that law just defines the challenge. He is part of a group that picks up people - some of whom are confined to institutions - in vans and takes them to register or to vote.

Their results in this area are far from dramatic so far, he says.

"I don't think legislators see us as a serious voting bloc," he said. "About 14 percent of the people with disabilities voted in Pennsylvania. Who is going to take that seriously?

"But we're already working on next election. There are monthly conference calls from the disability-rights coalition. They talk about how some of the agencies that service that community can mobilize to get people out to register and vote.

"We have our own issues, like parity in insurance coverage for mental-health conditions, patients' rights, SSI issues."

They're all important. But none is more important than the basic issue of allowing people with mental disabilities to become active citizens again.

Send e-mail to smithel@phillynews.com or call 215-854-2512. For recent columns: http://go.philly.com/smith