11 April 2021
President Cynthia Lussier, RN
United Nurses and Allied Professionals Local 5019
375 Branch Avenue
Providence, RI 02904
Dear President Lussier:
I hope this message finds you well. I cannot thank you enough for the work your members do. My girlfriend works in retail and I see what she goes through each day. I can only imagine what it is like for your team.
I am writing because I am one of many Rhode Islanders watching the Zambarano Hospital saga. Like many people, I have friends who may be in need of services in the future. The pandemic has probably caused that number to rise.
Before I go further, I should probably be more specific. I am an addict and alcoholic with more than 18 years of clean and sober living one day at a time. I am Bipolar 1, got diagnosed with Narcissistic Personality Disorder at age 5, and suffer from Borderline Personality Disorder as well as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is not all bad. To go along with all that, I was also given the 145 IQ, Semi-eidetic memory, Creative, Sales, and Communication Skills package. Plato taught us all great minds were touched by madness. My above average one somehow got soaked.
Due to all that, I share a special relationship with many nurses. It could be because of the 100’s of folks I have brought to rehab. It could be because I go into hypomania 6 times a year and 1 of them requires a hospitalization. You really have not lived until an inanimate object starts talking to you in a foreign language like it was reading a bedtime story to a child. In reality, my visits to the hospital to manage my mental illness should be no different than someone having a disc adjusted but we both know that is not how the public sees things.
It was during one of these visits that a nurse turned me onto Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Not only has DBT helped me manage my daily affairs, but it has also saved my life twice. When I discovered the hard way that I was Bipolar 1 in 2012, I actually thought of myself as lucky. “Bipolar 2 people get depressed all the time and end it”, I thought. Turns out in Bipolar 1, mania can make you want to join a “club of talented and famous people” like Layne Staley, Chester Bennington, and Chris Cornell. If that nurse had not turned me onto DBT, one of the two times I would have ended it. A member of your profession is literally responsible for me breathing.
That in turn leads to the first question. Why was this hospital issue silent for so long until it started to explode this year?? I know I spent 2013-2019 living up in Utica, NY but I figured someone in the recovery or mental illness would have reached out. Is that silence part of the story?? Should we fix the silence?? If so, what is the best way to accomplish that and help your team at the same time??
The second question is broken down along the beliefs of the folks doing the investigating. Governor McKee is a good guy. However, he is horrible at reading the room. Women are dominant in our Party. He ignores this and instead decides to offend everyone by hanging out with two women hating Mayors: Mayor Lombardi of North Providence and Mayor Polisena of Johnston. Since your name is Cynthia, these gentlemen would prefer you to be barefoot and pregnant. Mayor Polisena believes that so much that he brought a fake fetus to the Senate Floor in an attempt to deny women’s access to health care via statute. Each time Governor McKee throws a compliment to these two, or appoints them to Committees sometimes as Chair, he reminds every woman in our state that he could care less about women’s health care. How can you trust him on any health issue involving women who may need services??
While Mayor Polisena did what he did almost two decades ago, Senator DiPalma denied simple “Abortion is Health Care” legislation in the Rhode Island Senate just weeks ago. He did that in 2021. Yes, Senator DiPalma is great for folks with disabilities provided they are male. For women, once again it is the 1950’s and making kids and brownies is what he expects from you. He does not want women in the workforce. How is he to be trusted??
As bad as all that is, Representative Serpa on the House side has them beat. As a woman, she takes the house person position that folks of her own gender should not be making decisions for their own bodies. We know she stole from taxpayers under Speaker Mattiello. In a few weeks, an incident is going to come to light where she will be caught in writing engaging in mental health and addiction shaming. After you receive this letter, a number of gay folks may reach out to you so they can share stories of how she has demeaned and insulted them. Can we really trust a bigoted thief to do the right thing regarding our hospitals??
By the way, I understand if you read all that and say, “Don’t worry Bobby, we got it handled. They may have flaws but in this case, we are getting exactly what we need.” Since so many in our state are viewing these proceedings with skepticism, what happens when the folks making decisions are living in another time, addressing these issues would be helpful.
Please tell us how to help you get us where we need to be. Turns out in just a couple of weeks, now that I am back from New York and the pandemic is receding a bit, I am opening a bank account for my Political Action Committee. In this manner I can put force behind the cute letters I write.
By the way, if anyone in your care or anyone on your team is struggling with addiction issues, my experience, strength, and hope is always available. Helping others keeps me sober so it is in my interest too. I would hate to find out we concentrated on “big organizational issues” and ignored someone trying to live 24 hours at a time in the process.
America was getting closer to a point where those suffering, especially from diseases of the mind, were seen as people needing help and not those to be scoffed at. Then Donald Trump came along and set us back a decade or two. If we all work together, we have the talent to regain the lost ground. Losing DMX this week not only taught me how lucky I am but reinforced the idea that regaining ground on these issues is a necessary struggle.
Thank you for your time and consideration. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
In Hoc Signo,
Robert T. Oliveira
315-864-1229
Warwick, RI
Quahogs United 