(nee Jewitt) Suddenly November 24, 1998; beloved wife of John F. Scanlon; dearest mother of Kelly Scanlon, Kerri Knapik and Sheena Scanlon; dear grandmother of Jocelyn Law and Brittney Knapik; loving daughter of Allen E. and Joyce S. (nee Risdon) Jewitt Sr.; sister of April J. Gaines, Janice L. Lanford, Annette C. Rucker, Aileen J. (John A.) Tackett, Araine G. (Kenneth M.) Banks and Allen E. Jewitt Jr.; daughter-in-law of Ruth and the late William Scanlon Sr.; sister-in-law of Pamela (Martin) Rademacher, Donna (Thomas) Scanlon-Jaffe, Thomas Scanlon, Mark (Cristina) Scanlon and the late William (Mary) Scanlon Jr.; also survived by many loving family members. Funeral services Saturday morning at 8:45 from the (Hamburg Chapel) of the JOHN J. KACZOR FUNERAL HOME, INC., 5453 Southwestern Blvd. (corner of Rogers Rd., 646-5555) and at Our Lady of Grace Church at 9:30. Interment in Lakeside Memorial Cemetery. Friends invited. Family present Thursday 7-9 and Friday 2-4 and 7-9PM.
Judi was murdered by one of her mental-health clients when she was conducting a home visit in 1998. Judi was a registered nurse and intensive-case manager for Buffalo Psychiatric Center.
DAUGHTER OF SLAIN CASE WORKER PLEADS FOR LAWS TO PROTECT MENTAL HEALTH STAFF
Kelly Scanlon knows it is too late to save her mother’s life, but she is trying to encourage state lawmakers to pass legislation that would protect other state mental health workers.
The 28-year-old Angola woman testified Friday at an Assembly hearing in downtown Buffalo that these state workers could face the same deadly violence as her mother.
Judith K. Scanlon, a 44-year-old mental health intensive case manager, was murdered two years ago by Diane Wylie after she went to the mentally disturbed woman’s West Side apartment.
“As the eldest daughter of a victim of violence, I cannot tell you enough of the fear and torment that follows me every day since I lost my mother,” Scanlon said in addressing Assemblyman Jim Brennan, D-Brooklyn, chairman of the Assembly’s Mental Health, Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Committee.
In speaking up for mental health workers, Scanlon said there is no reason why these employees should have to fear for their lives in dealing with mentally ill individuals who are prone to violence.
“Where is it written in their job description that pain and suffering and, yes, even death is a possible consequence for their services?” Scanlon asked, adding that severe cutbacks in state funding have created hazardous conditions for both workers and patients.
Two bills pending in the State Legislature would address a number of concerns raised by workers and unions representing them:
Allowing a second state employee to accompany a mental health worker when visiting the homes of clients who may turn violent.
Providing cellular telephones to workers who go into these homes, so that should the need arise, they can call police for assistance.
Annual training of mental health workers on how to deal with dangerous situations.
Increasing staffing levels in state mental health care facilities.
Thousands of mentally ill people, Scanlon said, are being released into the community without services to ensure safe transitions.
Pressure to release the patients has dramatically increased in the last decade as the number of psychiatric hospital beds dropped from about 15,000 to 6,500.
A month before Judith Scanlon was fatally stabbed with a knife and beaten with a hammer by the 46-year-old Wylie in her West Ferry Street apartment, Kelly Scanlon’s mother-in-law was assaulted at the Buffalo Psychiatric Center.
“My mother-in-law works at the psychiatric center as a nurse, and she was attacked by a patient. The injuries disabled her for a month,” Scanlon said.
Such treatment of state mental health workers is not unusual, according to testimony Friday from about a dozen state workers and union officials.
Rhonda Bedow, a Buffalo Psychiatric Center nurse, told how a male patient in 1996 beat her because he was upset over being denied a cigarette.
“He continues to harass me when he sees me in the hallways at the center,” said Bedow, who underwent extensive rehabilitative surgery to her jaw.
Both Brennan and Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, expressed surprise when told that the patient was never criminally charged.
Paul Shea, another psychiatric center nurse, offered the state legislators a list of attacks against him over the years.
“I’ve had stitches in my head, my clothes torn and there’s an indentation in my leg from a large bite,” said Shea, who added that most mental health patients are nonviolent.
But the violent ones make life dangerous for mental health employees, said Shea, a nurse for 33 years at the psychiatric center.
“The persons we serve are much younger and they are often chemically addicted. Conversely, the staff is much older and mostly female,” Shea said.
After the hearing, Hoyt said he intended to expand the legislation he is sponsoring with State Senator George D. Maziarz, R-North Tonawanda.
“I want all state workers who make home visits to the mentally ill or developmentally disabled to have the option of requesting a second worker if it is necessary, and I want them to have cellular telephones so that they can call for help if it is needed,” Hoyt said. “No state worker should have to go to work each day fearing that his or her life is threatened.”
Wylie, who was convicted in the Nov. 13, 1998, killing of Judith Scanlon, was sentenced in May to a prison term of 25 years to life.
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