AGAIN???!! This happens again??!! When will people wake up and see that postpartum psychosis is no joke? When will we develop better ways to treat and care for women with psychosis so that they aren’t in a position to harm themselves or others? My heart breaks all over again every time I read about another family destroyed due to postpartum psychosis. From The Columbian:

"A Vancouver mother was sentenced Tuesday to 24 years in prison for murdering her youngest child.

Kelly N. Meining, 32, pleaded guilty Sept. 12 to first-degree murder in the May 19, 2006, stabbing death of Bryce J. Meining, age 20 months …

Meining’s husband and parents told Clark County Superior Court Judge Diane Woolard on Tuesday that doctors and child protective services had failed Bryce and his mother, because they knew she was mentally ill.

Every time his wife saw a doctor about her hallucinations, insomnia and paranoia, we left the hospital with nothing more than a bottle of pills,’ Kris Meining said.

Sandy Reed said that in the years leading up to her grandson’s death, her daughter had been diagnosed with illnesses from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia to postpartum psychosis. She was prescribed 22 different medications, Reed said.

I love you, Kelly,’ Reed said before returning to her seat in the courtroom.

When it was the defendant’s turn to speak, Meining told Woolard she was tired of people making excuses.

‘I murdered my son, and there are no excuses,’ Meining said. ‘He was supposed to be safe with me, his mom.’

She said she knows her family is just trying to help, ‘but I deserve to be in prison’ …

The one request she made of Woolard was to allow contact visits with her daughter, 7, and son, 4. She has seen them every other month while incarcerated at the Clark County Jail, but only through a glass panel.

Woolard, after consulting with Kris Meining, agreed to supervised, contact visits so the children could hug their mother and attempt to maintain a relationship while she’s in prison.

I know it isn’t easy to treat people with psychosis. If they don’t take their medication they won’t get better. If they or their families refuse hospitalization, what can be done? If the people around them look the other way or if there is no one to care for them, how can they be monitored? How long should they be kept hospitalized?

I realize I don’t have all the facts of the case, and that Meining herself says that much of the responsibility lies with her, but couldn’t we do more to prevent this? Shouldn’t we?