Spotlight PA - spotlightpa.org

The Behavioral Corner 
Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the Behavioral Corner; you're invited to hang with us, as we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and wellbeing. So you're on the corner, the Behavioral Corner, please hang around a while.

 

Steve Martorano 
Welcome again to the Behavioral Corner where we hang. What a job I get to hang on the Corner, see the folks coming and going. And, you know, as luck would have it, we bump into some very interesting people on the Behavioral Corner. What it's all about, briefly, is well behavioral health big topic. What's that mean? I'll tell you, it simply put behavioral health are the decisions we make. choices, activities we engage in, and the impact all of that has on our emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being. Big topic. Covers lots of stuff. So we're grateful to have with us somebody who is in a field who also is about the business of keeping an eye out on everything. Our guest is an investigative journalist, Ed Mahon. And he is with something called Spotlight PA. That's how he caught our attention here on the Behavioral Corner is an extraordinary group about what you'll learn more in a moment. They are in groups like them around the country, what I think to be the last best hope for any kind of meaningful journalism that we're going to get. So we welcome to the Behavioral Corner, our guests, investigative journalist, and he's an award winner.  Ed, thanks for joining us on the Corner. 

Ed Mahon 
Thanks so much for having me. 

Steve Martorano 
No, our pleasure -- our pleasure. I see your stuff in the Inquirer there, one of your collaborators. But we ought to begin for people outside of the area where we are to learn as much as we can about the nature of the Spotlight Pa tell us tell us about? Sure.

Ed Mahon 
We are a partnership of several newsrooms across Pennsylvania -- The Philadelphia Inquirer PennLive, The Patriot-News in central PA, TribLIVE, Pittsburgh Tribune Review in western PA, and WITF Public Media, which is a radio station in also in central PA. They've sort of combined to create this one newsroom based -- it started out based in Harrisburg, focused on state government and issues affecting people across Pennsylvania. And really, the focus is on accountability and investigative work, trying to do stories that for whatever reason, aren't being covered or taking time to dig deeper into stories that are being covered. And that we've spread out we have some reporters across the state now. But I'm based south of Harrisburg,

Steve Martorano 
Just a background for some folks who might not understand why something like this would come together, the stories that you talked about the purview that you guys have, as a watchdog more or less what's going on behind those doors that we need to know about. That story and those stories are not being covered, for a multitude of reasons, as you mentioned, that least of which is resources, newspapers, traditionally, the organizations that would do this, as we know have been decimated by new media. They don't have the resources individually. So you can see how like minded people will go, well, let's collaborate, let's let's share what resources are left among us, and maybe get some of the parts to be greater than the whole. So you know, that Spotlight. Your mission, again, is to keep an eye on people who need to be kept an eye on briefly, it's sort of be self evident. But I'll ask the dumb question anyway. Why was this necessary?

Ed Mahon 
I think, sort of going back. It's I think it started with a lot of state capitals across the country, the newsrooms there shrunk dramatically over time. And so I think that was the initial idea for Spotlight. You've seen sort of similar institutions across the country train, and pop up to fill that void. I think Texas Tribune, most famously in Texas, sort of popped up to fill that void. And in Spotlight, it was, it was the same idea. It was the idea that state government wasn't getting the attention that needed to get covered. And so these newsrooms decided to partner and really give it that focus and really do like the investigative accountability work. So yeah, man, so some of the stories I work on, you know, I spent a lot of time on them. And, you know, it's the kind of stuff that I might not get the same freedom to do. And if you're churning out daily stories,

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, anybody with even a passing familiarization with the kind of journalism you do knows that in addition to resources, time is what you need. Because these stories are about you go into your editor, you say, here's what I think we should take a look at. And it's not, you know, who shot who. It's complicated and long process takes a lot of digging. So "time," yes, are really, really gifted for what you get now. So let me ask you, then we'll then we'll get down to some of the stories that caught our interest that you and spotlight were responsible for. That more directly relate to behavioral health. For people in our area who might not have direct access to the Inquirer -- maybe you don't subscribe to maybe they're not near that radio station or the other local newspapers. Is there a way that they can access Spotlight's work directly?

Ed Mahon 
Yeah, absolutely. SpotlightPA.org is our website, you can find all of our stories there. We also have a daily newsletter that we send out every weekday PA Posts that you can sign up for there, which is a great resource, not only for our stories, but for sort of a look around the state about what's happening. And then we have a weekly newsletter. And then the other thing too is we have partners. We have our like core partners, but then we have affiliates that I think we have like several dozen now that pick up our story. So right. So like a variety of newspapers, news rooms, radio stations, they all run our stores on their website, but SpotlightPA.org is the direct source.

Steve Martorano 
Let me as you is that website that was not behind a paywall?

Ed Mahon 
No paywall. Absolutely no paywall.

Steve Martorano 
Some of what's frustrating are when seeing the story. Maybe go to your local paper, and it's behind their paywall. And you know, maybe you don't want to subscribe so you can go right to it directly, which is great. Brief background on your career as a journalist, how long you been at this?

Ed Mahon 
Sure, yeah, I've been at this and full time since 2006 or so. I started out as a freelancer for the suburban sections of the Philadelphia Inquirer. I grew up in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. And then after I went to college in Philadelphia, I did a volunteer program in Tacoma Washington for a little bit after that. I worked at a homeless shelter. And also working on that sort of, oh, a monthly newspaper there, came back to Delaware County freelance for the Inquirer for a little bit for their suburban section, which was a blast. And then covered K to 12 education and Center County for the Center Daily Times, which I love covering education. It was you know, a fascinating mix of policy and people and politics. Then I moved in 2012 to York, PA, and covered politics there. And then the governor or Tom Wolfe, he's from your county PA. So I covered his campaign for governor in 2014. And created an investigative team at the New York Daily Record covered a variety of issues there, including domestic violence, access to guns, and some problems and how things were handled in our local court system. And then I moved to the WITF data project called PA Post. A few years ago, I did radio stories, which was fascinating. I love doing radio. And then I worked on the newsletter PA Post. And then, about a year ago, Spotlight PA and PA Post merged and then I got a chance to join spotlight and I was thrilled to join spotlight and really embrace some of the investigative and accountability work they've done there. And since I've been at Spotlight, I focused a lot on human services issues and drug and alcohol issues and so that's been sort of my main focus.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, those last two drug and alcohol stories that you're covered are of particular interest to us. But just one thing to check your bona fides here now you claim to be a proud son of DELCO. 

Ed Mahon 
Okay.

Steve Martorano 
All right. How do you pronounce W-A-T-E-R?

Ed Mahon 
I changed that a long time ago and I go with "water." I have watched Mare of Easttown. "Home." Home really got me on that show. My parents talked about that. 

Steve Martorano 
Did it drive all you DELCO people insane or what? 

Ed Mahon 
Oh man, I loved it. I was watching it trying to like figure out exactly where is this and Delaware County. I sort of came to some conclusions. The detective -- I don't know how deep you want me to go on this -- but I feel like the detective was from Upper Darby. And then the one detective that male detective was from Upper Darby and the other ones. was sort of like Western Delaware County. 

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, naturally they killed the guy from Upper Darby. 

Ed Mahon 
Their Daily Times was in there. 

Steve Martorano 
Well, you know what I mean? DELCO has been the source of a lot of fun in our area for many years. They have a great blue-collar rep. There's no other way to put it. And I spent the last 25 years of my life before moving in up the upper main line in Berwyn, and the township is Tredyffrin/Easttown. 

Ed Mahon 
Okay, yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
So when the fellow who created this series for who knows the area, somehow or another creates, let's face it, a fictitious idea of what DELCO is he chooses to call the town "East Town." 

Ed Mahon 
Yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
And I'm telling you, there were people on the upper main line are going, "Wait a minute. What the hell are you talking about?" I mean, it was unrecognizable and people were freaking out. I'm thinking you're freaked. How do you think those people in Delaware County are feeling? So it was a very funny thing. I mean, this is inside stuff with the rest of the country that loves the show, because it was great fun. 

Ed Mahon 
I mean, I spent a lot of time online looking at where they go into filming locations. And yeah, I spent I went down that rabbit hole.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, yeah. They spent a lot of time in Wawa, which I'm sure around the country that is going, "What the hell did they just say? What is a Wawa?" Anyway... 

Ed Mahon 
In high school, I did work in a Wawa.

Steve Martorano 
Everybody either worked in a Wawa growing up or flinched something on the way out anyway. Let's get to the meat and potatoes of this thing. You've done a lot of stuff, at Spotlight on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The stuff that caught my attention, of course, was the drug and alcohol stuff you've done. A couple of pieces come to mind immediately. First of all, you did an investigation into the Commonwealth oversight responsibilities. What are they responsible for regarding drug and alcohol facilities in the state?

Ed Mahon 
Yeah, and this was a project I've worked on with Aneri Pattani. She is a reporter and corresponded at Kaiser Health News Chief, (unintelligible). But she and I worked together on this and the Department of Drug and alcohol programs. They're responsible for licensing and inspecting several 100 of these drug and alcohol treatment providers in this state. I think it's around 700 right now. And so they go in, I think we do annual inspections that are scheduled in advance, and they're supposed to monitor these places to make sure that they're safe for people to go to. And, you know, I think what we found in our reporting was that there were, you know, several shortcomings within the department's work, you know, in sort of what they were doing. And we found instances that people who have facilities that despite repeat violations stayed open, and there was harm to people after those violations. That was the big focus. 

Steve Martorano 
The shortcomings of Commonwealth regarding oversight. What was it a result of? Probably many things, but what I'm wondering is, when the Affordable Care Act came into being, it opened drug and alcohol insurance coverage enormously, and there was a corresponding explosion in the growth of treatment facilities. Was the state playing catch up in that situation?

Ed Mahon 
Our reporting didn't focus so much on the impact of the Affordable Care Act. I mean, that is that definitely a worthy question one worth exploring, I think, when the Department of drug and alcohol programs was created, which was 2012, that was sort of our main focus. (The) the department was created. The idea was that to give drug and alcohol issues, the tension that lawmakers felt they deserved. So we really focused on from 2012 on. And I think there were a couple of things we found one is just the lacking of staff and resources was a chronic issue. There were also just the powers that they did have, they couldn't they can't find treatment facilities on their own, or they can't find treatment facilities, even if they find violations or repeat violations, they can't find them. And the department is often reluctant to shut down facilities that are past problems or to even reduced their capacity, and that I speak exactly to the issue of just the high demand for drug and alcohol treatment because it is important to have the services that are a real conflict. And it's a conflict of philosophy to what the department's role is. I think that the Secretary for the Department told us that they want to try and keep these places open. They want to try and help them succeed. And so there's conflict over what to do when places are having chronic problems. 

Steve Martorano 
Yes, because the alternative is, on the one hand, to fix the broken places, but in the meantime, not throw 100 people who desperately need help. 

Ed Mahon 
Yeah.

Steve Martorano 
To the wolves, which is what happens. This thing, this whole process of oversight by a Commonwealth, as you say it was born in the middle of this tremendous opioid epidemic that literally was just slaughtering people. The introduction of fentanyl, as you know, was a game-changer. Beyond that, you ran a piece very recently, which was really an eye-opener, because it just shows how much confusion still exists in what do states do. What you want to local authorities do. They want to help They know it's no longer strictly a law enforcement position. But we have conflicting laws and regulations. And in this case, a fella you profiled in his family ran smack dab into one of them, one of the really big issues now and that's medical marijuana. Give us the background on that story

Ed Mahon 
Yeah, our story starts in September of 2020. Tyler Cordeiro had a long history of struggling with heroin addiction. And by September of 2020, he had recently left jail. And he was uninsured and he had relapsed, and he wanted to get into addiction treatment. His family says he went to an assessment office to see what his options were. And they say that's when he found out that he had lost his Medicaid coverage, which they didn't really know what happened to him because he had been in jail recently. And then he understood that even when you don't have Medicaid, there's this funding system in place that's supposed to catch people who are going to fall through the cracks. And it's the county offices can provide funding to fill in for coverage until someone gets on Medicaid. But his family says he was told he didn't qualify for that funding. And the reason was his medical marijuana card. They didn't understand it at the time, they thought it was ridiculous, but they were desperate and didn't have much time to think about it. So Tyler's mom and his sister kept making phone calls to every hotline, every 800 number they could find looking for help. Meanwhile, he's outside his mom's house, sleeping on the couch, going through withdrawal. And you know, they had all this struggle. And this sister said they kept running into this barrier of this medical marijuana card. They try to navigate the system without insurance. The mom said they ran into a bunch of problems there as well. And eventually, a few weeks later, he went to his mom's house, they had pizza, they talked about options. He went out to the gas station to buy cigarettes to when inside the gas station, bathroom, overdose, and died later that evening. His mom noticed that he was missing after about 45 minutes, she drove around. And she arrived at the gas station right at the same time as the ambulance. So...

Steve Martorano 
How old was he? 

Ed Mahon 
He was 24 years old, started using when he was a teenager.

Steve Martorano 
It's a sad story, but one that a lot of people recognize. So is this confusion over -- on the one hand the goal of treatment facilities, which is to first thing, get people off the drug they're using, or any drug they're using. Because the core belief is, that's where you start with all the other therapies that are available to treat addiction, you got to be clean in order to do that. On the other, you can go get a medical marijuana card. If you have chronic pain, or if your substance abuse is causing you anxiety, it's possible to go get a medical card. So when they -- in this case, when he tried to get help, his insurance went away because the federal government says marijuana is illegal. Have a square that sort of thing?

Ed Mahon 
The big thing is that in his case was the finding issue in the crib providers I talked to I mean, they talk about harm reduction. So like they say they don't, they're not going to turn someone away because of medical marijuana or medical marijuana. I mean, once your provider compared to cigarettes, you know, they're not going to tear it like heroin is far more deadly. And that's the immediate thing. And that's what they're going to focus on. So it's really, in his case, it's all about paying for the treatment. So he lost his Medicaid because he went to jail. And there are federal rules in place that if you go to jail, your Medicaid, you know, essentially the rules make it so that your Medicaid gets shut off. And so he went to jail, and his Medicaid got suspended. He didn't realize it till later. And by the time he realized that trying to jump through the hoops to get the Medicaid back was, you know, going to take time. And so you know, so that's why he doesn't have insurance. And then so it's the other part is I'll back up a little bit. But so in 2018, Pennsylvania, Department of Health added opioid use disorder as one of their conditions that can make someone eligible for medical marijuana. So they have some qualifiers on that. But that's essentially opioid use disorder, you can qualify for medical marijuana. And then in 2019, the federal government sends out this notification with these funding rules related to facilities related to people who get this money from SAMHSA -- the federal agency. And it basically says you can't use this federal money, give it to people who permit marijuana use to treat substance use and so the big -- there's ambiguity or concern about what it means to permit, you know, How wide is that ban? It's federal government said, you know, a few months later in January 2020, they sent out an email with new clarification guidance to all the states who got this grant money telling them that the band is not as big as it seems that, in fact, federal money, you know, can be used to help these people as long as they are willing to work towards alternatives, essentially,

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, the history of this whole issue of medically assisted treatment is long. It's improving, we have moved, I think, in most reputable treatment facilities past the notion of pure abstinence. You know, medicines, drugs are used to fight serious addictions. Marijuana is a little different. Because again, the government is standing there going, wait a minute. How would you characterize the Commonwealth? good faith effort, when they say in the Commonwealth if you need help? If you're in trouble, you should be able to get help, we'll help you. I mean, that's what they say. Yeah. I think you think they're sincere in that.

Ed Mahon 
And not here to question people's sincerity. But I mean, the question is whether there are cracks in this system. 

Steve Martorano 
Right. 

Ed Mahon 
There's an acknowledgment of the cracks in the system. I mean, I think that's the big question. I think that was Susan Ousterman, the mother of Tyler. I mean, that was her big concern, throughout, you know, many interviews with her is she in her view, you can't fix this until you acknowledge what went wrong in this case. And so I think the issue in Tyler's case that we were trying to report out is, and so we know many of these drug and alcohol offices, wouldn't provide federal money to people to pay for treatment for people like Tyler. And we had questions about if how often they were using other money to fill in the gaps. It wasn't clear, you know, a lot of places wouldn't elaborate on their policies. And you know, the sort of that's the big question, you know, for us and driving and looking forward is, what are these places going to be doing now? And are they recognizing, you know, what happened in this? And are, have they filled the hole in this system?

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. I've spoken to some people in that business. And you're right, if you go to a reputable facility and need to be admitted, with a substance abuse issue, and you have a medical marijuana card. Most of the good ones, they're not going to turn you away. But they're also not going to dispense marijuana. 

Ed Mahon 
Yeah, yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
That's not they don't have a license to do it, to begin with. And they probably don't want to go down that road. until there's more evidence about its efficacy.

Ed Mahon 
I just might say one thing on that, too. I mean, in you know, the tricky in Susan, Susan says her I mean, Tyler's in her view, would have glad. I mean, she says he offered to give it up. And she said You give up anything at that point. So you know, for them, it was they ran into this barrier for this medical marijuana that wasn't in their view, they would have been glad to have given enough. I mean, there might argue whether you should have to, but in that instance, they're saying, we give it up, but it wasn't presented as an option.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, we're speaking to investigative journalists Ed Mahon about his work with Spotlight PA, on some of these issues covering drug and alcohol treatment in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So I had this fellow was a victim of this mess. And that's the only way to describe it. There are a lot of moving parts here. In order to get something more streamlined, and in the context of people who need help right now. If they're sitting in front of somebody saying I need help. They need it. Now. They don't need to run into a bureaucratic mess. 

Ed Mahon 
Yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
And that's what's happening. Who has to come together in your body to get this thing more orderly?

Ed Mahon 
Yeah, I think they're a couple of different views on that. But I mean, that SAMHSA has told us that people in Tyler's situation are eligible for this funding. And so I think the question is to make sure that, you know, all of these, so and maybe back up for one second, so we had this big, the federal government gives us money to the state, we then give it to these 47 County drug and alcohol offices, for then use there are a lot of things but one of those things is paying for addiction treatment. So I mean, those three know the feds, the state, and these dozens of drug and alcohol offices. They should and they will be good if they were all on the same page about what the rules are and what the limits are on what they can and can't do. And the feds are saying that they can use this for this money. I mean, I think that one of the issues we explored in the story is why this guidance wasn't shared earlier. The Fed said they shared it in January 2020. The state, you know, didn't send out any information but what's in with this information until June of this year after Tyler's mother had reached out with a variety of concerns. So the idea is that those entities are on the same page and if it's consistent across these dozens of drug and alcohol offices across the state.

Steve Martorano 
So these offices that exist now across the state, would you advise someone in a similar situation? They have a loved one or themselves who need treatment don't understand whether they qualify for coverage by somebody. Do they call that office first? Is that good...

Ed Mahon 
I mean, I think that the helpline, the offices, I mean, different counties have different systems for their assessment offices. But I mean, I think knowing...being able to point to this guidance and to say what they know what the guidance is, and to push back, if they're, if they're hearing something different, I think that having that knowledge, and it's helpful to try to navigate that system.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah, you know, this is a little off -- not of the point -- you mentioned something earlier. Incarceration. What did you if anything learned about what goes on when someone is incarcerated with regard to treatment? What kind of treatment can someone expect to get locked up in Pennsylvania?

Ed Mahon 
Oh, yeah. I mean, that's an interesting question knew I didn't have an answer for that. It is so much in this story. I know county jails vary in the type of medication-assisted treatment they provide. I haven't done a story about that and stuff I'm interested in, reporting more on but I know that some counties offer medication-assisted treatment, and some don't.

Steve Martorano 
Well, I guess you frame this story against the tragic backdrop of a young guy, overdosing, but I came away with it, at least, with the sense that in my lifetime, we've gone from locking them up. That's it, that was the strategy. Just say, "No" if you don't, we're gonna lock you up. To know we've got to do something on an official bell on a statewide and federal level, we've got this. So when I look at stories, you go, Okay, here's what's going on. They're not doing it. Well, they got to do a little better. At least were there, correct?

Ed Mahon 
I mean, that yeah, I mean, that's a good perspective to have on this. I think, you know, we talked about the Medicaid issue as well. For instance, this all happened to Tyler, he got spent nearly two weeks in jail in August of 2020, on, an old drug paraphernalia conviction, which is what led him to have his Medicaid suspended. Shortly after that, in September of 2020, the state changed some of its practices, with the idea that they created more delay, and when somebody loses their Medicaid benefits, they created this 15-day delay before that formal process starts. So potentially, if that system had been in place in August, and he wouldn't have lost his medication, and this wouldn't have been an issue. There are still ways you're gonna have gaps with this new system with Medicaid, potentially, that would help address situations like this. So yeah, I mean, I think there are and I think what the state, is there, wolf administration is their public positioning, what they told us these days, this is a right people have the right to access addiction treatment. And so it's a matter of addressing, you know when this is their fall short of that.

Steve Martorano 
Yeah. Listen, we thank you for your time, we really appreciate your work. Ed Mahon from spotlight pa you guys are doing, you know, some great stuff. I don't know where else we'd find out about these issues. If it weren't for organizations that are coming together like a Spotlight PA did. But before we let you go, what are you working on anything you tell us about?

Ed Mahon 
So a few years ago, the state lawmakers, passed a law creating this system for oversight of recovery homes. And the process of actually getting those rules in place has been delayed several times because there's a big concern about if you make the rules too strict, you're going to do more harm than good. 

Steve Martorano 
These is the sober houses that have proliferated, they sort of a transitionary period out of treatment. There needs to be a little more rules and regs on that one. So you're working on that. 

Ed Mahon 
Yeah. 

Steve Martorano 
We look forward to that work, too. Because that could that could go a long way toward shedding light on this. Hey, Ed, thanks so much, folks. You know that this stuff's out there, you can access it locally SpotlightPA.org to get a hold of them. You got any good stories, it's the phone's probably always open. reporters are the easiest guys in the world to get a hold Of

Ed Mahon 
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Steve Martorano 
It's our pleasure. The rest of you, thanks for hanging. Catch you next time on the Corner. The Behavioral Corner.

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