Tulsa Father Says State Mental Health System Broken

A suicidal man took drastic measures after being sent home twice from the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health. His family says he tried to rob a store so officers would shoot and kill him.

This is the second family in a couple of months who've come to us with the same problem. They say after a suicide attempt, police brought their loved ones to the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health.

Doctors evaluated them for about an hour, make them sign a paper then send them home. In February, Paul McLaughlin tried to jump off a bridge in Owasso.

A few weeks later, he attempted suicide in Broken Arrow. Both times, police took him to the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health. His father, Cliftain McLaughlin, is upset with what happened next.

"Each time within an hour or two, he just had to sign a piece of paper and he was released," McLaughlin said.

One week after Paul's second attempted suicide he robbed a QuikTrip. Cliftain said Paul was hoping the cops would shoot and kill him, but that didn't happen. Instead, he was arrested and is now serving time in the Waggoner County Jail.

"It was a stupid thing to do and, you know, he admits that too, but on the other hand, he said he wish they would have helped him," Cliftain said.

Cliftain has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and said he also tried to commit suicide.

"I was properly evaluated, properly diagnosed, and I was lucky," he said. "I'm not blaming that place for his actions and I'm not defending his actions at all. What I'm saying is they could have analyzed him better, done things better and have proper diagnosis and had him on medication and maybe it wouldn't have happened."

The Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health falls under the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. They say, signing a note and releasing people is not a method TCBH typically practices.

"That is not an assessment, nor would it ever be used as an assessment. It might just be used as another tool in a tool kit in a particular situation that a person would utilize," said Carrie Slatton-Hodges with the Dept. Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services.

Within the last three years, the department has lost between $35 and $40 million in funding. That's made it tough to treat Tulsa's growing number of mental patients.

"It's really been just a greater number of people needing care and fewer private facilities offering care, so it's put a bigger burden on our system," Slatton-Hodges said.

The Oklahoma Mental Health Department say they have asked for more beds to treat people in Tulsa. They're hoping to get those within the next year.