Press Release
For release December 10, 2017 – Human Rights Day
Author and central protagonist available for interview about her book, The Hokey Pokey: I Was A Mental Health Therapist In Salt Lake County Jail
Salt Lake City, UT - I, Esther Israel, have written and self-published a book about my work experiences on crisis shift as a mental health therapist at the Salt Lake County Metro Jail from February 2016 through August 2016. “The Hokey Pokey: I Was A Mental Health Therapist In Salt Lake County Jail” provides an inside look at how the local mental health and criminal justice systems function in Utah. The book relies on documentary evidence to tell stories. “The Hokey Pokey: I Was A Mental Health Therapist In Salt Lake County Jail” book is the intellectual property of Esther Israel who registered her work for copyright August 2017. The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is 9781947778658.
Soft covered hard copies are available for purchase from me for $25. The book is 182 pages and contains 6 chapters, a foreword and afterword. “First Stab” deals with my hiring and training. I discuss the duties of mental health workers in Salt Lake County jail in “This Is The Place.” The obstacles and “Iatrogenesis” of providing mental health services to the inmates follows and is explored with case examples of crisis calls in the chapter “That Which We Call A Crisis.” Sexuality, identity and needs are fleshed out in “Life Elevated.” The jail release or “Rolling Up” experience of inmates designated with serious and persistent mental illness dovetail with my own termination experience from Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
For further information, contact:
Esther Israel
Book
Reviews
“The Hokey Pokey: I Was A Mental Health Therapist In Salt Lake County Jail” is a one of a kind book. I had the pleasure of meeting the author, Esther Israel, at the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office when we became colleagues and when Esther joined our union. The stories herein are extensions of our conversations on improving morale and work productivity in our unique employment setting. Readers will come away with an impression of the author as a person of integrity and creativity, who lives her values and maintains high personal and professional standards. Esther brought skills that are sorely lacking and have been called for with this difficult population at a time when the State of Utah is experiencing a public mental health crisis. The book is an uncomfortable read because it is an honest portrayal of her lack of positive impact on improving the standards of care within her mental health discipline and the retaliation she experienced for being an advocate and inadvertent whistleblower.
Police Sergeant Jim Bryant (Ret.)
President
Utah Public Safety Federation
Local 78 of the International Union of Police Associations
AFL-CIO
Esther Israel MS’06 has written and self-published The Hokey Pokey: I Was a Mental Health Therapist in Salt Lake County Jail (copyright August 2017).
The book gives her view on how the local mental health and criminal justice systems function in Utah and includes her observations about actual jail mental health work experience that most people would not readily have. The book is based on what the author experienced on the job. All names and identifying information, except the author’s name, have been changed.
Chapters cover Israel’s experience applying, interviewing, being hired, and trained for the jail mental health therapist position. It expounds on her understanding of the duties of mental health workers in the Salt Lake County Jail as they are coordinated with nursing, corrections, and other jail staff. The obstacles to providing mental health services to the inmates are explored through examples of crisis calls, sexual activity, the Prison Rape Elimination Act, and sexual transactions. The jail release experience of inmates designated with serious and persistent mental illness dovetails with Israel’s termination by the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Israel obtained a bachelor of arts degree in English literature in 1998 from Touro College, in New York City; a master’s degree in forensic psychology in 2000 from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a senior college of the City University of New York; and a master’s degree in psychology from the College of Social and Behavioral Science at the University of Utah. She has been working in the mental health profession since 2000.
Alumni Connection Newsletter, June 2018
University of Utah Alumni Association
I met Esther Israel at the Utah Disability Law Center's (DLC) Protection and Advocacy of Individual with Mental Illness (PAIMI) Council meetings where I have been a volunteer member for the last 6 years. I have shared my experiences with her, of helping my child with schizophrenia navigate the mental health community in Salt Lake City. During our council meetings and one-to-one conversations, I have found Esther's workplace insights at Salt Lake County jail and at Utah State Hospital to be illuminating. Esther is one of those rare people who refuses to accept a system that does not advocate for the rights of the people trapped within it. Reading “The Hokey Pokey” book, I found it frustrating to see how the penal and mental health care systems discourage Esther from her sincere attempts to provide services to the many inmates with mental illness. I admire Esther for her willingness to put her livelihood on the line by exposing this correctional mental health culture. She is frank, compassionate, and brings a touch of much-needed humor to lighten the difficult realities of living with mental illness.
Alicia Scotter
Volunteer Member of the DLC PAIMI Council
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