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Carl Wayne Tournear

The advocacy group's report included the story of another man it did not identify by name, who bought a gun the day after his Aug. 1 release from Broughton Hospital and shot himself in the head Aug. 3. A recent N&O report identified him as Carl Wayne Tournear, 37, of Mooresville.

Tournear had been involuntarily committed to the hospital after he called his mother and told her he had taken 100 Valium in an attempt to commit suicide and that he would shoot any law enforcement officers who tried to intervene. A SWAT team forced its way into his house, Tasered him, confiscated his guns and took him to a local hospital.

The hospital transferred him to Broughton in Morganton, where he stayed 37 hours. His discharge plan was to promise to call his family doctor, the advocacy group's report said.

State takes action

To improve the connection between hospitals and community services, one of the state's mental health division directors on April 3 ordered the county and regional mental health offices to station liaisons at state facilities to help find appropriate local care for patients getting ready to leave.

Disability Rights recommended other steps, including:

* Hiring more local office and hospital staff to work only on discharge planning.

* Establishing a statewide policy for local mental health offices.

* Defining responsibilities for the hospitals, the local mental health offices and private providers.

Getting patients adequate care after they leave hospitals is "the linchpin to fixing mental health services in this state," Smith said.

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