KURTIS, Scott Erik - b. October 2, 1970 - d. July 20, 2009

[debid]

Bill Kurtis' son dies in Kansas
July 20, 2009 7:03 PM

The son of former Chicago newsman Bill Kurtis was found dead early today on the Kansas cattle ranch owned by his father, family members said.

Scott Kurtis, 38, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia since he was in his mid-teens, said his stepmother Donna LaPietra.

He was last seen Sunday during the day and may have died late Sunday or early Monday morning. He was found early today by his sister Mary Kristin Kurtis, who also lives near the ranch.

An autopsy is scheduled this week to determine the cause of death. Kurtis also suffered from heart and thyroid ailements as a result of the schizophrenia, said LaPietra.

"It's a lonely life, it's a very sad illness,'' said LaPietra.

The results of the autopsy are expected to come back to the family by Thursday, she said. At the time of Kurtis' death he was alone in his home on his father's ranch, LaPietra said.

"Quite frankly, there's not very much anyone can do so he struggled with that illness and various complications that arise from it," said LaPietra. "Tragically Bill and I have known for a while that often ... schizophrenics do not live past the age of 40. It was something we always had in the back of our minds and Scott really struggled."

LaPietra said for the last 10 years Scott Kurtis had worked at his father's cattle ranch in Sedan, Kan. A memorial service is scheduled at the ranch for Wednesday, LaPietra said.

LaPietra first met Scott when he was 6-years-old after Bill Kurtis' wife and Scott's mother died from breast cancer.

Scott graduated from the Chicago Academy for the Arts and was an avid guitar player, she said.

LaPietra said that ironically her stepson often said his dream job was to be a truck driver so he could travel and see the country.

"He loved the road, it was always a battle for us to persuade him that it was better to be on the land than on the road,'' LaPietra said. "It was his obsession."

-- Carlos Sadovi

[debid]

Scott Erik Kurtis, age 38, son of Bill Kurtis and the late Helen Scott Kurtis, passed away in his sleep Monday July 20, 2009 at his residence in Sedan, Kansas.

Scott was born October 2, 1970 in Santa Monica, California to Bill and Helen (Scott) Kurtis. He grew up in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from high school in 1989. He joined the United States Navy and was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Station in Evanston, Illinois. He attended college in Menlo College in Menlo Park, California. In lieu of graduating, Scott drove his motorcycle along the California coast from San Diego into Alaska. Luckily, it was summertime.

He moved to Sedan, Kansas in 1998. He enjoyed truck driving, playing the guitar and driving around the countryside.

He is survived by his father Bill Kurtis of Chicago, Illinois; his sister, Mary Kristin Kurtis of Sedan, Kansas; his Step-Mother Donna LaPietra of Chicago, Illinois; his aunt, State Senator Jean Schodorf of Wichita, Kansas; cousin, Jack Horton of Sedan, Kansas; his aunt Shirley Amend of Council Bluffs, Iowa; Great-Aunts Bernice Hecht and Doris Horton of Topeka, Kansas, Lillian Dickens of Wichita, Kansas and numerous cousins.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Helen Scott Kurtis; his grandparents, Leo and Francis Scott and his paternal grandparents, Bill and Wilma Kurtis.

Cremation has taken place and a private family service will be held at a later date.

The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Little House on the Prairie, and these remembrances may be left in care of David W. Barnes Funeral Home, 209 N. Douglas, Sedan, Kansas 67361.

[dnalexander]

This is very tragic and all too common. I have long been a supporter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. For more info go to:

WWW.NAMi.ORG for more info on how to help those with the disease and their family. This is something that I have personal experience with.

David
(100% certified true)
Still have not created my sticker.


Schizophrenia

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a serious and challenging medical illness, an illness that affects well over 2 million American adults, which is about 1 percent of the population age 18 and older.  Although it is often feared and misunderstood, schizophrenia is a treatable medical condition.

Schizophrenia often interferes with a person's ability to think clearly, to distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage emotions, make decisions, and relate to others. The first signs of schizophrenia typically emerge in the teenage years or early twenties, often later for females. Most people with schizophrenia contend with the illness chronically or episodically throughout their lives, and are often stigmatized by lack of public understanding about the disease. Schizophrenia is not caused by bad parenting or personal weakness. A person with schizophrenia does not have a "split personality," and almost all people with schizophrenia are not dangerous or violent towards others while they are receiving treatment. The World Health Organization has identified schizophrenia as one of the ten most debilitating diseases affecting human beings.

What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?

No one symptom positively identifies schizophrenia. All of the symptoms of this illness can also be found in other mental illnesses. For example, psychotic symptoms may be caused by the use of illicit drugs, may be present in individuals with Alzheimer's disease, or may be characteristics of a manic episode in bipolar disorder. However, when a doctor observes the symptoms of schizophrenia and carefully assesses the history and the course of the illness over six months, he or she can almost always make a correct diagnosis.

As with any other psychiatric diagnosis, it is important to have a good medical work-up to be sure the diagnosis is correct. Drug use can mimic the symptoms of schizophrenia and may also trigger vulnerability in individuals at risk. Other medical concerns also need to be ruled out before a correct diagnosis can be made.

The symptoms of schizophrenia are generally divided into three categories -- Positive, Negative, and Cognitive:

    * Positive Symptoms, or "psychotic" symptoms, include delusions and hallucinations because the patient has lost touch with reality in certain important ways. "Positive" refers to having overt symptoms that should not be there. Delusions cause individuals to believe that people are reading their thoughts or plotting against them, that others are secretly monitoring and threatening them, or that they can control other people's minds. Hallucinations cause people to hear or see things that are not present.
    * Negative Symptomsinclude emotional flatness or lack of expression, an inability to start and follow through with activities, speech that is brief and devoid of content, and a lack of pleasure or interest in life. "Negative" does not refer to a person's attitude but to a lack of certain characteristics that should be there.
    * Cognitive Symptoms pertain to thinking processes. For example, people may have difficulty with prioritizing tasks, certain kinds of memory functions, and organizing their thoughts. A common problem associated with schizophrenia is the lack of insight into the condition itself. This is not a willful denial but rather a part of the mental illness itself. Such a lack of understanding, of course, poses many challenges for loved ones seeking better care for the person with schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia also affects mood. While many individuals affected with schizophrenia become depressed, some also have apparent mood swings and even bipolar-like states.   When mood instability is a major feature of the illness, it is called schizoaffective disorder, meaning that elements of schizophrenia and mood disorders are prominently displayed by the same individual.   It is not clear whether schizoaffective disorder is a distinct condition or simply a subtype of schizophrenia.

What are the causes of schizophrenia?

Scientists still do not know the specific causes of schizophrenia, but research has shown that the brains of people with schizophrenia are different from the brains of people without the illness. Like many other medical illnesses such as cancer or diabetes, schizophrenia seems to be caused by a combination of problems including genetic vulnerability and environmental factors that occur during a person's development. Recent research has identified certain genes that appear to increase risk for schizophrenia. Like cancer and diabetes, the genes only increase the chances of becoming ill; they alone do not cause the illness.

How is schizophrenia treated?

While there is no cure for schizophrenia, it is a treatable and manageable illness. However, people sometimes stop treatment because of medication side effects, the lack of insight noted above, disorganized thinking, or because they feel the medication is no longer working. People with schizophrenia who stop taking prescribed medication are at risk of relapse into an acute psychotic episode. It's important to realize that the needs of the person with schizophrenia may change over time. Here are a few examples of supports and interventions:

    * Recovery Supports/Relapse Prevention: There is increasing recognition of the benefits of learning from "someone who has been there." NAMI's Peer to Peer program is designed to help individuals with mental illness learn from those who have become skilled at managing their illness. Peer support groups are also recognized as invaluable as individuals living with mental illness report better recovery outcomes as the shared experience is recognized as extremely beneficial. NAMI C.A.R.E. support groups are available in many communities and are expanding to better meet this need.
    * Family Support: Caregivers benefit greatly from NAMI's Family-to-Family education program, taught by family members who have the knowledge and the skills needed to cope effectively with a loved one with a mental disorder. This program is available in all 50 states through many NAMI affiliates, and is offered in multiple languages in many communities.
    * Hospitalization: Individuals who experience acute symptoms of schizophrenia may require intensive treatment, including hospitalization. Hospitalization is necessary to treat severe delusions or hallucinations, serious suicidal thoughts, an inability to care for oneself, or severe problems with drugs or alcohol. Hospitalization may be essential to protect people from hurting themselves or others.
    * Medication: The primary medications for schizophrenia are called antipsychotics. Antipsychotics help relieve the positive symptoms of schizophrenia by helping to correct an imbalance in the chemicals that enable brain cells to communicate with each other. As with drug treatments for other physical illnesses, many patients with severe mental illnesses may need to try several different antipsychotic medications before they find the one, or the combination of medications, that works best for them.
          o Conventional Antipsychotics were introduced in the 1950s and all had similar ability to relieve the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, most of these older "conventional" antipsychotics differed in the side effects they produced. These conventional antipsychotics include chlorpromazine (Thorazine), fluphenazine (Prolixin), haloperidol (Haldol), thiothixene (Navane), trifluoperazine (Stelazine), perphenazine (Trilafon), and thioridazine (Mellaril). Some of the risks that may be incurred from taking these medicines include dry mouth, blurred vision, drowsiness, constipation, and movement disorders such as stiffness, a sense of restless motion, and tardive dyskinesia.
          o "Atypical" Antipsychotics were introduced in the 1990s. When compared to the older "conventional" antipsychotics, these medications appear to be equally effective for helping reduce the positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, but may be better than the older medications at relieving the negative symptoms of the illness, e.g., withdrawal, thinking problems, and lack of energy. The atypical antipsychotics include risperidone (Risperdal), clozapine (Clozaril), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), and ziprasidone (Geodon).Clozapine (Clozaril) is an atypical antipsychotic medicine with special benefits and risks that are too numerous to cover in this brief fact sheet.All these antipsychotics have serious side effects such as weight gain and the risk of diabetes, but they all do not carry the same relative risk for these conditions.

All medications have side effects.  Different medications produce different side effects, and people differ in the amount and severity of side effects they experience.  Side effects can often be treated by changing the dose of the medication, switching to a different medication, or treating the side effect directly with an additional medication.  NAMI's fact sheets on medications, developed by independent pharmacists, are a starting point to understand the risks and benefits of any individual medication.   Individuals thinking of starting or changing their medication should always gather good information, consider the risks and benefits, consult with their doctor and loved ones and work together to develop the most safe and effective treatment plan possible.

    * Psychosocial Rehabilitation: Research shows that people with schizophrenia who attend structured psychosocial rehabilitation programs and continue with their medical treatment manage their illness best. One example of an effective psychosocial approach for the most severely ill, or those with both mental illness and substance abuse, is the Program for Assertive Community Treatment (PACT), an intensive team effort in local communities to help people stay out of the hospital and live independently. Available 24-hours a day, seven-days a week, PACT professionals meet their clients where they live, providing at-home support at whatever level is needed.Professionals work with clients to address problems effectively, to make sure medications are being properly taken, and to meet the routine daily challenges of life, such as grocery shopping and managing money.
    * Substance use counseling, housing, work and educational skill development are among other supports frequently required to maximize a person's prospects for a higher functional level. Additional information on these topics is available at www.nami.org.

Individuals with schizophrenia face enormous challenges, including society's stigmatization of people living with schizophrenia, and the discrimination that results from these prejudices.  Consider getting involved in NAMI, The National Alliance on Mental Illness, in order to contribute to and benefit from NAMI's core activities that support the NAMI mission: support, advocacy, education and improved research for this important and challenging condition.

Reviewed by Ken Duckworth, M.D., February 2007


Read about Treatments and Supports for Mental Illness