MONTGOMERY, Ala. – While Alabama lawmakers have increased funding for mental health initiatives in recent years, state health experts and lawmakers say their resources to address mental illness are still spread too thin.

The state’s gaps in mental health care coverage were front and center recently during a meeting of the Mental Health Ad Hoc Committee, where Mental Health Department Commissioner Kim Boswell went over the latest data of her agency’s efforts to provide resources for those suffering with mental illness.

Boswell shared that the state’s new 988 crisis line, which was launched in 2022, has seen nearly 53,000 contacts from July 2022 to Aug. 2023, 23% of those calls being from veterans. With the increased workload, however, Boswell said her staff was struggling to keep up.

“If you look at the answer rate (of 68%), we are still struggling with capacity at our call centers,” Boswell said. 

“We would like for our answer rate to be 90%, that’s the national standard. And then, as additional crisis centers come online, we’ll be adding additional call centers, so obviously funding is a challenge for 988 call centers.”

Members of the Mental Health Ad Hoc Committee at the Sept. 28 meeting.

Perhaps even more vital to addressing mental health emergencies, Boswell suggested, were the agency’s crisis centers, which offer services for those having a mental health or substance abuse crisis 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The state currently has just four operational crisis centers, though a fifth center is scheduled to open in Tuscaloosa on Oct. 17, and a sixth in Dothan in January 2024.

From January 2022 to August 2023, more than 5,400 evaluations have been conducted between the four crisis centers, 1,060 of which were done on individuals with suicidal tendencies.

“When we say we are saving lives, that’s what we really mean,” Boswell said. “Folks showed up and got services that they needed instead of a much worse outcome.”

Much like the 988 crisis line, however, demand at the crisis centers is growing exponentially, far outpacing the Mental Health Department’s capacity to treat patients.

“The volume is picking up very rapidly,” Boswell said. “In the last six months, we’ve served almost half of what we served in 18 months, so it’s sort of doubling at this point. Part of it is just absolutely the need for those services.”

Alabama Department of Mental Health Commissioner Kim Boswell.

The Mental Health Department also operates mobile crisis teams, which currently cover 19 of the state’s 67 counties through a mix of federal and state funding. The Stepping Up Alabama initiative is also managed by the Mental Health Department, and places case managers in jails to help identify inmates with mental health issues.

As far as further funding the Mental Health Department’s mental health care services, an attempt was made this past legislative session to attach a $.98 per-month surcharge on phone lines, but ultimately failed to become law. The bill would have funded the department to the tune of $69 million per year.

Boswell said that were a $.98 surcharge bill successful during the 2024 legislative session, it would generate enough money to adequately expand its 988 crisis line staff, add 30 mobile crisis teams to cover all 67 counties, and construct a new crisis diversion center.

Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Hazel Green, the committee’s chair, was the lead sponsor on House Bill 389, the bill that would have generated $69 million for the Mental Health Department through phone line surcharges. While he didn’t shoot down the possibility of reintroducing the bill next session, he did suggest that gaming legalization – which has long been seen as a potentially powerful new revenue source for the state – could play a role in mental health funding.

“Certainly gaming’s got to be a part of the conversation,” Reynolds said. 

“I’ve been very open and (have) met with leadership, and certainly, if gaming does pass in the 2024 (legislative) session, then I have asked those that are working on legislation that they keep mental health in mind. Maybe there’s been some numbers thrown out there, maybe as much as 25%.”

Rep. Russell Bedsole, R-Alabaster, a member of the committee and administrator of the Shelby County Jail, mirrored Boswell’s concerns about under-funding mental health initiatives, and said that law enforcement is often overwhelmed as a result.

“The frustration for us comes at the point in time that we try to get them help and nobody seems to want to help them,” Bedsole said. 

“Our local out-patient facilities simply don’t want to treat them, and send them back to the jail with the wording that they can be treated inside the jail. I can tell you, we don’t offer treatment.”

Rep. Russell Bedsole.

Committee member Heath Jackson, Escambia County Sheriff, concurred with Bedsole in that law enforcement is often given the burden of treating those with mental health needs, but added that increasing the amount of bed space for mental health patients was crucial to fixing the problem.

“We’re the ones (who) meet with these people and see that they’re in a crisis and they need help; guess what, they don’t get it,” Jackson said. 

“Let’s say they call the 988 number, the person on the line decides that they need more than they can provide them over a telehealth counsel. Guess what, they tell us to take them home and drop them off because there’s no bed space available. It comes down to you’ve got to have bed space; it’s like buying a train but you don’t have any tracks to put it on.”

Beyond those suffering with mental illness not getting the treatment they need, Jackson went further in suggesting that the lack of mental health resources was a serious safety issue.

“Just last month, we got a call (about) a guy who’s fixing to commit suicide, he’s locked in the bathroom with a rifle and it’s to his forehead,” Jackson said. 

“I go over there and I talk to this guy for 35 minutes, and he’s just out of his mind. I convince him to come out and talk with me, get him in custody, take him to mental health, and ten minutes later they said ‘he does need to go, but we don’t have anywhere to put him, carry him home and we’ll try to find you a bed.’ To me that’s irresponsible.”

Alabama is currently ranked only above Texas as having the worst access to mental health resources in the nation, with just one mental health care provider for every 920 residents, well below the national rate of 350-to-1.

“I think there has got to be money put in the bed spaces because I’d say 65% of everything we deal with are people that need to be seen for longer-term care than just a 25-minute conversation,” Jackson said. 

“I’ve watched four people commit suicide in 25 years; I’m not going to watch a fifth one.”

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Camdyn Rider, left, and Riley Groover started a relationship in 2021, Groover’s mother said. She said they were “deeply in love,” but their volatile relationship ended with Groover fatally shooting Rider and then killing himself on July 21 in Winter Haven.

WINTER HAVEN — She happily anticipated becoming a grandmother next month, ready to welcome baby Oliver into her household.

Instead, the Winter Haven woman is now mourning the loss of her son and his partner, along with their unborn child. Yet she is unwilling to hold a funeral, afraid that “haters” would show up to ruin it.

Such is the aftermath of a July 21 murder-suicide in the Inwood area, just outside the boundaries of Winter Haven. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said that Riley Groover, 26, shot and killed his fiancé, Camdyn Rider, 21, who was eight months pregnant, and then fatally shot himself.

Five days later, Groover’s mother stood on the front porch of the home she shared with her son and Rider, staring across the street to a neighbor’s yard, where the shootings occurred.

“I’m in so much shock,” she said. “Pieces of memories are coming back, when people are telling me what happened because I’m just totally devastated.”

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The woman asked to be identified only by her first name, Bonnie, for security reasons and to avoid possible harassment by others unaware of the lifelong struggles with serious mental illness that she said plagued her son. Bonnie is in her early 60s, and she uses a walker, as she is in need of double hip replacement surgery.

During a one-hour conversation, Bonnie gave a detailed history of Groover’s mental illness, talked openly about the couple’s loving but highly volatile relationship and said that Rider identified as a transgender man, a fact confirmed by their Facebook page and comments from friends.

And Bonnie repeatedly emphasized the need for those with psychological issues to pursue treatment.

“People don’t realize that mental illness needs to be treated,” she said. “People need counseling. I’m going to be going through grief counseling myself because I’m devastated. I lost my son. I sat by his bed, so many hospital beds, so many times after he tried to overdose and kill himself. But I loved him, no matter what. I love him. You always love your child. I’d rather him have gone to prison than to die.”

Story continues

A son’s troubled childhood

Bonnie said that her son showed signs of mental illness from at least the age of 4. He was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, typified by difficulty managing emotions, with tendencies toward anger, impulsiveness and severe mood swings. Groover also suffered from anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, his mother said, and had been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum.

The family has a history of mental illness, Bonnie said, acknowledging that she tried to kill herself at age 22. She said counseling and medication helped her to become more stable.

Bonnie said her son had made multiple suicide attempts, starting at age 8. An undersized child with gaudy ginger hair, he was a target of bullying as a kindergartner and beaten up by a fellow student, she said.

When he was 6, he came home from school with an unexplained injury that turned out to be a broken arm. Bonnie said he suffered “a nervous breakdown” at age 7 while at school, leading to a police call and Groover being handcuffed and taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation under Florida’s Baker Act.

Camdyn Rider, left, and Riley Groover held a baby shower in June and revealed that they planned to name their son Oliver John Lee. Groover fatally shot Rider and then killed himself on July 21 outside their home in Winter Haven.

She said her son was wrongly diagnosed with ADHD, his autism not recognized until he was 14.

Groover developed an intense fear of some teachers and desperately resisted going to classes at Inwood Elementary School. One on occasion, he scrambled under her car to avoid being taken to class. On another, he wrapped himself around a flagpole at school and “screamed like a banshee,” Bonnie said.

Groover first drew the attention of law enforcement in 2014, when he was 17. His mother said he had a dispute with a woman who then lived across the street, and he shot out a window of her house with a pellet gun.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office charged Groover with shooting into an occupied dwelling, a felony, along with resisting arrest and battery on a law-enforcement officer. He spent time in a juvenile detention center in Tampa following the arrest. Bonnie said he received training in automotive work and earned a cooking certificate.

Though Bonnie said Groover was never violent toward her, court records show that in 2016 he was arrested on a domestic violence charge following an incident at the family’s home.

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According to the arrest report, Groover broke a bottle on the kitchen floor and used a hatchet to break several doors inside the house. As Groover left the house, a victim (whose name is redacted) saw him approach while holding what they thought was the hatchet. The victim swung at him with a broom in defense, and Groover grabbed their upper arm, causing a 3-inch gash, the report says. He was charged with domestic battery on a person over age 65, a felony, and violation of conditional release.

The State Attorney’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit later filed notice that it would not prosecute Groover.

Groover was arrested again in 2018 after an argument with his sister at their home turned violent. At one point, he approached his sister while holding a pocket knife, the arrest report says.

Groover’s mother moved between the two, and Groover’s sister ran into the house, taking refuge in a bedroom, the report says. Groover broke in and attempted to stab her with the knife, cutting her on the belly, the report says. He was charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault.

Two years later, the State Attorney’s Office again filed a no-prosecution order. The notice said that Groover’s sister had signed a waiver, stating that she wanted him to continue taking medications and receive treatment. The order said Groover was receiving care in a group home.

Despite all the turmoil, Groover earned a high school diploma from Ridge Technical College in Winter Haven. Bonnie said he had a license as an HVAC technician but was working as a nighttime security guard, a position that did not involve carrying a gun.

Groover talked of working for a fish and wildlife service, and he also aspired to be a professional photographer, his mother said. He created a Facebook page titled Frosty Photos, posting his images of cars drift racing at Sebring International Raceway.

‘Deeply in love’

Groover and Rider began dating in early 2021, Bonnie said. At the time, Rider already identified as a transgender man, she said. Rider had stopped using their feminine given name and planned to change their name legally after marrying Groover, she said.

“Cam had told me personally that when he was younger, he was bisexual and had crushes on girls, but then he met somebody online and he identified with him, I guess, when they were talking about transgender and dysphoria and all that,” Bonnie said. “And so Cam decided he was a man and he honestly felt like he was a man. But you know, that’s neither here nor there. I accepted him as he was because he loved my son.” (See related story)

Bonnie said that Camryn planned to begin a physical transition after giving birth and finishing breastfeeding. Rider’s parents could not be reached. Bonnie said they lived in the Orlando area.

Riley Groover, 26, worked as a security guard but aspired to be a professional photographer, his mother said.

Not long after Groover and Rider started dating, Bonnie invited Rider to move into her Winter Haven home.

“And I loved Cam,” she said. “Cam called me ‘Mom.’ He never called me by my name.”

Bonnie said that Rider and her son were “deeply in love.” In April 2022, Rider posted a video snippet on Facebook showing the pair singing the line, “We found love right where we are,” from the Ed Sheeran song, “Thinking Out Loud,” followed by a loud smooch.

“Oh, it’s just heartbreaking to look at it,” Bonnie said. “But I watch it several times a day.”

In another post from April 2022, Rider wrote to Groover, whom they called “RJ”: “From the second I laid eyes on you I knew that I wanted you in my life. I didn’t know as what yet, but I knew I wanted you there. You showed me who I can be and you showed me what love is supposed to feel like. The more we talked and hung out the more I grew to like you. … I’m so happy to say that I’m gonna marry my best friend. Thank you for everything my love. And I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with you.”

The couple decided to delay their wedding after Rider became pregnant, Bonnie said. They held a baby shower and gender reveal party in June with a Harry Potter theme, one of Rider’s fixations. The couple disclosed that they planned to name the baby, due Aug. 18, Oliver John Lee.

Rider wanted to be a tattoo artist and owned an ink gun, Bonnie said. She talked of letting Rider turn a back room of the house into a tattoo studio someday.

A fiery relationship

But Bonnie said the relationship also contained a combative strain, one that regularly led to loud arguments and, in some cases, physical fights. She allowed the couple to live rent-free in her 1960s-era block home but expected them to help with bills and housework, and Bonnie said her son criticized Rider for not doing enough.

“They would argue over stupid stuff — stupid stuff,” she said.

Neither Groover nor Rider ever reported violence committed by the other, the PCSO said.

During arguments, Rider would sometimes enter what Bonnie called a “catatonic state,” going silent and rigid, with a vacant stare.

Bonnie said pregnancy increased Rider’s sense of gender dysphoria, or discomfort with a female body, and she suspects the hormonal surges of pregnancy worsened Rider’s emotional volatility.

Riley Groover is shown in a jail booking shot taken after his arrest in 2018 on charges of domestic violence.

Bonnie suspected that Rider had traits of autism, like her son. She said Rider engaged in self-injury through cutting their arms and legs, a practice used to manage emotional pain, according to psychological experts.

“He got my son to start doing it,” Bonnie said. “When I found out my son was doing it, I told them if they didn’t stop that s— they had to leave, that they couldn’t stay here. And they stopped.”

Bonnie, a former nurse now on disability, has a heart condition. She warned Groover and Rider that their arguments sometimes caused her to have chest pain.

Bonnie said she urged Rider to seek psychological counseling, but Rider refused. She said Groover had resumed therapy, meeting with a counselor in a park because he didn’t like offices. But Bonnie said her son resisted taking psychiatric medications owing to bad memories of being overmedicated in childhood.

“He didn’t want to be drugged up,” she said. “He didn’t want to feel nothing.”

An unimaginable horror

Bonnie said she doesn’t know exactly what precipitated the tragedy of July 21, but she expects it was another argument over household chores. She said that around 7 p.m., the dispute moved outside, and at one point Rider drove their car toward Groover in the carport, possibly striking him.

Groover used something — Bonnie doesn’t know what — to break the driver’s-side window. As of Thursday, some broken glass remained under another vehicle in the carport, and the front porch floor bore dark splotches that Bonnie said were Groover’s dried blood.

Bonnie had obtained a handgun for protection on nights when Groover and Rider were away, and she kept it hidden in the house. After the clash in the carport, Groover darted into the house. He soon raced out, but Bonnie said she didn’t know he had seized her gun, a .380 pistol small enough to fit in a pants pocket.

As he ran past her, he called out, “I’m not going to jail,” Bonnie said.

Rider had retreated and run away down the long, straight street. Recalling those moments, Bonnie said she wished Rider had continued past the point where the street bends to the right, out of Groover’s sight. Instead, Rider turned and came back toward Bonnie’s house.

At that point, Groover chased after Rider, Bonnie said, and Rider ran across the street, seeking refuge in a neighbor’s house. But Groover caught up, “and they got into physically fighting on the ground. And then Cam got up and ran, and Riley shot him in the back several times.”

Camdyn Rider had identified as a transgender man since before they started dating Riley Groover in 2021, Groover’s mother said.

The Medical Examiner’s Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit has not yet released autopsy reports.

Bonnie could not see her son as he moved behind a large truck parked in the neighbors’ driveway and a tall bush. She went in that direction, moving as fast as she could with her walker. She found Rider dying, with a large wound in their chest.

Her son was on the ground, not far from Rider, his eyes still open. Bonnie asked if he had shot himself, and he said yes, pointing to the left side of his head, though he was right-handed. Bonnie picked up the gun so that Groover could not grab it and shoot himself again.

A neighbor had called 911, and a team of Polk County sheriff’s deputies soon arrived. A medical crew rushed Rider to Winter Haven Hospital, but they and the baby were soon pronounced dead. Groover died a short time later.

Bonnie’s hands trembled as she recalled that horrible evening. She said some of her description came not from her own memories but from what others told her, including the neighbors across the street, whose security cameras recorded video of the shootings.

“I know I’m stuttering because I have so much anxiety,” she said. “I’m just beside myself, just trying not to break out into tears. It just comes in waves.”

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Adding to her distress, the PCSO Animal Control unit took away her dog, Wally, so that deputies could search her house after the shootings. She received the dog back after a few days, but she said Wally was showing signs of being traumatized by his time in the shelter, refusing to put his head in her lap or wag his tail. By Thursday, though, Wally was behaving more normally, she said.

Bonnie also said she has been receiving unwanted offers to buy her house following news reports about the murder-suicide.

‘Wasn’t in his right mind’

Bonnie has largely avoided social media since July 21, wary of seeing her son denounced by strangers.

“My friends and family are actually, like, ‘Riley was a terrorist’ because of what he did, but he wasn’t in his right mind,” she said. “And people do bad things when they’re not in their right mind, you know?”

Rider’s parents visited Winter Haven to claim their belongings, and Bonnie said they were understandably upset. They took all the baby items, planning to give them to a relative who is giving birth soon.

Asked about holding a service for her son, Bonnie said, “No, because I don’t want haters there taking pictures and stuff. I don’t want them because I couldn’t mentally handle it.”

Bonnie’s stepdaughter came to stay with her for a few days, and her brother is coming down from Massachusetts. She plans to have Groover cremated, and she will blend his ashes with those of her mother and her stepfather to be placed in a pendant for a necklace.

While acknowledging the inexplicable evil of her son’s final actions, Bonnie emphasized his loving tendencies and his many acts of kindness. She recalled that the night before the tragedy, Groover came in to kiss her good night and mentioned her upcoming appointment with a cardiologist.

“And he said, ‘I love you, Mom. You can’t die before me.’ ”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Mother urges mental-health treatment after Winter Haven murder-suicide

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A variety of topics came up during Tuesday evening’s (July 5th) Danville City Council meeting.

For the first time since a committee meeting in March, one of them was “should Danville change a current ordinance and allow families to keep chickens at their homes?”  But after hearing commentary from the audience much in favor of it, a straw poll taken by Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr showed much skepticism from the council.  Six members firmly said; “no, let’s not take the time to explore writing an ordinance that would allow this.”

Aldermen Robert Williams, Eve Ludwig, and Sherry Pickering were all in favor of at least pursuing it; while Jon Cooper said he needed more information, and Ed Butler said chickens should be allowed to begin with, and no ordinance should be needed to allow or disallow it.

Interesting commentary came from City Engineer Sam Cole.  He’s hoping the council reconsiders sometime in the future.  Cole says he grew up with chickens, and when you compare them to other animals, “What’s the big deal?”

Resident Ethan Massey and former Danville Alderman Ethan Burt state their cases to the Danville City Council for allowing Danville residents to keep chickens at their homes.

AUDIO: I’ve never seen anybody with chickens that were so disruptive.  For me, if people don’t take care of their dogs; barking all night long, they’re getting out and they’re bothering my kids, or doing sometime else making me feel uncomfortable.  Chickens go to sleep at night every single time I’ve been around them.  Maybe that’s youth and naivety; but I’m optimistic about what they could be, done right.

Meanwhile, Vermilion County Mental Health 708 Board Executive Director Jim Russell stated his case for the City Council to contribute $25,000 for part of an initial one year salary for the board to hire a full time coordinator to help put the ROSC system to work.  ROSC is “Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care.”  And Russell says the idea is with so many struggling with addictions such as opioids fentanyl, and more; let’s bring in a liaison to help connect those that NEED help, with those that CAN help.

Vermilion County Mental Health 708 Board Executive Director Jim Russell asks the Danville City Council for support in funding a new coordinator position to help the board connect residents with services that can help them.

AUDIO: If a family member’s looking for help they can call our office and we can get them connected with service providers.  We can also get them connected with the support groups that are available throughout the county.  And there’s a lot of those that are going on that the general public doesn’t know a whole lot about.  So we hope to better communicate, and better coordinate, all of the efforts that are going on.

Danville’s Mayor Rickey Williams, Jr says this will go to the Public Services Committee for initial discussion.  But he’d love it if the city could do this.

AUDIO: Given the epidemic that we have in this country, and specifically in our city and county; with opioid and other addictions, and also mental health issues; I think for $25,000 it’s a small investment that we could make, so people who need assistance overcoming their struggles are able to.  I think that’s a small price to pay.

Jim Russell said the Vermilion County Board will be considering contributing $75,000 of COVID relief money to the position at their next meeting.

FINALLY, Danville Public Works Director Carl Carpenter is reminding families to NOT let your children play anywhere in, near, or around the still closed Lincoln Park.  There is much storm debris to clear, and loose tree limbs could very easily fall and severely injury someone.

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