Dear Hippie/David and Dr. Dawson:
1. Thank you for sharing this. My initial reaction to getting a PDF with little comment was that it was a virus. However, David/Hippie probably shared it because I had previously requested his medical record, and had asked him if he was under the care of a psychiatrist and/or receiving medication. (I didn't get an answer despite many emails but got offered a chapbook instead. I own a small data science consulting corporation, am a former hiring manager at relevant employers, & have a PhD in molecular biophysics & biochemistry from Yale so while I am technically a lay person I am able to read medical histories to some extent.)
I know your letter says you (Dr. Dawson) requested that he (David/Hippie) share this with me, but I don't think you meant the whole file, which contains some sensitive information. (I think, however, Hippie/David did mean to share the whole file with me.)
2. I support his application to Fountain House.
For reasons I will explain, I don't believe it is aggressive enough in his particular situations. I have suggested he look into the therapeutic farms in upstate NY (while continuing psychiatric care) as clinical studies have suggest both the communal work & contact with microbes from farm animals are beneficial in cases of depression and PTSD when other treatments have failed. I have also suggested, under the care of a psychiatrist, that he look into PEFM as I understand it is FDA-approved when anti-depressants fail (I will explain why I think his treatment is not aggressive enough in his situation.)
3. Nowhere in the medical history does it mention his use of "Hippie Lou" as an alias (although it is mentioned in the Fountain House application). It is not clear if this is an innocent "professional" stage name in his newfound singing career (there is an IMDB entry for a "Hippie Lou" that performed in California briefly; not clear if this is the same person) and/or attempt to protect his privacy so that he can email & use social media without it damanging his "David Webster" brand.
However, I was shocked some years back to get a Facebook friend request from a. "Hippie Lou", and his tendency to sign emails as "Hippie Lou" is somewhat disturbing, especially if the context (is this supposed to be a professional stage name?) Is not clear.
It has gotten to the point where we refer to David as "Hippie" amongst his former colleagues.
In my lay opinion, his medical history probably should mention "Hippie Lou" just to document that this persona has been evaluated and is not borderline personality disorder.
4.
One of the other concerns around "Hippie Lou" is that it is a very different persona from the one many of us knew when we worked with David professionally.
In his Fountain House application, he crosses out "substance abuse" and changes it to "substance use", and writes a lot of side notes on the handwritten application. This is not the application of a consultant who once made $700/hr, who needs to be highly focused at that price point.
5.
There is no mention in the medical history of David/Hippie have received involuntary ECT on Riker's Island. This was the rumor going around (his friend Prof. Cameron of believes it to be true). I did not get a denial from Hippie or a correction of the facts when I sent him materials on the negative consequences from ECT.
According to these sources (which include Cornell-trained psychiatrist), ECT causes long-term brain damage but only short-term benefit. Since Hippie/David's future income is highly tied (IMHO) to his IQ brain damage is very bad in his situation.
One of the reasons I wanted his medical history (or to talk with his psychiatrist) was to find out if a lawsuit against NYS was in order for involuntary ECT.
From the medical history, it sounds like this incident never happened. (For one, his stay in Rikers' was also much shorter than described.) In which case he probably should have corrected us, as we were wasting time on potential courses of "treatment" that in appropriate (I.e., I inquired with ECT Justice on whether a lawsuit might be appropriate or not.)
6. As a former hiring manager in related disciplines, Dr. Webster has a very high potential income. (I am aware of one major corporation that has set up an entire website domain -- not webpage, or website, but website with its domain name just for collecting resumes very similar to his. They have more than 30 unfilled positions. Granted, these positions are unfilled because they want to pay too low of a wage, as they must know. But his salary from this corporation, which is seeking, on paper anyway, his exact background, is easily six figures.
His singing career is clearly irrational. If he wanted to change careers and become a folksinger, IMHO he would be better suited to work part-time as a economist, and use his earnings to fund publicity & professional management for his new found hobby or prospective career.
However, having interviewed and screened hundreds of potential applicants for some of the most selective employers in the world (I'm quoted in major newspapers on career advice and have a bio in WIkipedia), his immediate problem is very poor credit.
His poor credit will come up in corporate background screenings, who would consider a risk to their sensitive corporation information. Depending on whether or not he declares bankruptcy, it will take 7-10 years to repair this.
Also, any traditional (i.e. W2) employer is likely IMHO to be immediately hit by multiple wage garnish requests. In most states, 2 or more wage garnishment requests is cause for immediate termination as these requests impose a significant legal burden on his employers. Even if his employers do not conduct a background screening and somehow avoid wage garnishment requests, they would learn of his IRS debt problems through his W4 or W9 form, where he would declare he is subject to backup withholding. Since these forms are electronically reported within 15 days in most states, the IRS would be in contact with any new employer very quickly if he declared otherwise.
7.
A better avenue would be his PA-based consulting corporation, which, when I checked a few month back, was still in active standing with the state.
As a separate legal entity, it is likely not subject to backup withholding, and so would likely present clients with a clean W9. (The IRS will still wage garnish it, and it and creditors can still seize it, so he & his company still need (separate) attorneys. More on this later.)
His personal credit might still negatively impact his corporation, not only in having to hire lawyers to deal with wage garnishment requests from creditors, but also difficulty obtaining corporate insurance. Now a days many consulting client anti-fraud checks require a PayPal account, and a corporate PayPal account may be hard to obtain if he cannot obtain a personal bank account due to his IRS situation. An attorney could help negotiate a settlement with the IRS that would cause them to relieve pressure on him until he is back on his feet.
7a. As another example of this, I am aware of a (cash-strapped?) licensed psychologist in UK seeking a cost-benefit analysis on psychotherapy. Hippie/David would (prior to his illness) be extremely qualified to do this kind of study, and the U.K. psychiatrist would be well-trained to deal with David and likely very tolerant of his condition (being cash-strapped as he seeks to do a psychiatric technology startup.) I am not sure how good of an opportunity this is for David, but I have discussed this scenario with the psychiatrist in question, and he seems open to it if protesting a lack of money.
It suggests there are employment opportunities out there if David's condition can be somewhat improved.
8.
David states on Fountain House application that he has no income. However, as CEO of his still-active corporation, he should have (by good compliance practice) at least $1 in annual income as officer of a corporation.
If he's still married (his friend Prof. Cameron and I were under the impression the divorce had gone through some years ago), in many states he would be entitled to income from his wife (or, technically, some portion of his wife's income would technically be considered his income in many states). If his wife is not supporting him, he needs to finalize the divorce. (I'm sure his wife will appreciate if the IRS stops coming after her as well, "innocent spousal relief" etc.) This is purely a legal/financial decision; if he still loves her can always remarry her later once his situation improves.
9.
For all of the above I would say he needs a credit counselor & lawyers (divorce, corporate, tax/financial advice) etc and physical trainer (Dr. Ratner's work at Harvard suggests exercise is critical, but he has told me he is "too depressed" at times to do even a simple workout.)
10. Hippie/Dr. Webster has told me (circa 2011) he was "too depressed" to even do a phone job interview with the company I worked for at time (I would otherwise have been able to arrange an interview as a hiring manager there). This suggests very severe depression in need of aggressive treatment.
His friend (Prof Cameron) has offered to vouch to potential consulting clients and guarantee work is done properly (being an expert in economics and having formerly worked with David in better days), but if he is "too depressed" to even talk to clients on the phone this is unlikely to go anywhere. Prof. Cameron or I would handle most interactions with clients, but clients do occasionally want to be reassured their consultant is a real human being, and will want to talk or email "Dr. Webster," who minimally needs to respond promptly to those inquiries and say Prof. Cameron (or whoever) is handling all client communications.
It is also worth noting that restarting a consulting business (according to various textbooks & experts on the matter) requires repolishing your resume. I while back I asked David to put together an updated CV or list all of his white papers & publications & press mentions somewhere, perhaps on an ORCID (free website).
David/HIppie was at one point heavily quoted as an expert on pharmaceutical economics in major newspapers (NYT, WSJ, Boston Globe, you name it). He used to have a corporate website up that listed all of these press quotations, which are an invaluable calling card and credential when attracting new clients. I suggest David/Hippie bring his old corporate website back up (his domain was apparently purchased by a squatter, so he will need a new domain name for his company), but he expressed little interest.
Also very valuable with clients are skills with the R programming language, etc. I found a trivial little website that teaches R. In his old days at Chicago this would have been a trivial little game for him to play to learn a little R. However, David/Hippie told me he had lost all interest in economics or programming. He instead (as I understood at the time) preferred now to sing folk songs, despite much lower earning potential (which wouldn't let him hire the professionals he needs to deal with his other situations). I recommended he spend 50% on economics and 50% on folk singing, using the economics to subsidize a manager or publicist for folk singing, but he said had lost all interest.
11.
I would consider SNAP a failure given his income potential. I realize that getting someone onto SNAP might be medically considered a success, but what he really needs is to get some sort of employment so that he can afford the aforementioned team to manage his situation (psychiatric, financial, credit worthiness/background checks, fitness).
Again, his situation is unusual given he has very high income potential. Any long-term treatment (in my lay opinion) must account for this, or rule it out as impossible.
In my lay opinion, putting him on SNAP is essentially an admission of medical failure given what should be his very high income potential were he responding adequately to treatment.
In my opinion, SNAP should only be considered a short-term fix, as part of a longer-term roadmap to restore his income potential. Restoring even a fraction of his normal income potential (25% or 50% time work) would enable him to afford more aggressive treatment options (eg therapeutic farm work, PFEM, physical trainer to motivate him to workout, etc.) as well as hire professionals to solve some of the other major problems (tax/credit lawyers, separate corporate lawyer, divorce lawyer.)
12.
Again I do support his application to Fountain House, but for many of the reasons stated above don't think it goes far enough.
(I draw your attention again to missing mention of "Hippie Lou" persona in the medical file, apparently false rumor that subject received involuntary ECT, missing mention of corporate/spousal income on Fountain House application, lack of any plan for credit counseling which is absolutely essential to employment in many of the sensitive jobs that would normally aggressively recruit Dr. Webster, lack of plan for legal counseling which IMHO is necessary on a number of fronts, special situations arising from the very high income potential from the patient if and when he is rehabilitated both psychiatrically and credit-wise, etc)
Thus, I think a more aggressive & more comprehensive & more holistic plan is warranted, if this is possible.
