The Sandy Pruett Project is an independent, family-driven effort born from denied care and unanswered pleas for treatment. Behind every statistic is a family fighting for someone they love.
These stories show what happens when systems fail: families blocked by privacy rules, courts that misunderstand anosognosia, hospitals discharging without follow-up, and police left to do a doctor’s job.
Legislators can stop this cycle, but only if they hear directly from those living with the consequences.
Some stories may feel heavy for those with lived experience. Some stories include fear, escalation, or harm. They are part of the reality families face, but they do not define the person. Most harm in untreated psychosis is directed inward, toward the person losing stability, autonomy, and life.
- Mission: The Sandy Pruett Project collects and publishes real stories of denied psychiatric care to create a public record that drives policy reform.
- Vision: A system where care happens at psychosis — not at danger, not after tragedy.
SMI Stories: Care Matters
Severe Mental Illness is Not Rare, and Care is Not Optional
Untreated psychosis can escalate, but the pattern we document is denied care, not dangerous people.
Dear person who does not have a loved one with Severe Mental Illness,
Our loved ones are not refusing help.
Their brain disorder prevents them from recognizing they are sick. This condition, called Anosognosia, may affect 50–98% of people with schizophrenia and about 40% of people with bipolar disorder..
When treated, people live full lives. They work, raise families, and contribute to their communities.
With the right treatment and support, many people stabilize, reconnect, work, study, love their families, and live meaningful lives.
When psychosis goes untreated, the outcomes can be tragic: homelessness, isolation, suicide, victimization, incarceration, or torment from command hallucinations. Many people never become violent at all, but still suffer devastating losses when care is denied. Some stories include fear, crisis, or harm, but those moments do not define people living with schizophrenia.
What these stories show is denied care and the quiet destruction of a person’s life from the inside out.
Families see the decline clearly but are blocked at every turn by laws that prevent earlier intervention.
This is about laws that block care.
HELP – !!
Sandy Pruett Project
