- Category: Crisis Response, Involuntary Commitment Barriers, Jail Instead of Hospital, Medicaid & Insurance, Refusal Treated as Capacity
- Tag(s): Anosognosia / Lack of Insight, Incarceration, Recovery with Treatment, Severe Deterioration
- State: CA
A Rocklin police officer stood on our sidewalk and told my husband and me it was not safe to enter our own home.
Inside was our 35-year-old son, whose severe mental illness had disabled him for years.
Over the years, we watched his thinking become increasingly disorganized while he rejected treatment. Like many people with schizophrenia, he suffered from anosognosia and could not recognize his need for treatment.
Crisis teams, police, and mental health professionals all acknowledged his illness. Yet each time, we heard the same thing: unless he became an imminent danger to himself or others, nothing could be done.
That night, as officers listened to him shouting from inside, they agreed he was unwell. They agreed the situation was unsafe. Yet they insisted they could not take him to a psychiatric hospital. Our home was unsafe, but treatment was still unavailable.
As his condition worsened, officers persuaded us to allow them to arrest him. Afterward, one officer then put it bluntly: “Arrest trumps a 5150.”
Our son entered treatment through the criminal justice system instead of the mental health system.
We were told he would receive mental health care in jail. He did not. To get care, we were forced to hire a private attorney and spend tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees, evaluations, and treatment. County mental health services were largely unavailable because he was not on Medi-Cal. A criminal protective order, issued against our wishes, further complicated our ability to communicate with and support our only child.
Only after arrest, incarceration, and enormous expense did our son reach the residential treatment he had needed for years.
We sought help early. We called crisis services. We worked with law enforcement. We never stopped advocating for our son. Yet an effective pathway to treatment opened only after his arrest.
Families should not have to wait for a crime before a loved one with severe mental illness can receive care. When arrest becomes the gateway to treatment, the mental health system has already failed.
*Each story is shared by someone impacted by untreated SMI, lightly edited for clarity, never for meaning.
THE ASK
The author’s message for legislators:
My story is not unique. Families across California watch loved ones with severe mental illness deteriorate while being told little can be done until someone becomes dangerous enough to qualify for involuntary intervention or enters the criminal justice system.
I urge legislators to create and strengthen legal pathways to treatment before a crisis becomes a crime. Families should not have to wait for an arrest, an assault, homelessness, or repeated psychiatric hospitalizations before help becomes available.
Specifically, I ask California lawmakers to:
• Expand access to court-ordered treatment and assisted outpatient treatment for individuals whose illness prevents them from recognizing their need for care.
• Give mental health professionals and courts greater ability to consider a documented history of deterioration, repeated crises, and inability to care for oneself—not just immediate dangerousness.
• Improve family inclusion when anosognosia is present, allowing providers to receive and meaningfully consider information from those who know the individual best.
• Expand access to residential treatment and intensive community-based services for individuals with severe mental illness, regardless of insurance status or Medi-Cal eligibility.
• Strengthen diversion programs so people with severe mental illness reach treatment before, rather than after, involvement with the criminal justice system.
Families should not have to wait until a loved one is arrested to gain access to care. My son needed treatment long before he entered the criminal justice system. California can and should do better.
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One Response
This story gives a perfect example of how our mental health system fails in getting persons with a mental health crisis the immediate help they need. The changes needed are included in this story.