- Category: Discharged Without a Safe Plan — Jail or Prison, Jail Instead of Hospital, Medicaid & Insurance
- Tag(s): First Episode / Early Onset, Homelessness, Incarceration, Severe Deterioration, Violence or Threat Toward Family or Caregiver
- Location(s): UNK
Family member was a vivacious, smart athlete as a child. Parents were teachers. HE started major HALLUCINATING episodes in Texas Tech at age 18. He was not a drug user but did smoke pot occasionally.
Transferred to a small private school in Austin, TX for art. Became portrait painter and started own business on the web. Had some kind of trauma as a teen, possibly male rape.
Hearing negative voices changed all. Without money and no work skills, he was on disability. Apparently insurance changes doctors like underwear. No consistency, no real quality therapy. Mother dies, leaving no steady, good influence. No meds results in disaster. Jailed now for beating up dad. Just received a letter from him. He sounds scared, paranoid, alone, angry, all of it. He was a good kid. If let out, he has nowhere to go, no money. Nothing. Nothing but his talent, almost unusable to him without a base home… I pray for his soul. At 37. What will he do? Nowhere to go…
*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:
We need farms and housing to place these souls in, if they can’t cope normally.
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One Response
Seven years on this road. 19 years old and we’ve tried every treatment and program covered by our insurance. The next level is all out of pocket. Only option would be to use retirement savings. And would that treatment bring any relief? We just don’t know what to do.