Dear Community,

I am a mother of an adult son whose illness began just prior to his first psychiatric hospital stay in 2015. He returned to me for help after a recent job loss, relationship breakup and was noticeably developing psychosis in his early 20s. The next available psychiatric appointment was two weeks away and we didn’t make it before needing to call for involuntary mental health treatment.

This was the beginning of what has become 11 years of 25+ acute hospital stays, couch hopping between family and friends, 4 different group home stays totaling three years and extensive cost to personal finances, various police or jail stays at least 6 (quantity uncertain).

For years I have asked, begged and requested assistance for long-term stable supportive housing to meet his needs and repeatedly it has been ignored.

Currently my son is in yet another acute care hospital and prior to discharge, I have/ and I am inquiring about long-term supportive housing for his needs. My son is diagnosed with Schizophrenia, we are a low-income family with limited resources, and repeatedly I am told that it takes a long time and he has to agree or ask for this service.

Hospitals have discharged my son with a sheet of paper and an RX, with no capacity to follow through and no history of being able to follow through. Recently after a period of living in a camper on paternal family property he was evicted from their land just before winter storm, no phone, no money, no place to go.

The call made to local CIT officer enforcement by myself was greeted with “stop calling he is fine”, I had not called them personally in a long time but was aware his paternal family has called for help. Two days later my son called from a store phone and temperatures were going to drop to about 20 degrees Fahrenheit that night. He was about 4 hours drive away and road conditions not safe to travel, his psychosis fully noticeable. I arranged for a hotel online to wait out winter storm but after a couple of days the hotel refused to renew his stay and my son had left with no way to contact him, temperatures still well below freezing. I called the local police and made a report.

Two days later my son had called me from the mental hospital where he is currently. I’ve spoken to his case worker and again I asked about long-term supportive housing. He said that takes a long time and offered to provide my son discharge to a local shelter not suited for his needs and not within his ability to navigate safely. This has occurred repeatedly for 11 years. There are no more personal resources to remedy his situation and he desperately needs a supportive long-term care environment for persons with severe mental health conditions and co-occurring substance use.

It is now life and death.