My wife has had 3 mental breaks in 4 years. The first, she was taken in and kept 27 days. The facility worked with me while I got guardianship so they could force treatment. She was given antipsychotic injections and medications to bring her out of psychosis. She was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. They were in contact and very helpful. It’s important to note she was admitted one time, released one time.
We fast forward to a a little over year later she has another break. This time the psychiatrist didn’t want to wait for me to get guardianship again (emergency guardianship lasts around 90 days). She was taken to mental health court by the psychiatrist. The psychiatrist and staff was great and did all they could for us. They knew antipsychotic meds were the reason she was brought out of the first mental break and wasted no time treating her. She was there a total of 17 days. Again, it’s important to note she was admitted and released one time. The diagnosis of bipolar with schizoaffective was added to her record this time.
We come to our current situation. She has mental break number 3 in February (2025). This time the police are called by the therapist on the crisis call. She is taken to the urc again forced by the police. It was the correct move.
Within 8 hours they are calling us to bring her home.
A few days later it happens all over again. She is getting very delusional and aggressive ar this point. In a span of 30 days this plays out 11 times. They take her by force and release her within 48-72 hours claiming she is “stable” 11 times. Sometimes they would call and tell us of the release and sometimes they would just drop her off on the porch. She had also been arrested for attacking our child.
We begged them to just follow the established treatment plan of the past and wait for me to get emergency guardianship or force her into mental health court themselves and every time they would not.
It got so bad one therapist would tell us this will take a while and to be patient because she is in deep psychosis. The next immediately would release her as stable!
They work in 3 day shifts and you are left to the mercy of the therapist on shift. She was taken and released 11 times in 30 days. We kept calling and begging for help. We called news srney’stations, facilities, state representatives, lawyers, out of state facilities, adult protective services, even the mental health court and district atto office. No answers.
She assaulted our child again. Now she sets in jail with a felony charge and doesn’t remember 2 and half months of her life. This is a women with a degree and a career working for the state! She had never been arrested in her life and has one speeding ticket as her lifelong offense prior to this. No lawyer wanted to touch the case because this establishment has a state contract. Local news agencies only want to run stories about funding for mental health and not the performance of the facilities because our story is common place here.
She was a danger to herself and others every time they released her.
Now her life as she knew it could be over. Even the police asked why she is being let go from the urc while not stable. We tracked her on an app going over 90 miles an hour driving all over the place erratically prior to her arrest. She could have killed herself and others easily while in psychosis. The state reps or the assistants I did speak with told me we were done wrong, but offered no help.
None of my family to include our child the victim want her in jail or with a charge we only wanted her to get help. Now she has sat in jail for 5 months and doesn’t remember anything and is mortified. In our state the only forced treatment now comes after someone has committed a felony. The facility with the state contract answers to no one other than themselves. They are self regulated and can act without fear of reprisals. No answering to state inspectors or adult/child protective services. They get paid every time a head hits the bed.
Each story is shared by someone impacted by untreated SMI,
lightly edited for clarity, never for meaning.
Do you have an ask? If you were sitting down with your legislator, how would you ask them to help you?
I would want to know why the mental health facilities which own the state contracts aren’t regulated and why have they made it to where these places can’t be sued or are not kept in place. This needs to happen before they worry about building more. Right now they are more worried about building more facilities than making what they have function! Yes, we need more facilities I am not opposed to that idea. But I feel it’s important we make the facilities already in existence function and not rely on the prison system to be the only long term solution with regulation! If they don’t want to regulate these facilities make it easier for them to be sued so they will force themselves to do right by people.
