My son was in an acute psychotic state. As a schizophrenic, these breaks can and do happen without warning. He slashed his own arm very deeply with a knife. My husband and I called an ambulance. The ambulance personnel refused to take him to the hospital simply because when asked directly - mind you, while in a clearly psychotic state - he said he did not want to go.
My son has suffered from schizophrenia for 17 years, so we have experienced other examples of shocking lack of treatment available to families with a very sick loved one. A hospital released our son in the evening from a psychiatric ward without telephoning us to pick him up. He was visiting us in a new neighborhood when hospitalized, so did not know where he was and had no transportation. We had to call police for help locating him.
When he first became psychotic, I searched through the phone book for a lawyer to assist with commitment. An older lawyer I contacted told me that because all the asylums had been shuttered, he no longer could provide any assistance to families, as there was no physical place to commit them.
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?
To write legislation to allow families to commit loved ones.
