Our story has been unfolding for over a decade. I’m the Mother of a loved one LO’s who’s currently waiting in jail.
Six days ago, I was feeling pretty blue. I had already been in the hospital once for attempted suicide, knowing I was feeling this way, and with the help I had been receiving, I knew what I needed to do next for my own safety. I gave my medicine to my fiancé and asked him to be the one to hold onto it and give it to me when I need it.
Four days later, I’m still feeling pretty blue, and I had been to this outpatient program once before, so when I got up, I decided going again would be a good step for my mental health. My fiancé and I had already spent the weekend working on it by meditation, walking, talking, and doing activities like building puzzles together. This is what THEY teach you to do.
So on Tuesday, when I got up, I went in and asked to be signed up for their program again. They then put a 96-hour hold on me! How can they be getting this so wrong!
I kept telling them over and over again that any person who had been going through everything I have been going through would be feeling every single emotion I am feeling. I had every right to feel every single emotion and yes, that might mean sometimes I wish I was dead or just not wake up, but that I gave my meds to my partner and shared with the staff all the steps we had done throughout the weekend. Basically doing all the things they had been teaching me.
After my experience, I have learned in my state when a mental patient is wanting to come in for a mental stability program they have to be put on a waiting list that’s at least two weeks out. THIS is unacceptable! There are so many support groups out there, and they are seven days a week. And to not have a mental support facility that someone could go to just like they go for AA is a big mistake in our mental health sys
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?
No one asking for help should be put on a waitlist or locked on a 96-hour hold. We need same-day, walk-in crisis care and peer-run respite centers so people can get support voluntarily, when they ask for it.
