- Category: Crisis Response, Discharged Without a Safe Plan — Hospital, Family Inclusion (HIPAA), Involuntary Commitment Barriers
- Tag(s): Anosognosia / Lack of Insight, Veteran, Violence or Threat Toward Family or Caregiver
I flew as quickly as I could get there to see my son.
Something wasn’t right and hadn’t been for a while. The wildest PTSD, I thought. Didn’t have a frame of reference for what I was witnessing. His windows blockaded with wood, him pacing and talking about people being after him.
I stepped outside, walked down the street where he couldn’t see me and called for help:
911, nope, can’t help – he hasn’t done anything.
VA hotline, nope “but are you suicidal”? Are you effing kidding me right now? Am I suicidal? I AM CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE HELP FOR MY SON, NO I AM NOT SUICIDAL… YET!!! GET US SOME HELP!! Nope. “Try 911” – already did that. What in the world????
Another hotline: check out our website for more resources. I don’t have time for that – what is going on? Later I checked the website. Basically deep breathing, yoga, come to meetings and meet other people like you “Thoughts and prayers” bunch of crap.
Is this what they meant when they said the mental health care system was broken? Broken because why? Because someone in authority hasn’t had a mentally ill family member? So no one has taken the time or considered it a priority to make sure our sickest people, our most dangerous people, our most vulnerable people, our people who cannot help themselves because they do not know they are sick?!
Call after call after call after call. Websites and research til the wee hours of the morning every night for weeks, for months, working on years now. For what? To be told no so many times and in so many ways…
Back to the same story when the first calls were made, we are on the highway now. Sorry police can’t help he hasn’t done anything wrong… well, we’re flying down the highway at the speed of sound are you sure about that? crossing state lines, call 911 again, sorry, nothing we can do here! Still moving, more calls made, sorry can’t help you he hasn’t done anything wrong. Maybe he will talk things through with you? Oh yeah, that’s freaking brilliant, why hadn’t I thought of that? Are you freaking serious right now? This is a HELP LINE??
Finally, police were set up to meet at what we thought might be his destination. It worked! He got put into the hospital! Yay! Wait, what? It’s already time for him to be discharged? Well what’s the plan? There is no plan just a prescription for him to take that he refuses because he doesn’t think he’s ill!!! It’s up to me now? He’s so pissed at me for having him “go to a hospital full of crazy people” that he is threatening my life, still psychotic, and it’s up to me to make sure he takes his medicine that he insists he will never take?
What’s next? Shall I call a help line and tell them that yes I’ve decided that maybe I’m suicidal now? Then what? Will that get me beyond “thoughts and prayers”????
I am so screwed.
*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:
Create a clear, rapid-response pathway for families reporting untreated psychosis, so law enforcement and health providers can intervene before a potentially dangerous event.
Require that calls about active psychosis (anosognosia, delusions, barricading, paranoia) trigger an in-home clinical assessment team within hours, not a hotline script.
Update state law to make psychosis with anosognosia an automatic trigger for evaluation, not contingent on suicide threats or overt violence
End ‘prescribe and discharge.’ Require hospitals to create a documented treatment and safety plan, with mandatory consideration of Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) when anosognosia or safety concerns are present. HIPAA must not be used as a shield to exclude families when they are the only ones at risk.
Fund and mandate a dedicated line separate from suicide-prevention hotlines, so families don’t get stuck in endless “are you suicidal?” loops when the crisis is about a loved one’s untreated psychosis.
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