My oldest daughter suffers from severe mental illness and has done since she was ten years old. Now at 35 years old she is chronically homeless, has a host of medical problems that intertwine with her mental problems, and in the rather typical effort to self-medicate she has drug addiction issues.

She has not lived with me for the last 15 years, and I will never allow her to do so as she is not “safe”. When she is having an “episode” it is like a two year old temper tantrum in an adult body. She yells and screams verbal abuse, destroys property and physically assaults others. The only reason she has avoided prison for her violent outbursts is because she is constantly moving to a different city or state.
She does not have the capacity to take care of herself. Has been deemed “mentally unfit” to hold down a job and was receiving disability. She inherited some money and bought a house, but others took advantage of her inability to make sound decisions and for all intents and purposes stole it from her. The house she bought should have been condemned, and later was, but not before her disability was rescinded because of the money she allegedly received for the sale of the house.

She since becoming an adult, she averages two stays at a mental hospital per year. They keep her for just long enough to consider her stabilized with a new list of medications and orders for outpatient programs that she never attends. This last year I managed to convince her to check in to a drug and mental illness rehab center. Both the center and I had great difficulty convincing her to stay for the full 30 day treatment they offered, and she would not enter there after care program for more “programming”.
What she needs is intense and long term treatment. This is something she will not enter into willingly, and even if she did it is just not available. There are either no “beds” or no money.