Sometimes everything is just awful
One of our patients we monitor and advocate for is about get completely screwed. His landlord is evicting them because of his history of violence.
He has no other criminal record and it was his very first psychotic episode where he committed the violence.
He spend 4 years in the state hospital, where once stabilized he had a clean record, no more psychosis, and was released. He’s been out for over 6 months, has made every appointment, has taken all his meds (we do regular blood draws to make sure), has been extremely stable…and they’re going to put him and his mom out on the street.
Just because of his history. Doesn’t matter he’s doing everything right with his second chance to get past a disease he didn’t chose to be born with. Doesn’t matter that a stable, loving, and involved home life is the single biggest factor in mental health recovery (which he has). Doesn’t matter that we’ll be monitoring him for the rest of his life…
None of that matters because of how we view mental illness here in the US.
I know he isn’t the only one, or a remarkable story of someone trying to make their way despite having everything taken from them. There’s millions like him in one way or another. But this time I get to watch it happen in real time and it makes me so infuriated with everything.
We need to do better as a people. What’s so great about this??
He has no other criminal record and it was his very first psychotic episode where he committed the violence.
He spend 4 years in the state hospital, where once stabilized he had a clean record, no more psychosis, and was released. He’s been out for over 6 months, has made every appointment, has taken all his meds (we do regular blood draws to make sure), has been extremely stable…and they’re going to put him and his mom out on the street.
Just because of his history. Doesn’t matter he’s doing everything right with his second chance to get past a disease he didn’t chose to be born with. Doesn’t matter that a stable, loving, and involved home life is the single biggest factor in mental health recovery (which he has). Doesn’t matter that we’ll be monitoring him for the rest of his life…
None of that matters because of how we view mental illness here in the US.
I know he isn’t the only one, or a remarkable story of someone trying to make their way despite having everything taken from them. There’s millions like him in one way or another. But this time I get to watch it happen in real time and it makes me so infuriated with everything.
We need to do better as a people. What’s so great about this??
36-40, T
