The Streets Are Not A Home

The Homeless

1/3 or 200,000 of the 600,000 homeless who live on the street are mental ill.  Many benefited by very strong family support systems and insurance that offered some availability to services before they became homeless.  Those now living on the streets weren't able to care for themselves before they became homeless, how are they expected to now?  

Are the streets the answer?  Is that acceptable to our society?  No medication leads to self-medication which we know doesn't work very well. 

Street Outreach

Some of the most amazing programs in the country offer services to those on the street.  These volunteers, social workers, doctor and nurses patrol the streets looking for those they can help, they give them a meal, their meds and check them over, they look in their eyes and they talk with them..

Shelters are not the answer. We know that too. 

News Ratings at our loved ones expense.  No solutions offered.  Shame on them.

The homeless who are mentally ill and live in big cities get weekly news coverage for crimes they commit.  The public becomes afraid, again, of every form of mental illness which only adds to the stigma, preventing people from asking for help while the media gets a daily ratings bump.  Shame on them.

We, as caregivers, are more often than not blamed when tragedy strikes.  With all the media coverage we're often left with soundbites and the perpetuation of stigma yet no real solutions offered.  The questions they want to focus on are: Where is the family?  How could they let this happen?  What kind of people are they?  They judge, then they look the other way.  They think we have a say with our loved ones and the broken system we and they navigate…

Critical Intervention Training

(CIT) is vitally important, as a first step.  It will take years for us to fix the broken system and until then police are our first line.

A CIT trained office  told me the quagmire officers face. 'When they approach a call they are to get control of the scene and the perp as soon as possible.  They expect compliance, anything that isn't compliance is defiance.  So failing arms, talking, noises, tics, running, screaming, an inability to stop moving...crying and or acting out escalate the issue and the stress of all involved. ' Never good.

When I told him my story and how my loved one wants to be looked in the eye, told it will be ok, that you are there to help…

The officer said 'but we're not trained to do that…' in the academy.

I beleive when you know better you do better.  CIT training should be taught in every police academy because as another officer told me:

'We go on these calls and don't know what the hell to do and are as jacked as they are.  We don't know what to do?  Arrest them?  Send them to the hospital (which we often can't do) so the caregiver can get a respite and reorganize, get them to a shelter (if there is a bed) and often the caregiver gets mad at us for yelling at the person, arresting them or cuffing them.  What are we supposed to do??''

The Critical Intervention Training is such a fantastic community tool and deserves to be part of every police academy training in our country.  I'm impressed by each officer that I've met that is CIT trained.  

I'll leave you with a few links to consider as you look at the issues our society faces with respect to community based services, funding, CIT training and homelessness:  

Kelly Thomas. Homeless. Scizophrenic. Killed.

Please read Kelly Thomas' story.  Not the politics of it, just the story as a caregiver.  I'm haunted by this man and his father.  I want to meet this father and hold him.  He loved his son, his son's last words haunt me.  

link

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/18/us/philadelphia-subway-attack/index.html?iphoneemail

http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/hospitals-save-money-with-homeless-outreach-3676/

Mental Illness is just a character flaw. Get over it. Man-up!

As our nation continues to debate Mental Health Services few are speaking in public about the perception that Mental illness is a character flaw.  Mental Illness' are serious chronic medical conditions, like diabetes and heart disease.  Is a diabetic a weak person that can't control their pancreas and its production of insulin? If you're born to a family that has a genetic disposition to create cholesterol resulting in heart disease are you too weak of mind to control your endocrine system?  To follow that logic a person who suffers from Mental Illness is too weak to control the chemicals and neurotransmitters in thier brain; the most unexplored organ in the body.  Why is there no parity of coverage and care?  What is parity of care when discussing Mental Health?

Mental illnesses are serious medical illnesses. They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence. Mental illness falls along a continuum of severity. Even though mental illness is widespread in the population, the main burden of illness is concentrated in a much smaller proportion-about 6 percent, or 1 in 17 Americans-who live with a serious mental illness. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that One in four adults-approximately 57.7 million Americans-experience a mental health disorder in a given year.

http://www.nami.org/template.cfm?section=about_mental_illness

When you know better do better.

"Managed care has not caused a shift in the pattern of care but an overall reduction of care." *

*1999 Psychiatry Online, American Journal of Psychiatry, full article found here:  http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/article.aspx?articleid+173643

This certainly has proved true over the last 14 years.  The reduction in care by insurance companies and the availability of cost effective private services has dwindled to an unacceptable low.  The financial burden is passed along to caregiving family members who have little or no say over their loved ones care. Most care in the Northeast is private pay;  Therapy, DBT, CBT, etc...

I urge you to read the World Health Organizations report on the burdens and costs of Mental Health Issues that was published in 2001:  http://who.int/whr/2001/chapter2/en/index3.html

Studies show that providing proper insured care for our mentally ill loved ones lowers health care costs for all.  It doesn't raise them.  It also lowers the costs to society by not placing the burden of continued crisis hospitalization costs on the very hospitals that care for our uninsured loved ones.  Effective Social Services are in place but funding has been drastically cut.   

On December 8, 1990 the State of Connecticut closed two facilities with the promise that the money would go to local level mental health support services and to the New Department of Behavioral Health.  In fact, even during the economic boom of the 1990's these services continued to see cuts.  As insurance companies profits rose, Mental Health Services were cut.  Since the recession we've seen more and more of our loved ones in shelters, on the streets, unemployed and left without insurance and services.  This is unacceptable.

Remember 1:4 Americans are diagnosed each year with a Mental Illness and 1:4 Americans are caregivers of someone with a Mental Illness.  

We need to be at the table. Our voices need to be heard.