What’s on Your Mind

Considering Mental Health

It seems as if 2023 has, thus far, been challenging for many of us. It has for me, I'll admit. What I've experienced is mild -  an occasional depression that I recognize and work to rise above. But Spring is happening, and my Irises are in full bloom. Plus, talking to you each week has been helpful – a bright spot in my life that's had a few challenges. I’m lucky to have you!

But since May is Mental Health Month, I want to talk about people who cannot control many of their thoughts and actions. Folks with severe mental health conditions who have little choice about where the brain wanders and what they choose to do. Men and women, sons and daughters who wander city streets at the bottom of life's ladder.

Along with sharing my thoughts with you, I've also been writing about a major effort by the state of California to help people with lifetime, serious mental illness receive better care and have a more hopeful future for themselves and the families who care for them. And this, too, is personal because a close family member has schizophrenia and has ridden the rollercoaster of the illness for decades.

This year, thanks to legislators and a governor who understand the crisis of mental health care, there's a new proposal that could bring major changes to the way people with serious mental illness are treated. The CARE Act includes direct intervention and help for people characteristically shoved aside, left behind, and often feared. Because the proposal includes involuntary treatment – there are swarms of people who disagree and say the Act will curtail individual freedom. I believe it will have the opposite impact – helping people who often have no choice or control over their behavior – actions driven by a physical disease in the brain and not by choice.

For example, Jake (name changed for this essay) was diagnosed with schizophrenia. His father has been the caretaker, guardian, shepherd of treatment for him, rescuer, and only friend. A few years after Jake's diagnosis, his dad dove into mental health policy and became one of the top advocates and lobbyists in California. Here's his story:

"My son is 44 years old. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 15. In one 18-month period, he'd been homeless, hospitalized on 5150s - seven times in eight counties, and arrested four times in three of those counties for nuisance behavior such as sleeping in a parked car or loitering. Each time he was released back to me, I managed to have him placed in care homes where he was free to come and go. He then predictably stopped taking his medication and returned to the streets. Scoring street drugs worsened his condition, and he lived homeless on the streets for months at a time. I would meet him irregularly for visits when he called me to help him. More than once, I found him with his face so bruised and bloody that he required medical attention.

The occasions in which he was directed by a conservator into treatment programs (some in locked facilities) gave me the few moments I was able to stop the constant worry about his safety. There, he was required to take his medication, and we'd see improvement. My talented son (he was deep into music and once traveled to Europe as a member of a children's chorus) would emerge from a fog of delusions. But once released, he'd inevitably stop taking medication, and the cycle of wandering, homelessness, drugs, and danger returned. Many families will find this story sadly familiar.

Today, thanks to a conservatorship (a person legally able to intervene to order treatment), my son is better. Taking his medications, receiving treatment in a mandated program, and able to leave the facility for a few hours each week to drive around town with his dad. The downside is that once released from the program, the cycle will repeat."

However, Jake is one of the few who get access to a meaningful medical intervention. Not many parents have the knowledge and access of his dad due to his career in the mental health arena. Far too many, like his son, wander the streets to face dangers and decline at the very bottom of civilization's ladder.

This year, as we transition out of the lingering COVID era, there's greater awareness about mental health. Many people suffered isolation and depression from the long and lonely experience. Kids, in particular, were impacted by losing the important social connections and growth they'd long gotten from attending school. So many more of us slowly descended into dark places without knowing why.

It's a lingering effect – with people wanting to talk to mental health specialists and counselors but unable to connect. Psychiatrists have long waits for openings, psychologists are also overbooked, and the new venue – online counseling - is relatively unproven.

So this Mental Health May, let's consider ourselves, friends, and family. Sometimes all it takes is reaching out to listen, offer support, and encouragement. Spend a little time with someone you suspect is not feeling at the top of their game. You don't have to possess a license to uplift someone who's depressed, to coax out a smile from a frown, and let a troubled friend know that they are not alone. Kindness is free to give away, right?

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Thanks as always for spending your time with me. I hope you're filled with optimism. I'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas – contact me at darby@darbypatterson.com.

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