While I was watching a comedian recently, I heard it again, that reference to a homeless person, followed by a demonstration that clearly indicated that the person was "not all there". Whether by addiction or mental illness, we accept the idea that those are who the majority of the homeless are.
And that says what about our country?
If you are sick with a mental illness or addiction, there is no place to go. Sure, sometimes there will be a homeless shelter in most large cities; but following directions, to find it and showing up on time to get a bed, requires more organized thought than an insufficiently medicated or unmedicated mentally ill person is capable of mustering. And maybe for a week here or there, a couple of times a year, some may end up in a hospital or jail, but they are still homeless when the stay is over. Hospitals won't keep them for long because of the way our medical system works and the patient has the right to sign himself out if he wants to leave. Leave to go where?
I talked to an old friend who has a sibling that signed herself out of the mental hospital and since she is an adult, the privacy laws prohibit the staff from contacting anyone to let them know; unless the patient has signed something giving permission. It didn't seem to matter that she didn't even live in that city. When he found out she was no longer at the hospital, he and a friend had to drive for hours, checking every street, starting near the hospital, until they found her sitting on a porch early the next morning. Her rights were protected but her safety was not.
It doesn't seem to matter that their form was signed by someone who was "not of sound mind".
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I did a clinical assignment at a homeless shelter. This is Terre Haute, not Chicago, so there aren't a lot of them. At chapel, there was the most astounded looking man sitting in a pew trying to keep up. He has been at the psychiatric facility in a full blown schizophrenia meltdown the day before because I saw him there. When I asked him what he was doing at the shelter, he said the hospital told him that the state wouldn't pay for him to be there anymore since he wasn't a danger to anyone and a bus dropped him off at the shelter. This particular place is really decent, and they will make sure he is taken care of and that his meds are taken religiously, but give me a break. Thanks for the precious words about my boy. I hope it helped to know you aren't alone in the dark with your fist crammed in your mouth to keep from screaming. I also think of my boy as he was as a baby/child. In a lot of ways, he still is a child. He's surely MY child and my center, and I'll never give up on him. I know you understand this!
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