Tim is a 27-year-old homeless man you might encounter on the streets of San Francisco. He's tall, gaunt, and unshaven, with wild curly hair. People who see him are afraid of him.
You might wonder where his family is. Why don't they take him in? Tim's father, Paul Gionfriddo, is a former Connecticut state legislator who served as the legislature's expert on mental health. How is it possible that he cannot get treatment--and find a home--for his son?
In a moving article in Health Affairs, Gionfriddo blames the policies that he helped create:
..it’s the policies of my generation of policy makers that put that adorable toddler—now a troubled adult, six feet, five inches tall—on the street. And unless something changes, the policies of today’s generation of policy makers are what will keep him there.
When Tim was growing up, Gionfriddo and his wife noticed that Tim had problems far beyond those typical of elementary school children. The schools were little help. It took 10 years to get a diagnosis (schizophrenia) for Tim, which sounds incredible. How, you might wonder, can doctors misdiagnose schizophrenia? This isn't swimmer's ear we're talking about.
Gionfriddo repeatedly found Tim housing when he was old enough to be on his own, and Tim was repeatedly evicted for one violation or another. Apparently it didn't occur to anyone that folks who hear voices might need help following rules. So Tim lives on the street.
Gionfriddo's account will not be surprising to those who have had a child with mental illness, but it will be an eye-opener to those who haven't. "We would never treat any other chronic, prevalent disease the way we treat mental illness," he writes. It took a nation to put Tim where he is, Gionfriddo concludes. "And it will take a national commitment to get him back."
-Paul Raeburn
Comments
I am so frustrated with the lack of attention given to the "medication" given to this young man. (Is it really medication if it makes you angry and paranoid when you take it and suicidal and violent when you experience the withdrawl symptoms from stopping?) More infuriating is the fact that it seems to have been documented that the common thread with (nearly?) all of these mass murder events is not autism, or violent video games, or lack of strict gun laws, but the use (abuse?) of this class of drugs (SSRIs). Is their overuse because of big pharma wanting bigger profits by pushing doctors to push these drugs? Is it because of our mental health care system is lazy and would rather prescribe than counsel? I really don't know, but it seems that this is the most important root cause, which remains nearly completely undiscussed. (I believe the medical information regarding Holmes, the one from the Batman movie massacre, is still being withheld. Hmmm. Wonder why?)