Sunday, June 24, 2012
By JENEEN INTERLANDI
And what it took to get him the help he needed.
Elinor Carucci/Redux, for The New York Times
The author with her mother, Patricia, and her father, Joseph.
A REVIEW
No one really understands how a person with a
broken brain struggles like those engulfed in the struggle. Here's a daughter who tells a poignant story that captures the "craziness" and myth of a working mental health system in the USA. The
leaky social net for treating mental illness is so vividly exposed that it becomes clear even the latest health care reform efforts aren't enough. It takes ten pages for the author to fully tell what happened to her and her family after her father lost his mind to a
bipolar disorder. As you read her story, remember that in the mental illness political ring there are
two ongoing narratives: those favoring unconditional civil rights for the mentally ill and those favoring helping the mentally ill when they can't help themselves, by committing them to treatment against their will. There is no middle ground. Mentally ill people have civil rights all the time or they don't under exceptional conditions.
As you read this heart-rendering story, you should be able to
identify your position by the end of it. And it's that position that you will want to make clear when you tell your stories about coping with a mentally ill loved one. When you do you will thus be advocating for either
AOT or
ACT.
Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) allows
involuntary treatment with a law that moves beyond the narrow "
danger to self or others" standard.
Assisted Community Treatment (ACT) sidesteps the
involuntary committment issue by using the courts to order a mental health team to provide treatment BUT only if mentally ill persons volunteer or agree to the court-ordered solution.
Please take time to
thank
The New York Times for publishing this well-written and deeply personal article about mental illness. The paper's heroic effort helps to lift the
stigma veil and helps to bring attention to mental health illness issues; the article is important because it helps to increase awareness about the second-class treatment of our mentally ill relatives.
Thank you NYT and Jeneen Interlandi. You've both done what Hollywood and the White House haven't been able to do: make real the very real experiences of so many American mental health caregivers and their relatives. Anyone who involuntary treatment is unnecessary because violent incidents by the mentally ill are the exception, rather than the rule, miss the point - each act of psychotic violence probably represents tens of thousands of families already struggling to keep the same from happening with their mentally challenged loved-one.
Mental Illness is a huge and often well-hidden problem. Instead of being treated like
modern-day lepers, the mentally ill need better treatment and respect . No one wants to be mentally ill; recovery when it does occur is often a lengthy process. It's thus in the public's interest to increase beds and services for those who can't mentally handle their situations. Would you let a person in shock after an auto accident refuse treatment when you see him bleeding on the side of the road? Would a physician refuse to treat a child with a broken arm? Wouldn't a parent be held negligent for not taking an injured child to the doctor. Yet because few people recognized the physical symptoms of mental illness of any kind (bipolar, schizophrenia, depression, personality disorder, etc.) it often goes untreated in the initial stages. What makes a mental illness so insidious is that you
can't see a broken brain. That coupled with the disease itself, often causing its victims to declare that they are
not sick and don't need treatment, as Jeneen Interlandi's story so painfully depicts.
As a certified teacher for the
Family2Family education course for the
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), I continually teach our mantra - y
ou can't know what no one has told you. Re-education then is the first key;
re-dedication to funding mental health programs and positions, is the second. Treatment works. But getting long-term and consistent care to help stabilize a problem in the head, is a major frustration for
caregiving families and individuals. Not surprisingly families of the mentally ill become exhausted and stressed as they take on the roles of case managers and protectors.
One of the most revealing and painful facts in
When My Father Actually Lost His Mind occurs when it becomes clear that getting their loved-one
stabilized is more difficult without long-term coordinated services. While it is fortunate that Mr. Interlandi's bipolar symptoms began to subside, which is sometimes the case after many years, it should be noted that his improvement might have come sooner with a better kind of health care system. Indeed, it should not be forgotten that much of Mr. Interlandi's improvement may also have been the result of the strong support system provided by his loving family. I know of hundreds of families providing the same kind of up close and personal, intensive-kind of loving care for a
mentally challenged loved one.
Jeneen Interlandi thus makes a significant contribution by so eloquently bringing some very much needed attention to an
almost hidden epidemic. By increasing the awareness of millions about mental illness with her story, I am confident that many more are now aware that
mental illness is a family issue and a
biological problem. Perhaps now more people in and out of the mental health care system will understand to what extent
mental illness is a precusor for the increasing number of individuals who are homeless or in our jails.
Because stigma prevails... we need to keep telling and hearing about stories involving mental illness.
Stepping Forward2Day is one way to do that. This
Blog is therefore being used to sound an URGENT clarion call for action. The comments and stories you share will be presented to Congress, state legislators, the President, Governors, and other policymakers in September 2012.
It's time to wake-up America with more stories about real people coping with a mental health care system that often does as much harm, as good in the 21st Century.
Again, thanks to the
NYT, magazine editor
Vera Titunik, and
Jeneen Interlandi for sharing an extraordinary and moving story about the ongoing effect of mental illness in our communities.
Well done!
