A friend's acquintance has been mentally ill for the last 10 years. They lost their spouse, their job, their car ... everything! They've been gradually increasingly incoherent in their speech over time. They've been resisting treatments.
We are not doctors and won't armchair diagnose them, but we figured out something was wrong. We called a hotline for mental health services trying to see how non-family could help. The counsellor from the hotline said that the best we could do was to convince them that they had to seek help. Since they're an adult, we should not put them in a mental health facility forcefully.
The family had put them in a mental health facility but they escaped. They still thought that they did nothing wrong.
We ran out of ideas on how to help them. They've been living on the streets. We feel helpless.
A relative of mine was clearly mentally ill, although was never diagnosed (he would never seek treatment). He hoarded garbage in his house until it was uninhabitable. Finally he ended up begging on the streets, until about a year ago when he passed away partly due to pneumonia.
It was a struggle to watch, and to repeat the same tired conversations with him about seeking help. In this case too, there was nothing that social services could, or would, undertake to help if he didn't ask for it personally.
While calling mental health facilities to get advice on a similarly mentally ill individual (homeless for probably decades, delusional speech, probably paranoid schizophrenic, afraid of authorities and equally resistant to treatment...no drugs or alcohol though, so that was nice) two of the people I spoke to said the only way they could reasonably see the person getting help was if I called 911 or the police and told them I was worried they were a threat to themselves. That was the only way to get them forcibly treated. One of them said this based on her own experience in trying to get help for a family member. So I did.
Depending on your city/state, they may send out a mental health specialist. Mine didn't have any available so the police called me and gathered the required information. It was the middle of winter and this individual steadfastly refused to go to a homeless shelter and had a respiratory illness, so it was easy to make the case he was endangering his life. The officer was friendly and explained that if they did find the person to indeed be a threat to themselves, they would be taken to a mental health facility if beds were available. In this person's case, turned out he had a warrant out for his arrest. Part of me felt bad that he went to jail, but the other part was relieved that he was out of the cold. Unfortunately, he fell through the cracks and doesn't seem to have been given mental health treatment during his time there.
Fast forward a few months and I got a call from him. He had made his way to some city in Arizona. He went to a hospital there for some unrelated illness; they quickly realized he was mentally ill and after an evaluation committed him against his will. I hope he gets better.
… and the security deposit and liability from the person absolutely trashing the place! Holy hell that’s a personal risk.
I’m all for housing stability, but just blindly giving someone a place to stay without any additional support services when there are clearly mental health issues… well it’s a bold move Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off.
One of my friends actually paid upfront for a short-term semi-private accommodation. They did not stay for the whole time, asked for a refund of the remaining balance and left.
My friend has been mad because they took the money.
We are not doctors and won't armchair diagnose them, but we figured out something was wrong. We called a hotline for mental health services trying to see how non-family could help. The counsellor from the hotline said that the best we could do was to convince them that they had to seek help. Since they're an adult, we should not put them in a mental health facility forcefully.
The family had put them in a mental health facility but they escaped. They still thought that they did nothing wrong.
We ran out of ideas on how to help them. They've been living on the streets. We feel helpless.