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Authors: Danielle Steel
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and chatted for a while, and she told me how things were going for her. We gave her our supplies, and she thanked us profusely every time. Clearly, the available systems weren’t working for her. She lived in a tent on a street corner for years. I think drugs were probably involved, and maybe mental illness, or maybe not. All I saw was what happened to her since she’d been on the streets. I asked her no embarrassing questions. Her descent into hell, and how she got there, were none of my business. All I could do was visither there every few weeks. I worried when I didn’t see her. And what I worried about most was where would she go from here? Who would help her? How could she break the downward spiral? And why had no one helped her to get off the streets?
I don’t know what gets people to the streets. Some people live so close to the edge that when enough things go wrong, they fall into the abyss of homelessness. Others are there only temporarily and can easily be helped or salvaged. Some have been there for so long that, like someone with a terminal illness, you know they will never be able to return to what they once were. Some struggle on, others have clearly given up. Some you can easily imagine filtering back into the mainstream, given half a chance, but others never fit, never have, and never will.
Far too many (the majority) appear to be suffering from some form of mental illness, and there is nowhere for them to go for assistance. Unable to access help on their own, abandoned by their families, or even with families who would want to help them but are unable to due to our legal system surrounding mental illness, these people get lost along the way. All of them are on the streets, and we are failing each one of them in some way.
Some people say that homelessness is a result of not having enough mental hospitals. But the problem is more complex.Even if we had enough hospitals, we have no way of getting people into them and convincing them to stay there for treatment. It is an unpopular opinion with most people except the most experienced professionals, but I have long felt that our current system, where mentally ill people must agree to be hospitalized unless they have proven themselves to be a danger to society is a nice theory, but just doesn’t work. Right now, in our current system, the decision to be hospitalized rests in the mentally ill person’s hands. It’s up to them. And realistically, many or even most of them are not in a position to make that decision for themselves. Families with mentally ill relatives can do nothing to get them off the streets, or hospitalize them for treatment. I am deeply grateful that I never got to that place with my son Nick. As many of us do, I have several friends who have adult children (some in their thirties and forties) who have been homeless and lost to them for years. There is absolutely nothing the parents can do about it, and sometimes they wind up in jail rather than hospitals if they step over the line society sets for them, or exhibit behavior that breaks a law.
I believe we need laws that allow us to hospitalize people when necessary, for treatment and safekeeping, even without their consent. Perhaps the people who make the laws, or the citizens who vote for them, have no idea how vulnerable the mentally ill are on the streets, and what very real danger theyare in. The laws we have now are well-intentioned, and do avoid the situations we all read about years ago, when some unsuspecting mentally healthy person could be put away in a mental hospital against their will, often as a result of their family’s greed or self-serving motives. Today’s laws prevent that from happening, but the net is so broad now that we can no longer hospitalize those who need it most. Our hands are tied. So instead of getting treatment, or being helped by those who care about them, mentally ill people are homeless on the streets. The general consensus is that 80 to 90 percent of
I don’t know what gets people to the streets. Some people live so close to the edge that when enough things go wrong, they fall into the abyss of homelessness. Others are there only temporarily and can easily be helped or salvaged. Some have been there for so long that, like someone with a terminal illness, you know they will never be able to return to what they once were. Some struggle on, others have clearly given up. Some you can easily imagine filtering back into the mainstream, given half a chance, but others never fit, never have, and never will.
Far too many (the majority) appear to be suffering from some form of mental illness, and there is nowhere for them to go for assistance. Unable to access help on their own, abandoned by their families, or even with families who would want to help them but are unable to due to our legal system surrounding mental illness, these people get lost along the way. All of them are on the streets, and we are failing each one of them in some way.
Some people say that homelessness is a result of not having enough mental hospitals. But the problem is more complex.Even if we had enough hospitals, we have no way of getting people into them and convincing them to stay there for treatment. It is an unpopular opinion with most people except the most experienced professionals, but I have long felt that our current system, where mentally ill people must agree to be hospitalized unless they have proven themselves to be a danger to society is a nice theory, but just doesn’t work. Right now, in our current system, the decision to be hospitalized rests in the mentally ill person’s hands. It’s up to them. And realistically, many or even most of them are not in a position to make that decision for themselves. Families with mentally ill relatives can do nothing to get them off the streets, or hospitalize them for treatment. I am deeply grateful that I never got to that place with my son Nick. As many of us do, I have several friends who have adult children (some in their thirties and forties) who have been homeless and lost to them for years. There is absolutely nothing the parents can do about it, and sometimes they wind up in jail rather than hospitals if they step over the line society sets for them, or exhibit behavior that breaks a law.
I believe we need laws that allow us to hospitalize people when necessary, for treatment and safekeeping, even without their consent. Perhaps the people who make the laws, or the citizens who vote for them, have no idea how vulnerable the mentally ill are on the streets, and what very real danger theyare in. The laws we have now are well-intentioned, and do avoid the situations we all read about years ago, when some unsuspecting mentally healthy person could be put away in a mental hospital against their will, often as a result of their family’s greed or self-serving motives. Today’s laws prevent that from happening, but the net is so broad now that we can no longer hospitalize those who need it most. Our hands are tied. So instead of getting treatment, or being helped by those who care about them, mentally ill people are homeless on the streets. The general consensus is that 80 to 90 percent of
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