New York City to Remove Mentally Ill People From Streets Against Their Will

[AngryOldDem]

9. They're back out on the streets within days.

I’m speaking as someone who once worked with this community in a shelter environment. Back then, someone had to be in severe mental distress before anything could be done, i.e., a threat to themselves or to others. But, in order to make that determination, we had to have them “evaluated” by an outside “crisis care” team. The dark joke among us was, “If you’re in a crisis, don’t call crisis care” — because it truly was a joke. They would do a phone consult to determine if it was even worth their time to come out. I once spent about two hours ON HOLD trying to get help for a suicidal client. We would do everything short of calling the police to deal with clients who were in crisis, because cops made things a billion times worse.

There are almost no resources to help this segment of the homeless community. They get a 48- to 72-hour standard observation IF they are hospitalized, and I doubt very much if they get any kind of help or assessment while there. The suicidal person I was on the phone about was back at the shelter in a matter of days.

It is criminal, because a lot of homeless people have severe mental illness. If society could see fit to provide a fraction of the assistance they need, it would go a long way. Instead, what NYC is doing is typical — pick them up, put them down somewhere else, and forget about them until they come back. The hospitals will kick them out at first opportunity — guaranteed. They don’t want them, either.

Needless to say, all this shit had its start back in the ‘80s when dear Saint Ronnie decided deinsitutionalization — with no help — was the answer to severe mental illness.

Sorry for the long post, but even years later this issue gets me worked up.