All I can suggest is getting in touch with an organization called The National Alliance for Mental Health or NAMI. This is a grassroots organization made up of people who are dealing with family members with mental illness. My daughter has been diagnosed with major depression and I started going to Nami support groups in October of last year. It has been an enormous help. Just to know that you're not alone is an enormous help. Was your brother in his twenties when he first became ill? I ask because that's the usual age of onset for schizophrenia. My mother was schizo--affective, schizophrenic with a side of bipolar, so I know that they can be very resistant to treatment. My mother denied she had any problems. It was everyone else. Toward the end of her life she was convinced the government was trying to take her house.

Some caregivers in my group have had good results with the shots for their family members. Maybe you could tell him they're vaccinations or something. It's very difficult to deal with I know and not enough help out there. We should be ashamed that we don't do better by our veterans.