This is a great video focusing on one of my favorite programs, Housing First: Nowhere To Go But Jail? OverCriminalized: Homelessness by BRAVE NEW FILMS: JUSTICE The video describes how each homeless person was costing Salt Lake City an average of $20,000 per year—mostly from jail time and emergency services. Personally, I became homeless because […]
Jail and Mental Illness
Sometimes, I felt as though substance abuse and crime were a million miles away, or part of another world. Growing up, I was not aware of anyone I knew abusing drugs. I did not become mentally ill because I drank alcohol, or used prescription or illegal drugs. But despite the fact that I never made […]
Visiting Psychiatric Hospitals
Last year, a professor invited me to join his students on a tour of a newly renovated state psychiatric hospital. It had been seven years since I was hospitalized myself (three times, several days each time, during the course of one year) but I remembered my hospitalizations very clearly, and was eager to join in […]
Mental Health Courts
What is a mental health court? Mental health courts are special courts that serve people who have committed crimes they may never have committed if they had not been mentally ill. Some of these courts specialize in adjudicating cases for people who are homeless due to serious mental illness. (There are other special courts in […]
Jean Valjean
In the novel Les Miserables, the main character, Jean Valjean, serves nineteen years in prison for stealing bread. Reading the novel, it is hard to miss the subtle call for a society that offers help to those who are hungry and in need. Before I became homeless, I never saw American homeless people as desperate […]
Schizophrenia, the Hospital and St. Patrick’s Day
When I was first locked inside a mental hospital, I felt the stigma of schizophrenia. Because of the stigma, I was convinced that my diagnosis had to be incorrect. Beginning the new process of involuntary commitment to the hospital made me feel like an insulted professional. But during all three of my hospitalizations, the physicians […]
The Wedding
During the most difficult months of my recovery from schizophrenia, a friend from my childhood married. Although we had been close as children, I had not seen her for years, and was not present at her wedding. But I saw pictures of my friend in her white satin gown, dancing. She appeared joyful and excited […]
Schizophrenia and the Orchestra
When I was thirteen, my dream was to become a member of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra. After countless hours of practice and a successful audition, I received my letter of acceptance. When I arrived at Severance Hall for my first rehearsal, I saw the marble floors and pillars, and I entered a new world […]
Mental Illness and “Normal”
So much stigma surrounds mental illness. When we think about mental illness, we may struggle to find the language to discuss and understand it. But I believe it is important for people to talk about how mental illness is perceived in society. Before I was diagnosed with schizophrenia, I saw human behavior as a binary […]
Mental Illness and Identity
Schizophrenia does not define who I am. The core of me —that part of me that loves to learn, play the violin, spend time with other people, and try to make a difference in my world—has always been there. When I look back at the difficult times of my life when I was suffering from […]
