(7-12-18) This is the third blog about a telephone call conducted by a strategic consulting group hired by the National Alliance on Mental Illness that was held with parents of individuals with serious mental illnesses. A majority of the individuals on that call were members of the National Shattering Silence Coalition. As always, I welcome your opinion about this issue on my Facebook page. )
Dear NAMI Leaders – An Plea For Help For Families With Seriously Mentally Ill Loved Ones by Jeanne Gore
“I See An epidemic, an apartheid of the SMI – It Outrages Me!”
I have been struggling to save my son’s life for 16 years now.
My son suffers from (yes, “suffers” – the word NAMI no longer wants us to use in conversation) schizoaffective disorder and has been jailed twice, beaten by seven police officers in Burlington, Vt, missing, homeless, and hospitalized 43 times, all because he didn’t know he was sick and, most of his hospitalizations were not long enough to stabilize his condition.
Everyday I read horrific, heart-wrenching stories from family members all across the country. This is why I became active in NSSC. Let me explain what we are doing and why we wish NAMI would follow our lead.
This week National Shattering Silence Coalition wrote a letter on behalf of Kristopher Rodriguez, who is in a jail in Florida where he has been for the last 10 years. He has been forced to eat his own feces. His mother, even though she has medical power of attorney and guardianship of her son, has not been able to access his records or visit him. She is told he is no longer receiving his life-sustaining medication.