On Forcing Street People to Get Psychiatric Treatment

In theNew York Times, Benjamin Weiser has a beautiful and moving story about Nakesha Williams, a lovely and vibrant woman who graduated from Williams College and then became ill with a psychotic disorder. She lived for years on the street in New York City.  Please do surf over to Mr. Weiser's story,"A 'Bright Light' Dimmed in the Shadows of Homelessness." The story is a tragic one about a promising woman whose future, and ultimately her life, are lost to mental illness.  Despite so many people who loved and cared about her, and so many who tried to get her help, Ms. Williams dies alone on the street. She is young, and she dies of a treatable disease, a pulmonary embolism.  Mr. Weiser does a commendable job of re-creating her story and tracking down the people who knew her in the years before and during her psychiatric decline.  To his credit, he just tells the story;  he doesn't turn it into a plea for laws that make it easier to involuntarily treat people, and he doesn't go on about how this was a life that could have been so much different if only she had been forced to have psychiatric care.  I found the story to be a richer one told simply as it was without the moralizing.So having said that, I am now going to invoke my role as an expert on involuntary treatment to talk about the plight of the "homeless mentally ill."  Why the quotation marks?  Well, first I'd like to differentiate those who are homeless from those I prefer to ...
Source: Shrink Rap - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: blogs