11/01/2015
A few days ago Richard Gere (of Hollywood acting fame) posed a question via Facebook, asking people to contribute their view of the main drivers or reasons for Homelessness in America. His recent film work portraying a homeless man had sparked a desire to understand it better, since understanding it might lead to finding a way of impacting it. There are very few actors who would genuinely take the time to investigate ways of making a difference, but maybe Richard Gere is actually one of them.
If I ever see Mr. Gere, I will tell him the same thing I will tell you about the Homeless in America. That both our Homeless population and Prison population in America is anchored, percentage-wise, by a huge number of disenfranchised, and forgotten mentally ill people who didn't ASK to be sick. We all know that, we witness it, the 'crazy' people in rags, lacking basic hygiene & wandering the streets talking to themselves. That is the public face of Sc**zophrenia. It was Ronald Reagan who closed the majority of residential psychiatric facilities in 1985, turning the mentally ill out onto the street. At the same time our laws were changed to prevent the courts from involuntarily committing people who needed care unless they meet an extremely high standard of illness AND are an immediate danger to themselves or others. With few publicly funded residential institutions to house the mentally ill, they live on the streets where they self-medicate with alcohol and crack to escape their demons. Or they live in prisons after they've done something wrong, and the Reagan plan to make the mentally ill disappear from his budget has led to more crime and tragedy within their ranks. Since there is inadequate provision being made to house and treat the mentally ill in the justice system, they join the general prison population. That is neither fair to them or the other (non mentally ill) prisoners who are forced to live with madness. This is where we are in 2015, millions of the mentally ill living on the street, with no laws or funding to get them into residential psychiatric care. Because there is no cure for serious mental illnesses like Sc**zophrenia, when the Reagan administration decided to abandon them to balance the budget they sent them out to live in the alleys and underpasses of our country. As citizens we experience the cruelness & nuisance of seeing the mentally ill live on our streets, and we pay for their dehumanization as taxpayers, footing the bill for federal support payments of $1000 per month each (enough to live under a bridge & stay high and psychotic, but not to live), and paying for Police, Fire, and Hospital costs associated with leaving the mentally ill on the streets. Those costs are estimated at $80 Billion each year. Reagan didn't make the cost of caring for the mentally ill go away, he just hid it as politicians do. The mentally ill are the 'untouchable' class of humanity in our 'classless' society. And they are people who have been robbed of all opportunity in life.
Mr. Reagan knew little of mental illness, but still felt justified in taking away the housing and psychiatric care that protected the mentally ill & society to make his budget look good. Mr. Reagan lived behind 12 foot walls guarded by Secret Service agents, so didn't have the homeless urinating in his yard, or bothering his children. We know that adding money back to a budget to help preserve the human dignity of non-productive citizens is a hard sell politically no matter how much society would benefit by turning the clock back. But we are stuck. Our ONLY hope of solving the Homeless crisis in America, and saving 100,000 of our kids (14-28 year olds) a year from joining the ranks of Sc**zophrenia victims annually, is to pursue the medical CURE for Sc**zophrenia. When we do, our family members will no longer risk this ancient illness that dooms them to suffer lifetimes of loss, frustration, and social isolation. No longer would we witness the dehumanization of fellow human living on the streets, eating from garbage cans. All it takes is money, to afford the medical research. Donating to support medical research protects your family and every member of society. Because Sc**zophrenia touches everybody, and no one can save those we love without a CURE. Donate today, to eliminate a 1000 year old menace to our children.
