The Unstable States: Comorbidities of Mental Health Issues and Homelessness
Aman wailed in the middle of TerryAshe Park in Paradise, California at 3:00AM on a Tuesday morning. He was dressed in what used to be a white button-up and white khaki pants, though they had been soiled and stained from being unwashed. Though I was obliged to assist in some way, I was not sure if he was confused to the point of being hostile. When I called the authorities, they told me that they had 'already spoken to him,' and that they could not do anything except tell him to keep moving; but this scenario is not unprecedented.
The population of homeless has been slowly ascending in Butte County, and the small town of Paradise is not excluded from this problem. All over the rest of California, other small towns are seeing the same. However, locals have noticed that a growing number of the transient populace now has another factor to be concerned about: mental illness. Yet, no definite action has been taken by the authorities on multiple different occasions where a homeless person was clearly in distress. The Town of Paradise has shown no definite concern for the growing number of homeless and mentally ill or disabled.
According to the Sacramento Bee's Online Publication, “Since July 2008, Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas has transported more than 1,500 patients to other cities via Greyhound bus, sending at least one person to every state in the continental United States, according to a Bee review of bus receipts kept by Nevada's mental health division.About a third of those patients were dispatched to California, including more than 200 to LosAngeles County, about 70 to San Diego County and 19 to the city of Sacramento.”
It is this way of thinking that hinders a person's ability to see humanity in another person. People with mental illnesses are dehumanized into an entity, a separate population, and a problem. To send the problem away has the effect of projecting the responsibility of finding a solution to someone else. While on a smaller scale, officials in Paradise are trying to manage the problem instead of dealing with it at the source, practicing the same demonstration of
dehumanization as the officials in Las Vegas. Insel and Roth state that Maslow's hierarchy of needs in positive psychology perspective are physiological needs, safety, being loved, maintaining self-esteem, and self-actualization, in that order. (45.) If this holds true, and homeless person's basic physiological and safety needs cannot be met because of the status of their housing, there is no possible way that a person can fully emotionally cope and thrive, mentally ill or not. Trying to function as a contribution to society comes further down the list in importance than things like being adequately dressed in relatively clean clothes, having a place to bathe, and a place to sleep. We are setting other humans with a predisposed disadvantage up for failure.
Though Paradise and the surrounding areas have a few homeless shelters , these are of little use to someone who is confused, afraid, or otherwise mentally impacted. Disruptive behavior in a sleeping place such as a shelter will likely result in ejection from the facility, leaving the person even more distraught and perhaps confused.Additionally, letting mentally ill people wander at their own leisure can result in tragedy, excessively so in the terrain of Paradise. Animals like bears and mountain lions come far enough into the town to search through trash containers and kill livestock in the struggle for food.An unarmed, sleeping person could be easily mauled by one of these predators without shelter of some sort. This is assuming that the mentally ill homeless person doesn't fall down a steep incline or get hit by one of the many drivers who speed excessively on the main roads that connect the town to its neighboring communities.
Instead of treating mentally ill transients with disdain, Paradise's authorities and citizens alike should treat the people they encounter with mental illnesses as persons, not just problems. Vicky Stergiopoulos reported on a project about helping homeless people overcome addiction. (“Effectiveness of Housing”). It may cause a thoughtful reader to critically think about how homeless people who were given the proper means to live comfortably managed to abstain from destructive behaviors. With the proper treatment, this positive environment exemplified by the study could prove be similarly effective to the progression of a mental illness. If a citizen expresses concern over a person who seems to be mentally disturbed and homeless, Paradise
Police should give an assessment of cognition. If the person is too distressed to practice care for his or her own body, or otherwise wants help, the Town of Paradise's police officers should become involved and refer the person to a rehabilitation center.
The Butte Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care is composed of different locations that assist the homeless in different ways. According to CoC's 2015 census of the homeless population, in the nearby town of Chico, 55 percent of homeless people who have a mental illness are receiving treatment. In Oroville, statistics of treatment for mental illness in the homeless population decline to 43 percent. In Paradise, a mere 37 percent of mentally ill homeless people are receiving treatment (2015 Homeless).
I propose that the Town of Paradise's officials and Paradise Police Department become involved with the Butte Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care to create a committee who will enact a plan to help mentally ill homeless persons. The plan should begin with training officers in how to safely approach an unfamiliar situation that involves a mentally ill person that may be hostile. The ability to keep bystanders safe in the event that the person becomes distressed to the point of hostility is another key element to add to the itinerary.Apolice officer should be equipped with knowledge on how to deescalate a situation in which a person who is not in the right state of mind becomes a danger.
The next part of the plan assesses the at-risk person to decide what type of help he or she needs.Aperson who is capable of caring for themselves with simple behavior modification and mild medicines may be given treatment and temporary housing and may be able to go through the same steps as a mentally stable homeless person to finding permanent housing and an occupation. However, if a person is in a more severely impacted state of mind, they may need more serious treatment. The next of kin should be notified and given options on how to help their loved one.
If the family member who is notified is willing to take legal responsibility for the mentally ill person, action should be taken to return the mentally ill homeless person to his or her family.After that, the family may decide on which institution the person goes to, if any. In some
cases, mental illness cannot be treated with institutionalization, in which case, a family may choose to try to keep their loved ones at home. Cases where a person is not hostile but cannot communicate effectively, such as a person with the mental capacity of someone significantly younger, are prime examples of cases where a mentally ill person is better left in the hands of people who love them. If the family member is not willing to take legal responsibility for the severely mentally ill person, I believe the person should be institutionalized in the institution nearest to the location that they were found at.
The task that follows will be to execute this plan. It is important that oversight be conducted by an individual with no motive for exercising bias in assessment of the officer's performance. Officers should be monitored for conduct during the early stages of this training. As the mentally ill subjects are evaluated, the Butte Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care can work together with the police department to set up temporary housing until the person's needs are identified. This oversight committee will also serve as a central office whose purpose is to organize and communicate with the different branches of this project. One of this offices' jobs will be to contact the family of the mentally ill person. This office's tasks will also include arranging transportation to get the person to his or her family or future treatment facility.
Funding will also be a large obstacle. I propose asking the community and town council for help. Approaching the town council for a budget grant is one of the first places to start. Various fundraisers would take place, thereafter, using the support of the community as a strong foothold. Supplies like toiletries, personal grooming items, and clothing could be requested for donation from the town's residents.
The untreated and unsolved crisis that the homeless and mentally ill are currently undergoing in Paradise is long overdue to be resolved. People who need treatment are being left on the streets. These people may be confused, hungry, dirty, and without shelter. The plan is to support these people and guide them into the proper treatment plans to get them on track to being the best that they can be. After that, the project I am proposing will put into action its plan to help these people who need one-on-one attention and care to rehabilitate. If the project is not equipped to help, it is the intent to get the individual to the someone who is capable of assisting the mentally ill person.
Paradise is such a small community that with enough volunteer efforts, I believe a
massive impact can be made on this problem. With just a little more compassion, Paradise can become the kind of place that assists and supports its people in need. Having a society that encourages the disadvantaged to keep trying can help reinforce a positive disposition about attempting to obtain emotional and mental wellness. Being reminded that one is genuinely human, and an accepted part of their local community is an integral part of being satisfied in life, and to help other human beings feel actualized as a human is a great deed to commit.
Works Referenced
Hubert, Cynthia and Reese, Philip and Sanders, Jim. “Nevada buses hundreds of mentally ill patients to cities around country.” The Sacramento Bee. April 14, 2013. Web. September 18, 2015.
Insel, Paul and Roth, Walton. Connect Core Concepts in Health. 13th Edition. New York: McGraw Hill, 2013. Print.
Stergiopoulos, Vicky. “Effectiveness of Housing First with Intensive Case Management in an Ethnically Diverse Sample of HomelessAdults with Mental Illness:ARandomized Controlled Trial.” PLoS ONE. Volume 10, Issue 7(2015): 1-22.Academic Search Premier. Web. September 18, 2015.
"2015 Homeless Point-in-Time Street Census." Butte Countywide Homeless Continuum of Care (2015): n. pag. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.