Recently, I was honored to become president of National Alliance on Mental Illness Southwest Washington. While we board members were meeting, a man with a mental illness diagnosis whom we have been attempting to help appeared at our office door. After 30 years in and out of jail as a mentally ill person, he had been released from the Clark County jail. He had heard about NAMI during his last days at the jail, when we offered our first support session for inmates.
He was carrying his few belongings in a plastic bag. Our volunteers gave him clothes but he had no sleeping bag. He had no place to sleep because the homeless shelters are full. So he has been sleeping outside our office on the ground. He has some medications but no antipsychotic medications that he definitely needs. The agency that could help would not give him medications until he could be officially “seen,” which will not take place for several days. In the meantime, our volunteers are doing their best to support him while he lives outside our office. This is just one man’s example.
NAMI has made it a top priority to advocate for mentally ill people in crisis, especially in jails and among veterans. This challenge will take a new level of commitment from private foundations, as well as individual donors and government agencies.
Ann T. Donnelly
Vancouver
