The new mental-health solution: jail.

Beware, because this could be you or someone you love. One day you are a healthy, taxpaying, law-abiding citizen. You have a family and a home, and life is good.

Then you get sick. Not the physical sick that everyone can sympathize with, but the scary “head” sick. The type that your family, friends, co-workers can see but you can’t.

So, in your denial, you get sicker, but you can’t be made to get medical help because you have “rights.” The day comes when the family and friends can’t deal with “it” anymore, and they can’t convince you to seek medical help, and the mental-health authority can’t intervene (you have to be deemed dangerous), so the police get involved. They can’t make you get medical help, either, so they put you in jail and take away your rights. Except you still can’t be made to get the help everyone knows you need because that’s the one right you still have.

Meanwhile, your family gets a little “sick” too, because they still love you and care about you. They know you aren’t a criminal, know you need medical help that you still won’t get. Their hands are tied and no one can help.

I would like to put the mental-health authority in jail, and get some “sane” people running this system, before it becomes “crazier” than it already is.

Jan Collins

Victoria

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