Civil Rights for the Mentally Ill

Civil Rights for the Mentally Ill

We have all heard the stories of mentally ill people who have committed crimes, yet for some reason the lesson extrapolated is always that they are all very dangerous and that something must be done about them, especially schizophrenics. Few look to the example of Geel, a town in Belgium, which is the home of the patron saint of the mentally ill, Saint Dymphna.

Since the 13th century the people of Geel have felt it is their duty to their saint to care for mentally ill people. They take them into their homes, live with them, and make them part of the family. All mentally ill people in Geel get a free bus pass so they may travel without hindrance. If someone is acting in an unusual manner in public, they are gently reminded not to do so.

A few years ago the news program 60 Minutes interviewed the townspeople and asked them if they considered schizophrenics dangerous. The assembled families furrowed their brows and shook their heads, obviously annoyed with the absurd question. How can this be when here in the United States we are embarking on a program of “mental health courts” and forced psychiatric treatment to combat jails filled with dangerous mentally ill inmates and the threat of violence? It all has to do with dignity.

When mentally ill people are treated with dignity, they most often respond very well. When they are left to roam the streets, endure the derision that our society casts on the homeless, or are branded as criminals, they lose whatever ability they have to cope with their afflictions. Sometimes in their rage they even harass society right back, as residents of San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles can attest.

When they do seek our help, the mentally ill are often left to rot in homeless shelters for as long as a decade without a permanent place to live. This treatment would drive anyone to aggressive, bizarre behavior, but is especially hard on mentally ill people whose coping skills are already compromised. Is it any wonder that they wind up imprisoned?

The answer to the fear that New York City residents feel about the homeless mentally ill, as well as to the terrible problem of mentally ill people in jail, is right in front of us. It does not involve force, coercion, or violating their civil liberties. It lies in the Supportive Housing Program.

In one project, run by Geel Community Services, mentally ill people are invited to live in decent studio apartments that are staffed by caseworkers who make it a point to treat the homeless mentally ill with dignity. The goal is to increase their self-worth and help lead them to independence. This program, founded on the compassionate care that is found in the Belgian town it is named for, is truly the enlightened way forward for everyone whose life is affected by mental illness.

Instead of supporting this program, we find our mental health leaders encouraging forced medication, mental health courts, and other methods that are not far from what we did with mentally ill people fifty years ago. I know this is true because my own grandmother was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1952, given multiple shock treatments and then lobotomized in 1953, and spent twenty years incarcerated in Pilgrim State Psychiatric Hospital.

My grandfather desperately tried to get her released, but to no avail. Our family was told that she was much too dangerous and violent and there was nothing we could do once this pronouncement was made. She was not released until 1972. Despite the dire pronouncements about her violent nature she lived out the rest of her life in a “welfare hotel” without committing a single violent act. In fact, after her release, when she was free from the confusing fog of heavy psychotropic medications and her hands stopped shaking from their effects, she was mostly very sweet and kind. She was still ill, but she lived in peace.

It is time for American society to abandon force and fear in our treatment of the mentally ill. We must embrace community living programs, group homes, and other compassionate methods of dealing with the vulnerable people in our society. Treating them as criminals, subjecting them to “mental health courts”, and forcing them to take medication that may not really do them any good, is an outdated model that should be unworthy of an enlightened society like ours.