State laws prevent mentally ill from getting help

By Donna Wilson

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It greatly saddens me to read the account of the death of Craig Prescott. It takes me back to the grief that I and my family continue working through over the suicidal death of our 24-year- old son, who died during a depression and subsequent severe manic-depressive episode after being denied the hospitalization he needed.

Our son had a documented mental health condition and had been diagnosed as bipolar at 16 years old. Although he had not had such a severe episode since, we knew what was happening to him in the 24 hours preceding his death in July 2007. Sadly, we were unable to get him the help he needed at the time. The laws Jeff Jardine discussed in his column ("System of little help to Prescott," Oct. 11, Page A-1) have also reduced the power of loved ones and friends who can help.

In our son's state of mind, he could be quite violent and threatening during such an episode, stopping short of hurting those of us around him — perhaps? He did not want to be in jail as was threatened, but in this emergency, he needed to be in a locked behavioral center where he could get leveled out with psychiatric help and medications.

Unfortunately, the hospitalization and medications needed are expensive and, due to his "pre-existing condition" we had been unable to insure him and eventually, were unable to afford medications for him.

Also unfortunate in his confused and angry state of mind was that he would not cooperate with us, his parents, in our insistence that he be hospitalized for his protection, ours and others. At the time, local medical and law enforcement seemed not to hear us or others' multiple pleas for help.

Several agencies involved seemed not to talk with each other. Subsequently, after being poorly medicated, our son was released from a local hospital as they deemed him not to be a danger to himself, even though we did.

And subsequently, we were directed by law enforcement that he was OK and to leave him alone for a couple of hours of rest. We did that, only to find that he had died a suicidal death.

It was a sad horror for us, his loved ones and friends.

During a time of trauma and ultimate exhaustion for all of us, the system that we trusted to help our son could only treat him as if he were a criminal — and subsequently failed all of us. The depth of our anger and frustration has been more than ever before experienced.

There are helpful resources in our communities to help those grieving such loss, such as Dawn's Light Center in Sonora (532-9001). Sierra NonProfit Services, of which I am executive director, was instrumental in forming Dawn's Light into a viable nonprofit organization. Now I am an involved as a parent receiving grief services, and an advocate for this very needed organization in our community, a community that has a high suicidal death rate among young adults and older.

Our hearts go out to the Prescott family in their grief, and thanks to Jardine for an illuminating article on the difficult state of mental health care and the lack of power of family and friends during mental health crisis.

Wilson is a resident of Sonora.