If they are mentally ill but functional and not interfering with the quality of other people’s lives, I’m not sure that any intervention is really
necessary.
I think top priority should go to deal with those who are so mentally ill that they become involved with the criminal justice system or are potentially dangerous.
Once they get that managed then perhaps they can branch out to offer better care to those who are more functional.
Years ago when they closed down most of the State mental hospitals because they were just warehousing them (sometimes in appalling situations of neglect) the promise was made to concerned family members that these huge hospitals wpuid be replaced by smaller and more local group homes with more individualized care.
Well after meeting enough NIMBY resistance and lack of funding, that promise never materialized.
So now we have them homeless on the streets or the jails have become defacto warehouses for the mentally ill.
Our entire system for (not) dealing with these severely incapicitated folks needs to be reformed from top to bottom.
They also need to revise the criteria for when a severely ill and potentially dangerous person (according to concerned family members) can be involuntarily held. It is horrendously inadequate as of is now.
They just did a report on this highlighting one tragic case recently on 60 Minutes. The father, (who is a State Senator btw) knew that his son was off his meds and imminently dangerous tried to get the ER to hold his son long enough for him to find a facility with a bed available.
Long story short, they wouldn’t hold him, shortly after, he attacked his father with a knife and then killed himself.
It was heartbreaking to hear the father recounting this tragedy (which could have been prevented).
The system is totally broken and needs to be thoroughly overhauled so that a parent with a future Adam Lanza or Jared Laughner on their hands is not left totally helpless.
MORE INFO EDIT
The details of the case I cited can be found on the CBS website. The title of the story by Scott Pelley was: “Nowhere To Go”
It was Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds. But there are interviews with health care workers and others covering the general state of lack of resources.
It’s very thought provoking (and very sad)