Mental illness is a very broad term. It can refer to anything from ADD to schizophrenia and everything in between. Many of the people who fall under this broad spectrum, in today’s world, end up on the streets at some point in their life. In a very well written, thought-provoking article Rick Jervis emphasizes that, “The mentally ill homeless are some of the hardest to reach and toughest to treat, often self-medicating with drugs and alcohol and teetering between lucidity and crippling despair.” In my mind the mentally ill portion of the homeless are looked by the general public at as “passed the point of outside help” or dangerous, or just plain crazy so no one dares get near them. I know for me growing up in a town with a large homeless population, I was never to go near or talk to any of them, especially the “crazy” ones. You see a many walking down the street talking to himself or yelling at the lamppost, chances are you will walk the other way or cross the street to avoid him. This attitude towards those who are mentally ill makes it increasingly hard for them to find help or even find a place to sleep. And rather than helping these people find places to live and gain access to medication to help their illness, we as a government are paying millions of dollars a year paying for them to essentially “be on the street.”

But why have so many mentally ill ended up on the street? It is because of the progression of the closing of mental hospitals in the late 1970s and then the slow failure of the help that was supposed to replace them. Without the hospitals and the ability to commit someone against their will, and without the easy access to medication this drove a large portion of the mentally ill to the streets. It’s been almost 50 years since this epidemic so my question is why haven’t we done anything. After reading this article I came across in USA today, I realized that there is more work being done towards a solution that I realized. Between housing first and permanent supportive housing there has been efforts and funding that has been put towards the issue. I think that this is very important because this recognition that there is a problem is the first step towards a solution. But the progress is slow, and it concerns me that it is not an issue that is at the forefront of our awareness as a society. There needs to be help provided to these people who cannot help themselves. Mental illness is a very serious issue that needs to be addressed instead of stared at. Because no one likes to stick out of a crowd and if you have a mental illness, without help, you have no chance of fitting in.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/27/mental-health-homeless-series/14255283/