Perched on the concrete island at the end of two gas pumps, just past midnight on a weekday, a woman wearing bright pink spandex pants and a pale pink tank top sips an ICEE.
She looks content at first, but she”s like a child, frightened.
When she sees a car pull up to the pumps, she smiles. She believes a stranger is a friend she hasn”t yet met.
As a couple exits an SUV, the woman at the pumps grabs the patron”s sleeve, “Can you help me?”
The woman dressed in business garb looks puzzled. She asks gently what the woman in pink needs.
“I am lost. I don”t know where I am,” she answers. “I want to go home.” The patron asks where home is. The lost woman shrugs her shoulders.
She mumbles to herself and makes some Charlie Manson-style hand gestures. It”s pretty clear that she suffers with some sort of mental illness.
I watch her from the parking lot as the couple walks away.
I see the woman in the SUV making a call on her cell phone. I guess the call was made to the police or someone who can help this woman.
It certainly can be problematic for those suffering, family members and society to deal with and comprehend mental illness; ask my former boss, Mike.
Wait, you can”t.
His adult son shot him in the face and killed him on Wednesday while Mike was in the shower.
I know that Mike sought help for his son throughout his troubled life. Some diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, others said it was schizophrenia.
Mike tried to have his son live a productive life. He enrolled him in treatment programs and took him to psychiatrists. He put him to work cleaning at his businesses and put a roof over his head.
Today, Mike, the one person who cared for the young man is dead.
The son will go to jail.
The police scanner is alive every night with horrific scenarios that involve 51/50 calls — countless suicide attempts, a woman who believes someone is coming in her house and taking items and then returning them before the police arrive and another woman who called to say she cut her hand off.
In my opinion we are doing the mentally ill a huge disservice by haphazardly tossing them into a society where they cannot function. The homeless population is riddled with the mentally ill.
Those fortunate enough to have family care for them still face the reality that the disease is inevitably misunderstood.
Additionally, all too often the person who is ill feels isolated and may have the tendency to slip into depression, compounding existing issues.
Certainly not all, but a great portion of mentally ill people would have an elevated quality of life if institutionalized.
Aside from being understood, they would have a roof over their heads, meals and most importantly, adequate and immediate medical care. As it stands a majority of this population is in harm”s way.
When it comes to dealing with them we are reactionary rather than preventative, in many cases.
When I see someone struggling, I want to help but I don”t know how. It”s heartbreaking. I imagine that is how the woman in the SUV felt, as indicated by her furled brow.
Law enforcement and emergency room personnel share the daunting responsibility of shouldering the immense caseload.
The spillover of declined services impacts us all emotionally, physically as well as financially.
Safety is compromised for everyone. I think the closure of institutions was a move made with good intentions, but the fallout has proved catastrophic. I wouldn”t put an injured animal out on the street, it”s inhumane. Its basic needs would probably not be met.
I believe it is an act of cruelty to force our fellow human beings to live in a world that is uncomfortable, diminishing and alien to them.
“Americans have been taught that their nation is civilized and humane. But, too often, U.S. actions have been uncivilized and inhumane.” -Howard Zinn
Mandy Feder is the Record-Bee managing editor. She can be reached at mandyfeder@yahoo.com or 263-5636 ext. 32.
