Wow, that’s uncanny. A friend of mine has a brother with schizophrenia who was released from the mental hospital in Traverse City. For years, a social worker would find him a room to rent each spring. He’d live independently, usually not taking his medications, as a homeless person in the bad part of town. Late each fall, the social worker would “discover” he was living on the streets and have him committed during the cold winter months.
There is a happy ending to my story, though. Eventually he was found by someone who actually *wanted* to help him, not just shuffle paperwork for him and collect his SSI check. They found a nice home for him where people will make sure he takes his medication and keeps a regular schedule while having his own space.
I’m very sorry your friend wasn’t able to find the same kind of help for his brother.
Actually he did. Following his release from Traverse, he was put on meds, was provided public housing in Boyne City as well as employment. However, over the years, he would slip off the meds and regress but eventually get put back on them by his social worker. This was a constant problem.......
It wasn't a happy story but it wasn't totally bad either until the last year of his life when he contracted cancer............
As a side note, my only real contact with the brother was when he showed up at my apartment here in S.E. Michigan on a Thursday afternoon after driving the almost 300 miles from Boyne City. He said he had an appointment the the French Consulate in Detroit the next morning to discuss an enhanced railway system from Detroit to northern michigan.......??????????
I immediately called up his brother who at that time was living down here too and he came over that evening to spend time........
The brother spent the night at my place and I had to go to work the next morning. When I got home, he had left for his home in northern Mich........
Dealing with a person with schizophrenia is unlike anything anyone can image if they've never experienced it. Especially if they are college degreed like my friend's brother was from U of M.........Their reality is in their own mind and you can't reason or rationalize with them at all......
There is a happy ending to my story, though. Eventually he was found by someone who actually *wanted* to help him, not just shuffle paperwork for him and collect his SSI check. They found a nice home for him where people will make sure he takes his medication and keeps a regular schedule while having his own space.That *is* a happy ending!! :)