[ClaireSolt]

NAMI is a good organization, imho. However, I saw it and others testify before a cong committee and claim that they were cured. To me, that is a travesty. Although antipsychotic meds administered in crisis setting have some benefit, they are overrated. The fiction that relapse is just people off their meds perpetuates the scandal that some who cannot cope just walk the streets. More and more I see all this health care push as a subsidy for the highest paid profession using patients as their meal tickets.

Not too long ago a woman who seemed out of it approached me in a gas station offering to sell me two beers. As I visited with her she showed me her meds in a bag and told me she lived on $500/mo plus subsidized housing. She wanted money to buy shampoo. I gave her a $20 and muttered a little prayer. Thank God my meds work better than hers. Someone should calculate the social costs of wandering crazies. I'll bet it is huge.

[muleskinner]

Someone should calculate the social costs of wandering crazies. I'll bet it is huge.

Not only in dollars. but the emotional whirlwind the wandering ones inflict on their immediate circle and family.
Combine bi-polar and alchoholism = A.M.E. Always Making Excuses. And as an adult, there is no legal recourse for forced treatment. No state mental hospitals anymore.

Anyone know of a treatment for both?