Posted on 12/23/2007 4:00:49 AM PST by Zakeet
IOWA CITY, IOWA It's the time of year when the Frank Capra classic "It's a Wonderful Life" is aired on cable channels at all hours. You know the story: How George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, arrives on a bridge in a fit of despair, ready to take his own life. How the angel Clarence steps in and gives him a glimpse of what Bedford Falls would be like if he had never existed. How in the end the town comes together to save George from financial ruin, and the angel Clarence gets his wings.
Well, after the death of Sonny Anthony Iovino, a 55-year-old, mentally ill Vietnam veteran who froze to death here last month under the Benton St. Bridge, I don't think I'll ever see "It's a Wonderful Life" in quite the same way. There was no kindly angel to rescue this man, who suffered from chronic schizophrenia. He wasn't standing on a bridge thinking of ending his life; he was huddled beneath one trying to stay alive.
His community, my community, didn't come together to save him from ruin. Instead it refused him shelter, refused him even the most basic of medical care when he needed it most.
On Nov. 7, at 3:57 p.m., police responded to a report of a body under the Benton St. Bridge. Upon arrival they found Iovino, nearly naked, dead. The Johnson County Medical Examiner determined the cause of death to be hypothermia. Local police officers had tried to get Iovino the care he needed just 48 hours before his death. But he was refused a bed at the local homeless shelter and then turned away from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center here because he was "uncooperative."
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
One thing's certain: No kindly angel received his wings the night Sonny Iovino froze to death
You need to read the rest of the article to get an idea how cruel and neglectful our government was in helping this disabled Vietnam Vet when he needed assistance the most.
RIP Sonny. May you now find the peace and comfort that eluded you in life.
A sad story indeed. The man should have been institutionalized, but reads as if neither the VA Clinic or law enforcement could force that, given the circumstances. The man did not belong in a prison nor did he belong in a homeless shelter if he was a danger to others.
Systems are comprised of human beings and like human beings, systems are flawed.
May this man rest in peace.
This poor man is not a “victim” of the community. He is a victim of a legal system that is out of control. Anyone or any organization who held this man and/or forced treatment on him would face lawsuits threatening their existence. Mr. Iovino could have been protected but only if the protectors were willing to put their fate in the hands of the “civil libertarians” mentioned in the article as well as a judge with an agenda.
There are all kinds of facilities to help the homeless but the one thing most of them have in common is that the person must perceive a need for assistance. Failing in that nothing short of a lock up mental facility or a jail will be able to deal with the person.
The anger this article is certain to engender should directed at those who 30 plus years ago worked so diligently to have the courts rule that people like this poor fellow could not be forced into care against their will. I’m sure they had quite a few parties of self-congratulation and celebration after the courts finally ruled in their favor but they should have been ashamed of themselves. They are liberals, which means if they ‘help’ someone it’s because it makes them feel good. If their help also benefits the object of their benevolence then so be it, but the main thing is they can go about their business feeling good about having ‘done something’. They pay absolutely no attention to outcome, only intentions.
My heart and prayers go out to this man and the thousands of others just like him who wander the streets all over the country. But any anger about the situation must be directed not at those who are willing to help if they can, but rather that those who put these mentally ill and substance abusing people on the street.
</rant off>
Ted Kennedy and the ACLU decided long ago that these mental incompetents cannot be forced to do anything. - Not even take their meds.
I remember the first mass releases of them from mental institutions.
Most of them end up being bums.
The liberal just had to invent a new word then so as to not feel so badly, and indeed they did.
Viola, with a wave of my semantical wand you have all been transformed into victims: aka, the homeless.
Unless they are a clear menace to Society at large, we cannot force them to accept help, therefore they are free. To die.
Ditto to everything in your post.
Another thing - All the homeless are vets, just ask them.
And one more thing. Time and time again there are the stories of shelters that try and take in the homeless but the homeless refuse because they would have to obey the few rules the shelter had.
While people can drag out stories to say I’m wrong - the majority of homeless are there because that is the life they choose to lead.
RIP.
Everybody pitched in to save all that money by turning the mentally ill on the streets with an open-ended tranquilizer prescription--
Before we pass judgement on the VA and other mental health facilities about Sonny’s case, there are a number of considerations that must be factored in to this case. There are finite facilities available for the mentally ill. Taking repeat, non-compliant patients (frequent flyers) uses up availability for those seeking treatment and willing to be compliant. Often these patients addictive and self indulgent behavior is a key factor in their condition. They require extraordinary staffing relative to compliant patients. Another factor is placement after the treatment. Again, non-compliant patients disrupt and endanger patients and staff at these facilities. Cost is another consideration. I have heard one psychiatrist ask, “Just how much free health care are they entitiled to?” In a perfect world,we would have unlimited facilities with unlimited staffing and unlimited resources. In the real world, facilities have to be utilized where they will do the most good. Sadly, frequent flyers like Sonny cannot be allowed to endlessly overtax the system.
I would like to hear the complete story from the VA.
Unless a person states he is a danger ot himself or others CLEARLY at the ER they can not hold him. Medical Professionals are VERY limited in who, when and HOW they “hold” someone.
This tragic story is the flip side of the lawsuits and hysteria that would occurr on behalf of this “victim” if he had been hospitalized “against his will”.
The VA has begun intensive programs of medical teams GOING OUT INTO THE STREETS where these Veterans are to give help.
The VA provides the BEST medical and psychiatric care in this country. It is way beyond good in comparison to the private sector. I guess the Wall ST Journal writer did not bother to share the information about services that are available.
This is a complicated problem for our society. The Libs just talk big about ‘caring “ for the victims and then cut funds to the VA and the military and are way behind charitable contributions compared to conservatives.
Back B.C. (Before Children), my husband and I worked in a homeless shelter. Other than a few transients looking for a place to stay while they looked for a job, and our professional bums who liked the life on the street, the rest of the occupants were mentally ill or drug addicted, or both. You can't imagine how difficult they were to deal with - and the violent ones were a danger to everyone, staff and other inmates. We couldn't keep them, somebody would have been killed.
We also lived in a neighborhood (not a nice one) where there were a lot of former mental patients who had been turned loose, supposedly to live in "halfway houses" in the vicinity. But nobody could make them take their meds or report for outpatient treatment -- with predictable results. They wandered the streets muttering to themselves until they attacked somebody. Then they would go into the local charity hospital ("Nine" - the 9th floor of Grady Hospital, where they did the involuntary committals) which could only hold them for 24 hours. Then they would be released onto the streets to repeat the process until they died.
I guess it made the liberals feel good about themselves, then they waltzed off and forgot all about the folks they had turned loose on the rest of us.
I don’t understand this. Iowa City has a very large VA hospital and outreach program...
Amazing, isn't it? They may not know what MOS they had (or even what an MOS is) but they swear they're vets.
It’s getting a little hard for the 40ish year old homeless guy to claim he is a VN Vet. Now they are all Gulf War Vets.
The new homeless fashion statement is to wear bits and pieces of desert cammy uniforms.
We got one guy that walks around town wearing a Kevlar Helmut - minus the cover. Now, Vet or not, I think he is a few bubbles off level.
Today,in most states (if not all states) it’s far too difficult for an individual or organization to obtain legal guardianship over a seriously mentally ill individual.Yes,there was a time when it was far too easy to do so and,as a result,abuses....serious abuses....occurred.But then leftist lawyers,social workers and others pressured state legislatures to swing to the other extreme and make it nearly impossible.As a result people like this vet freeze to death under bridges and in doorways.As one who worked in a big city ER for some time I saw this stuff up close and personal.Until the laws change this stuff will continue to happen.
It’s getting a little hard for the 40ish year old homeless guy to claim he is a VN Vet. Now they are all Gulf War Vets.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I met one of those Gulf War vets in a bar the other night.
He was having all sorts of trouble with the VA. It just wasn't fair -- He had spent four years in the Army and got out as a Lance Corporal, for Pete's sake.
The Army has been a little short of Lance CPLs since he left.
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