What happens when the family doesnt want anything to do with them? Then what? Leave em out on the street to cause havoc? Is that the way to do it?
The problem with someone who has schizophrenia and is not being treated with medication is that they are often impossible to help or even control. The patient does have rights as a human being, families cannot force-feed them their medications. Families cannot stop them from slipping into psychosis. If you are dealing with an adult with a mental illness who refuses to be treated with medications, the family can do very little about it... unless it can be proven that they are a possible danger to themselves or others. And that is a very difficult thing for a family to prove. It is generally only proven after the fact, after the patient has harmed himself or someone else.