One cure would have been for him to seek out help at the very beginning stages of his problems, rather than keep them to himself, or ruminating over them. That surely wasn't a very good decision. But we are also talking about mental illness, and those who are close to him, it seems, should have recognized that something wasn't right with him. OTOH, he was "too old" to force into therapy. You can't put someone in therapy against their will unless it is a sure thing that that person is a harm to themselves or others....in certain stages of the illness, though, the ill person is NOT a harm to themself or others. But, as we saw, that can change overnight, like the flip of a switch.