(August 22, 2014) My beautiful son deserves to receive help in his life and a chance for happiness. But instead, we feel like second class citizens, neglected by friends, neighbors and law makers who slash funding and block access to care.
My name is Nina McDaniel and I am the proud mother and advocate to my 32-year-old son, Michael, who has schizoaffective disorder.
Michael asked us to drive him to the hospital on his grandmother’s birthday in 2010.
“I feel like I am a burden on society and I have no purpose in life, I want to kill myself,” he told the emergency room. I received a phone call from the hospital 12-hours later that they had discharged him and he will be waiting for us on the curb outside.
We went home with Michael and 4 days later, he asked to be taken back to the hospital, getting there via ambulance and finally being admitted. The diagnosis was still chronic paranoid schizophrenia and he was hospitalized for only 7 days. Again and again the same cycle, the hospital has become the revolving door yielding no results toward insight or recovery. Just like other discharges, Michael stopped taking his medicine.
It was obvious that Michael was deteriorating at a rapid rate. Because of mental health laws and falling through the cracks, there was nothing that we could do to intervene. We watched this internal torture and endured the verbal abuse while praying to God to end all our pain. Michael stopped watching television, spent all of his time in the pool room or bathroom and talked to himself continuously.
Michael’s enduring torture is just one symptom of this disease.
It is not a political issue, it is a humanitarian issue. Thousands are being lost every single day and families are falling apart due to the challenges of being a caregiver. Every tragedy that involves severe mental illness makes me wonder if anyone in Washington is listening.
I respectfully challenge members in government and advocacy groups to set aside their differences and take a UNITED stand for mental health.
Nina McDaniel
Mother of Michael
Part I of Nina’s story ran last week.
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