Recent experience with a mentally ill and alcoholic brother has shown my sister and me that it is next to impossible to get help for people who need it. We don't institutionalize anymore, it seems, no matter how much of a danger a person is to himself or others. (I'm just glad my father's pistol no longer is in my brother's possession).
@mountaineer Seems to ME the people responsible for those new laws fear being institutionalized themselves,and they SHOULD be institutionalized.
The sad,sad truth is that many of these people COULD be saved if they were to get the help they need early. When they don't get this help,they only get worse,and as they get worse the medications that would have maybe allowed them to function semi-normally no longer work,and they end up having to be sedated and institutionalized for the rest of their lives.
On top of that once they get that bad they often,but not always,turn violent and hurt or kill innocent people.
There is no excuse for this. If you knew of a child with Type 1 diabetes,for example, you would damn sure take that child to get the proper medical care,so why not give someone with mental problems the same consideration?
