Montana’s mental health system is broken

Dear Gov. Greg Gianforte,

I am contacting you regarding a desperate need for help in the Kalispell area.

The situation involves mental health, the availability of illegal drugs and homelessness. The main concern is regarding the mental health system. I will do my best to explain the situation here.

I have an adult child who is in desperate need of intervention. My loved one was diagnosed with a severe and debilitating mental illness. He went off of his medication and has been in crisis more and more for months. My loved one is very vulnerable but does not realize he is not thinking straight and so he refuses to seek medical help.

My loved one has suggested “shooting himself in the head” to stop the voices, has been huffing and using other life threatening substances to escape the mental torment he is experiencing. I’ve called 911, wellness checks, adult protective services, and mental health — and everyone I’ve called says they can not intervene. Each one passes me off and tells me to call a different number. In some of the worst times, I’ve had my loved one in ER and Pathways. When my loved one wound up in Pathways after a serious episode involving suicidal ideation, Pathways let my loved one out of their care before even doing an evaluation.

I have called every part of the system, trying to get someone — anyone to intervene and get my loved one the help he needs. It has been months of me reaching out to no avail for help for my loved one, and no one is stepping up. At the end of each day here, it all comes to the same end. I have to sit here and watch my loved one fail and potentially kill himself. So far, the best that the system has to offer is to hope that my loved one will do something criminal so that he can be arrested. Then, he can be held against his will and be evaluated.

Locally, National Alliance on Mental Illness has no suggestions other than what I’ve already done and others with loved ones with mental health issues are telling me that this is the ‘norm’ for mental health care.

This is unacceptable.

People with mental health issues have enough to face without us putting them in a situation of having to become criminals, get arrested and put in jail before they will be given the medical attention they need. From there, they are placed into the state hospital which is understaffed and leaves a lot to be desired.

How are our loved ones with mental health issues ever supposed to come back with any sort of sense dignity if this is how we treat them?

When in a better state of mind, my loved one was eager to have employment and be able to support himself. He was so eager. He said he did not even want to apply for Social Security disability benefits because he just wanted to earn his own money and support himself. But unfortunately because of my loved ones mental condition and his inability to perform necessary tasks, my loved one has been fired from three jobs since October.

Now, he has no income and forgot to renew his food stamps, and can’t remember to apply for Social Security disability. My loved one is hanging on by a thread — sleeping for days at a time and doing whatever he can imagine to escape the mental torment he is in. His mental condition is worsening and renders him incapable of even realizing that he needs help. For him – this (depression and hearing voices) is ‘normal’.

This letter is only scratching the surface of everything involved here.

Everyone I have spoken to says they can’t make the necessary intervention to get my loved one the help he needs because of the laws that are in place at this time.

The system that is in place here is appalling.

I am requesting a re-evaluation and change of the laws in place surrounding individuals with mental health issues and better care/more care for our loved ones with mental health issues.

My loved one is depressed, confused and delusional. My loved ones’ neighbors are increasingly concerned for my loved one’s safety as well as their own. If no one steps up to intervene, my loved one will potentially be another homeless person on the streets, or worse yet, he may succeed in killing himself.

We need help.

Two more notes:

Homelessness is not a homelessness crisis — it’s a mental health issue. Somehow, the laws need to be changed, and we need more mental health facilities, mental health professionals and reliable intervention to get people the medical assistance they need.

I have made numerous calls to the authorities, giving them exact times, locations and names of individuals buying/selling illegal drugs. But, unfortunately, nothing was done to stop these transactions in which I brought awareness to. When I spoke with the officers as to why there wasn’t more effort towards making arrests, it became apparent to me that in a lot of cases, the officers are doing their best to compensate for the broken mental health system.

At the end of the day, it’s boiling down to our mental health system

I petition that this locality come together as a protective force to advocate for those with mental health issues. Our loved ones who suffer with mental health issues are of the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us. It is unconstitutional that our laws enforce a system that puts our mentally ill loved ones at risk of homelessness and suicide. These people are suffering. We need to mend the system so that those suffering with mental illness receive reputable support they need before they’re homeless and without hope.

To tolerate the system as it is is to accept the abuse of our most vulnerable population.

There are systems that could be put in place whereas our loved ones with mental illness could get the assistance they need before it gets that bad.

A new system needs to be put in place.

I am requesting and expecting money to be allocated for high quality mental health care. We expect mental health care system with top-quality psychiatrists, nurses with psychiatric experience, and high-quality case management. And, we expect this quality of care to be available to anyone who needs it.

Thank you for putting your immediate attention and action towards resolving this serious issue.

Barbara E. Hadley lives in Kalispell.