Sharing a little bit more of my story
I read today's opinion piece by Nick Magrino. Like many residents of Minneapolis, I have some thoughts.
As I have been quite open about for nine years, I live with bipolar depression and PTSD. I had my first symptoms of bipolar in November of 2013 and was admitted to the hospital that December. This December is the ten-year anniversary of getting treated.
Nick's opinion piece touches on a lot of subjects, but one that has animated some people is the practice of involuntary civil commitment, when a court orders a patient to continue treatment under the care of a provider, usually a hospital.
In my history, I was civilly committed twice, once in 2013 and a second time in 2017 during my second hospitalization. Commitments generally last six months, and then the court — a judge — can see progress hopefully if the hospital is reapplying for an extension. There were never applications for extensions in my history.
It is difficult for the general public — those who have never lived through a mental health hospitalization that required commitment — to understand why a court may need to require treatment. Let me give a more family-friendly example of a real false thought I had in 2017 that prevented treatment to some degree. The chemical-electrical misfiring in my brain made me think that all the people wearing the color purple were aliens. You don't need to take your imagination too far to see how false thoughts like these prevent a patient from getting the treatment they need to live a full, healthy life without the power of a court order to continue treatment.
I am not the smartest person. I am not the hardest-working person. But I am a very lucky person. Here are three ways that my success was really at the stroke of luck:
I was admitted to the hospital just as symptoms started (2013) or while I was still lucid and voluntarily admitted (2017).
I was housed before, during, and in all the years following my treatment, at times paid by Minnesota Medical Assistance (Medicaid).
My care team found medications that worked well, and I have been doing pretty darn amazing for six years.
Getting better with a mental health diagnosis isn't always about being smart or working hard, it's about having a care team and society that gives you the best luck you can have. Take any one of those three lucky rolls of the dice in my history — especially housing — and I could easily have ended up dead, either from the elements or by suicide.
People are homeless for mental health, addiction, and economic insecurity reasons, among any number of other factors. What all people need and deserve is comprehensive and coordinated social work and health care that meets all their needs as a person — combined with the stability of dignified housing. That's missing in Minneapolis right now, and the Mayor's policy of encampment evictions without any other place to go is making things worse.
St. Paul has a different approach, one that gives a week's notice before an encampment closing and wrap-around services to provide pathways to permanent housing and treatment. By contrast, the City of Minneapolis has effectively burned its relationships with nonprofits and even its own City homeless response teams.
I applaud both candidates for Ward 3 for supporting on paper permanent, supportive housing and a public health approach to addressing encampment closings. Now, as voters and constituents, we need to hold them accountable to collaborate with a new Council majority to make real changes.