I had a busy week last week, and I’m exhausted. It’s a good kind of exhaustion, though. Our grandsons from California spent a week with us, and our local granddaughter spent much of the week here as well. All three are teenagers and very active, which means I was more active than usual as well. However, it was a delight to host them all. The fact that these 16- and 19-year olds still want to spend a week with each other and their grandparents is a pleasure I don’t take lightly.
While I had a piece on Truth Sandwiches ready to post before the grandkids came, I didn’t have anything ready for this week. I assumed I could get something written by Tuesday, after they left. Unfortunately, I underestimated how difficult it is to get back in a daily writing routine. And I had no idea what I’d write about.
Then I saw an article in my local online newspaper, Community Impact, that corresponds well with the book I’m currently working on.The Texas county I live in works with Bluebonnet Trails Community Services to treat individuals who are experiencing mental health issues. Williamson County invests significant funds in the programs Bluebonnet Trails provides to cover gaps in mental health services that the county would otherwise be responsible for.
To be honest, I’ve been somewhat skeptical about community-based mental health services. Their failures are made clear every time there’s a mass shooting or newsworthy standoff between police and someone suffering a psychotic episode. Several of the family members I interviewed for my book found no help from their communities at all.
My mother was institutionalized with schizophrenia in 1953 and died in a state psychiatric hospital in 1966. Financial concerns and scattered reports of abuse at these facilities coincided with the advent of psychotropic drug development in the mid-50s. There was a nationwide movement to eliminate long-term residential psychiatric facilities and focus on creating community-based services.
Unfortunately, both the families and the communities of suddenly discharged patients were unprepared to care for them. Adding to the chaos, available antipsychotics didn’t work for everyone. Or they worked for a while, then stopped. Thorazine, which gained widespread attention in the mid-1950s, was not the end-all-be-all mental illness treatment.
I’ve read that as many as 50 million Americans had taken the drug by the late 50s. I have my mother’s hospital records from 1953-57, and, surprisingly, she was not prescribed Thorazine (trade name) or Chlorpromazine (generic name). She instead took a great many tranquilizers and anti-seizure medications, presumably to control behavior.
Psychiatric patients were released in droves in the 60s when Thorazine stabilized many patients, however. Keeping state asylums open was expensive, and the primary response to declining numbers was to consolidate several hospitals within a state, leaving only one or two open to serve as forensic hospitals.
Unfortunately, the success of community-based mental health services is quite spotty. It depends on where you live, in other words. Some communities have addressed their residents’ needs well. Others have no services whatsoever. I am heartened to realize that my county recognizes the value of mental health services, and that there’s a reputable provider for them.
Among the services Bluebonnet Trails offers are a Diversion Center for individuals in a mental health crisis who interact with law enforcement, a jail-based competency restoration program, 911 dispatch for mental health crises, a mobile outreach team, and youth and adult respite centers. There are also a variety of support and peer groups to work with diagnosed individuals and their families.
I’m impressed with the description of the Diversion Center but a bit dismayed by the resources devoted to restoring jail inmates to just enough competency to stand trial. I realize it is important for them to receive just treatment in court and that is more likely if they can cooperate with their defense. However, I would like to think there are more resources devoted to preventing those with mental illness from interacting with law enforcement at all.
I want to dig deeper into both the Diversion Center and the jail-based competency services Bluebonnet Trails offers in a future post. I’m intrigued by these programs. One of the authors I researched for my book, D. J. Jaffe, contends that the prison model of restraining individuals with mental illness has replaced the state asylum model that my mother utilized.
That Bluebonnet Trails prioritizes these services and that Williamson County finds them the most noteworthyl services they can provide for county residents seems to corroborate Jaffe’s point. I’m curious to learn more about the details of Bluebonnet Trails programs, but that’s another post for another day.
Janice Airhart 