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Provide mentally ill people with treatment for their illness. Don't throw them on the street and make it a police/crime problem. Decriminalize drugs and provid

• scruple 6y ago
  What if they don't want treatment? What if they flat out reject it? What if they refuse help? What if part of their mental illness is a form of extreme paranoia that prevents them from accepting help, especially when it comes from those in positions of supposed authority? This is one of my family members. There is no amount of help that anyone can give this person other than cash donations that they will accept because _they do not want to "get better"_.
  • phobosanomaly 6y ago
    That's sort of the crux of the problem, right? That's where people seem to split. How do you balance individual, constitutional rights with the need to help people who are ill. We either force people to undergo treatment, or leave them alone to live in a cardboard box, scream at mailboxes, and self medicate with heroin and amphetamines. I have heard, and am swayed, by arguments on both sides. I tend to lean in the direction of getting people help (maybe against their will), but at the moment we have zero infrastructure to accomplish that in a remotely humane way. We have some short-term systems in place, but they don't extend beyond the duration of a 51-50 hold. Enough voters are not confronted with the issue of homelessness and mental illness on a regular enough basis for it to have become a national talking point, but damned if it shouldn't be.