The Issue: New York laws that make it hard to remove the potentially violent mentally ill from the streets.
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Referring to those who suffer from mental illness as “crazies” who “can’t be rounded up” deepens the stigma of mental illness that is all too prevalent in our society (“Homeless Crazies Can’t Be Rounded Up — Until They Attack,” Dec. 10).
It is only through improved understanding of the complexities of severe psychiatric disorders that we can begin to identify and effectively treat mental illness.
Studies have found that individuals with severe mental illness are particularly vulnerable to being victimized.
When these images are encouraged, society reacts toward the mentally ill with feelings of resentment and fear, further marginalizing them and acting as a barrier to effective treatment.
Society needs to pull together to help those who are not able to help themselves. We must begin to treat those affected by mental illness as people who have a disorder that can be properly managed, not as a bunch of “crazies.”
Wendy Brennan
Executive Director
National Alliance on
Mental Illness of NYC
Manhattan
During my years as a police officer, I learned that homeless individuals hate nothing more than living on the street, especially during the winter.
Many of them have told me they prefer either being in jail or a mental institution where they’re guaranteed a warm bed and food. This is why there are so many violent assaults committed by homeless individuals in the colder months.
It’s crucial for them to be placed into homeless shelters, even though they may not like it. Public safety is more important than any discomfort some violent individuals might feel.
George Najarian
Brooklyn
The Post writes that Naeem Davis was off of his medication for bipolar disorder.
Why is there no focus on the psychiatric drugs, which are a known cause of suicidal thoughts and violence?
Even the drug-company-controlled FDA requires a black-box warning label.
Are all journalists under the spell of the pharmaceutical industry, keeping people ignorant? When will psychiatrists be prosecuted for causing violence?
Roy Bercaw
Cambridge, Mass.
While I’m in agreement with most of Andrea Peyser’s pieces, including “Homeless Need a Kick, Not a Boot” (Dec. 10), she is confusing the mental-health and developmental-disabilities service sectors in behavioral health care.
I’ve had the privilege of serving and supporting individuals with developmental disabilities and autism my entire career.
On the behavioral health-care side, we’ve made great strides. We took our time preparing our clients for community living, and never engaged in “dumping” individuals with disabilities into the community.
The same cannot be said for the mental-health side. When they de-institutionalized, the same efforts were not made. Too many clients were released into the community with little planning, so we now see too many people with serious mental-health challenges living on our streets today.
If the mental-health community had given the same amount of thought and planning to preparing clients, we would see a different outcome today.
Jerry Komar
Collingswood, NJ
The Post’s articles on the untreated mentally ill living on our streets articulate the urgent need to reorganize our mental-health system.
Cuts to programs have caused an already inadequate mental-health system to suffer a loss of vital services. New York’s Office of Mental Health continues it’s plan to shutter psychiatric facilities, shifting care to the community via group homes, outpatient programs and acute-care hospitals. Funding for these programs has met the ax, and may again in 2013.
Aside from placing the public at risk, the outcome is nothing short of cruelty toward the most severely ill as they return to the streets, prisons and homeless shelters. Joanne Norris
Brooklyn