Fusako Petrus and a friend were taking their regular early-morning walk around a high school track here five years ago when a stranger came from behind and attacked them.
But behind that appalling day is another tragedy, one of our own making and responsibility. It goes to the heart of whyto handle cases of severe mental illness — CARE Court, short for Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment — isn’t just a good idea but a moral obligation. Michalik holds a picture of son Neven, who faces murder charges. For nearly a year beforehand, she tried to get him mental health treatment.
But Butler got into a car accident and later suffered a severe concussion at football. Maybe that had something to do with what happened next; maybe it would have happened anyway. At night, Brandi started hearing him talking and laughing to himself in the room next door. He began accusing her of things, strange things, like hiding a spaceship from him. He became afraid to leave his room and eventually, at times, refused to speak at all.
Nine days after being released, police say, Butler walked the 10 minutes from his house to his school and killed Petrus while Brandi was home taking a shower. Steinberg said the state should create a legal right to treatment, giving people with severe mental health diagnoses the same standing as those with developmental disabilities. Currently, we provide services such as regional centers and behavioral health treatment to those with developmental disabilities, acknowledging our responsibility to care for people unable to care for themselves.
Butler is still not stable and is often mute — despite being ordered to take antipsychotic drugs, according to Brandi and court records. Though he was moved from total separation to another designation, Brandi calls it a change in name only, like “calling your pit bull ‘Fluffy Bunny.’” As of July 4, there were 1,739 people determined by courts to be incompetent to stand trial and waiting for space in a state hospital. Many have no idea how long they will be in limbo, and the treatment they get will be only enough to stabilize them so they can return to county jail and face trial.
Strong ability to involuntarily commit the mentally ill is the only way to reduce homelessness and mass shootings.
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