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09-08-2021, 10:36 AM
By JANIE HAR
August 8, 2021
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The big brother Suzette Chaumette remembers was witty and kind, an aspiring historian at the University of California, Berkeley whose promise was derailed by mental illness. Over the decades, he struggled with bipolar disorder, cycling in and out of hospitals and halfway homes and into homelessness.
In June, she saw him on the local news, lying on the ground and under arrest for allegedly throwing a water bottle at California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Authorities called the 54-year-old man “aggressive.” It was the first time she had seen him in years.
“I never thought he would be that guy, but he is that guy,” she said, crying. “He’s not a bad guy. He’s got great intentions and really would take the help if he was in the right place.”
In California, a quarter of the 161,000 people experiencing homelessness also have a severe mental illness. An estimated 37,000 people pinball between nonprofits and public agencies, cycling through ERs, jails and the streets, sometimes for decades, with no one monitoring their overall care in a fractured system that nobody entirely knows how to fix.
Full report at: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-hea...12d99583ce
August 8, 2021
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The big brother Suzette Chaumette remembers was witty and kind, an aspiring historian at the University of California, Berkeley whose promise was derailed by mental illness. Over the decades, he struggled with bipolar disorder, cycling in and out of hospitals and halfway homes and into homelessness.
In June, she saw him on the local news, lying on the ground and under arrest for allegedly throwing a water bottle at California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Authorities called the 54-year-old man “aggressive.” It was the first time she had seen him in years.
“I never thought he would be that guy, but he is that guy,” she said, crying. “He’s not a bad guy. He’s got great intentions and really would take the help if he was in the right place.”
In California, a quarter of the 161,000 people experiencing homelessness also have a severe mental illness. An estimated 37,000 people pinball between nonprofits and public agencies, cycling through ERs, jails and the streets, sometimes for decades, with no one monitoring their overall care in a fractured system that nobody entirely knows how to fix.
Full report at: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-hea...12d99583ce
