What's the Difference When Your Child's Illness is in the Brain? "Sympathy"
60 minutes recently did a segment on the plight of families dealing with mental illness. They interviewed many families and healthcare professionals in Connecticut, on how our system fails our Mentally Ill Youth in Crisis.
Deeds: “The system failed my son”
Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds speaks out about how he was attacked by his son Gus, who suffered with schizophrenia. Virginia state senator Creigh Deeds suffered multiple stab wounds, and his 24-year-old son Gus died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot in what police are considering an attempted murder-suicide.
Connecticut families, in the continued aftermath of the Newtown shootings, still face the same issues of lack of beds, a revolving-door mental health system, and lack of support and help.
How I wish they had interviewed me, too - but the stories of Deeds and the other families are heartbreakingly similar. Sadly, the story in my book is not unique. Many suffer the same issues we do, every day, without support or even understanding.
In the "overtime" segment about stigma, a group of families shares the effect of stigma on their experience, and how a broken leg can bring casseroles, while a mental illness can bring warning letters from the lawyers of your neighbors.
What's the difference, according to one of the parents interviewed? "Sympathy."
Watch the clip here: http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/nowhere-to-go-mentally-ill-youth-in-crisis
