Becoming homeless in Seattle helped him find psychiatric help. His mom says it shouldn’t have taken that long.
Posted on Jul 25 2021
Seattle Times
Jerri Clark answered her phone to hear her son on the line. He had missed the window to check into a young adult shelter and was calling, to tell her, “Goodnight.” Jerri was distraught. That was 2017 and Calvin Clark had been homeless for a few weeks, the result of more than two years of obstacles since his bipolar disorder diagnosis. As his condition was growing more and more severe, Jerri was losing faith that Washington’s mental health system would be able to save him. Jerri and Calvin’s father had tried to keep their son housed and supported since his diagnosis at 19. But he didn’t want to live with his parents, he didn’t think he needed help, and he often didn’t take the medications medical providers prescribed. “The irony is it’s the very nature of the condition that people tend to think that there’s nothing wrong with them or that there’s something wrong with everybody else,” said Angela Kimball, National Director of Advocacy and Public Policy for NAMI. It’s known as “anosognosia,” and it’s one of the most common reasons why people with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder stop taking their medications. “It wasn’t the illness that killed him,” Jerri said. “It was the system’s lack of appropriate response that killed him. He died of a treatable illness.”