Mental Illness and Risk
Our members-only live training this month is a short course on mental illness. We’ll be covering which situations are high risk for violence and which are low risk. Then we’ll discuss what tools to use in low-risk situations. If your organization isn’t a member or you are busy this Thursday, here is a slice of […]
Are spiders eating holes in my brain?
Hey everybody! As promised, here is another book excerpt from this month’s guest Esmé Weijun Wang about living with Schizophrenia: Dr. M told me that the longer the episode lasted, and the more frequently the episodes occurred, the more damage was occurring to my brain. It is disconcerting for anyone to be told that her […]
How do you hide a hallucination?
Howdy! Did you know as many as 27% of individuals who are chronically homeless suffer with schizophrenia? This month, we are interviewing Esmé Weijun Wang, a New York Times bestselling author. In her book, “The Collected Schizophrenias,”, Esmé shares her journey from being diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teen to learning she had schizophrenia 12 […]
Don’t approach from behind.
Last week, I interviewed Dr. Kathy Platoni, a clinical psychologist, about veterans and PTSD. If you would like to watch the recording, the link is down below. Here is what I learned from the conversation with Dr. Platoni: #1 – Sometimes PTSD is Caused by Bad Management This was an epiphany for me. In war […]
Schizophrenia and Stalking
I ran a large homeless shelter outside of Chicago. Several years ago, a delusional resident stalked one of our staff members. In the end, we had to work with the police to get the man sent to prison. It was a long and terrifying ordeal for the staff member. It was one of the hardest […]
Mental Illness Risk Assessment
There are three things you need to know to assess risk from someone who suffers from severe mental illness. FIRST: Most people with severe mental illness are not violent. 97.1% of people with a severe mental illness are not violent. If you add substance abuse to severe mental illness that number drops to 90%. So, […]
Most people would call Fred a jerk.
Fred lives in a homeless shelter I used to run. Most people would call Fred a jerk. He yells at people… a lot. He tells people when they have gained weight. He interrupts people when they are mid-sentence. He is moody. Fred is not a jerk. Fred suffers from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Traumatic Brain […]
I don’t know much about suicide.
I have a lot of professional experience with homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse, PTSD and traumatic brain injury. I have very little experience with the issue of suicide. Personally, I am grateful for that fact. Professionally, though, it is a gap. For years, people have been asking me to do a training on the topic. […]
Homelessness is War
Jeremy was one of my best friends in high school. For nearly four years, we saw each other almost daily. We ran cross country together. We drove to dances together with our dates. After graduation, he was a groomsman in my wedding. And then the United States invaded Iraq. Jeremy was a sniper platoon leader […]
Broken people heal broken people
There is an old saying in social work: “Hurt people hurt people.” If you have not heard it before, it means that people who are hurting often hurt other people. Unfortunately, it is true. The most vulnerable can be the most challenging. Many vulnerabilities (mental illness, traumatic brain injury, etc.) can cause problematic behavior. It […]
