There are not a fixed group of tests that will show without doubt that someone is suffering from mental illness, not in the same way that diseases such as Diabetes or Multiple Sclerosis can at least. This is just another of many reasons that sufferers are ending up in trouble or homeless or both.
When a person suffering with these mental illnesses reaches out for help they are often ignored or rejected until they do something as a cry for help which often leads to disastrous consequences such as suicide.
I have recently interviewed a person who was diagnosed with border line personality disorder and anxiety paranoia as a teenager and turned to taking lethal concoctions of drugs and alcohol to try to block out the bad things of childhood. The years were not good and the person in question ended up in the accident and emergency one night begging the medical professionals to detain in hospital, they refused.
The person ended up on the roof of the hospital for eight hours and was talked down by police negotiators yet still they didn't hospitalise!!
I won't go into too many details here but there is a lot more to the story. The person ended up in prison for four years, still no help or support in life. If the so called professionals had listened and reacted properly the person would never have suffered that way.
It's such a dreadful shame that the person I have mentioned is not by any means an isolated case but is actually a mere statistic of the terribly damaged system.
There are homeless people on our streets that are there because they have mental illness and have no idea how to get the help that they so desperately need.
I have been lucky to meet with and get to know some people that just like me want to make a difference and am hoping to be the writer / researcher for a documentary on this subject.
If you have any information that could assist us in putting this together please feel free to get in touch
andrewashman67@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/AshmanAC
