What do you do when someone you know or love needs mental help but refuses to get it?
It’s a vexing problem that the Wisconsin Assembly is trying to deal with. As early as next week the Assembly could vote on a bill that might make it easier to have someone committed.
Normally I don’t give much of a hoot about what the Assembly does, but this one is close to my heart.
It was 30 years ago on a hot summer day when I went to visit my dad at the home in Whitefish Bay where I grew up.
He had been down in the dumps and I wanted to try and cheer him up. As I walked to the front door, I smelled exhaust coming from the attached garage that was just a few feet front the front door.
I opened the garage door and there was my father, dressed just in his underpants, laying on his side with his arms crossed and his head next to the exhaust pipe of the car, which had stopped running. there were flies crawling over his shoulder and back and I waved them away.
It was a scene I will never, of course, forget.
My dad had been depressed. He was 70, the age I’ll be in just a couple of months. My mother had left him years earlier, and he had been alone in the house. As far as I knew he didn’t do much except sit at the dining room table, with stacks of papers and mail in front of him.
I have a brother who is a psychiatrist and a sister who is a psychiatric therapist. They both live out of town.
We all knew my dad needed help, but he had refused. We discussed finding a way to have him committed.
Under the law we could start the paperwork to get him some help. We needed three adults to say that the person is mentally ill, drug dependent or developmentally disabled and is dangerous, either to himself or others.
Try as we might, we didn’t seem to be able to meet the criteria that would support a petition to the district attorney. That’s where the decision now rests, with the county attorney.
The bill in the Assembly would allow petitioners to make their case directly to a judge, even if the county attorney opposed the commitment.
Support for this measure is kind of mixed. One group of people don’t want to make easier to commit an individual. They want alternative options and they caution against over commitment of individuals.
Other people who support this measure say that easing the commitment process will make it easier on families who are frightened.
They point out that holding the most dangerous of individuals, like some of those who have committed mass murders in the last few years, should be easier. They point to those individuals and how some people were frightened and concerned about the dangerous vibe coming from them.
I’m unsure about how I feel about this measure. On one hand I wish it had been easy to get help for my father. On the other I don’t want to see droves of disturbed people being sent to holding pens for the mentally ill.
Simply put, I wish I could make better sense of what is best.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
