“Case managers are advocates who help [people] understand their current health status, what they can do about it and why those treatments are important. In this way, case managers are catalysts by guiding [people] and providing cohesion to other professionals in the health care delivery team, enabling their clients to achieve goals more effectively and efficiently.”
When the big mental hospitals closed, mental illness was not de-institutionalized: mental illness has become trans-institutionalized from mental hospitals to jails.
Geographic Proximity: Less than a mile apart.
Size: The largest mental institution the United States. And, the largest homeless population in the United States.
The Same People: 95% of the severely mentally ill people in Twin Towers have been there before.
“A disorganized, homeless man with schizophrenia who was arrested repeatedly for various petty thefts, such as taking toys from a department store and aluminum foil from a convenience store to protect himself from X rays. After a number of episodes, he had a long list of arrests and convictions for theft. Rather than being treated as a person with severe mental illness, Police officers believe the man should be arrested instead of hospitalized. Thus, this person with severe mental illness continues to be criminalized.”