Re:TempleOS creator Terry Davis is homeless and living in a van
by DanBC on Tuesday January 09, 2018 @08:46AM
(#16106067)
Some people with mental illness reject medical help.
At that point it can be hard to force them to have treatment against their will. This is for good reason - forced psychiatric treatment has been abused before. Forcing someone to have treatment against their will is an interference with their human rights. We tolerate that if they pose a risk of serious harm to other people[1] or to themselves.
Another reason we don't just scoop homeless people off the street and forcibly medicate them is that treatment for psychosis isn't particuarly great - it's not effective for some people and the medications carry a range of severe side effects.
At that point it can be hard to force them to have treatment against their will. This is for good reason - forced psychiatric treatment has been abused before. Forcing someone to have treatment against their will is an interference with their human rights. We tolerate that if they pose a risk of serious harm to other people[1] or to themselves.
Another reason we don't just scoop homeless people off the street and forcibly medicate them is that treatment for psychosis isn't particuarly great - it's not effective for some people and the medications carry a range of severe side effects.
The best thing we can do is provide correctly funded "assertive outreach teams". Here's a description of one assertive outreach worker's day: https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/views-from-th...