Mental Health Care Reform
Mental Health Care Reform
Why this petition matters
I lost my beloved son Dajon Reed at the age of 24 years old, he was struck and killed by a train at 4:30am, less than 9 months after a Fresno Superior Court Judge released him from a temporary LPS conservatorship, going against psychiatrist recommendations that he be held on a Permanent LPS Conservatorship. My son was diagnosed with Schizophrenia, Bi-Polar and suffered with severe substance abuse disorder. As his mental health worsened, he developed the condition called anosognosia, it’s when a person with a severe mental health illness lacks awareness and insight that they have a disease, and they begin refusing treatment, the LPS law is rendered useless at this point, to the family of loved one and to the individual who is gravely disabled, a harm to themselves and a harm to others.
I am grateful that my son never went to prison nor was he homeless, but many times when his symptoms were severe (extremely psychotic and delusional, off his meds) he would threaten to leave to Los Angeles. Dajon believed actors and actresses were talking to him through the television telling him to come there. As a Licensed Marriage and Family therapist, working for county and prison systems, I witnessed individual's cycle through emergency rooms, prison and to the streets without getting the help they need. Parents are told that if they want their adult child to get the help they need, (referencing an LPS Conservatorship), then the parent needs to let their adult child become homeless because “it is the only way.” This places the individual at more risk of being perpetrated and victimized, worsens mental health and only continues the cycle until they get LPS conservatorship or die. California's mentally ill homeless population is proof that something is out of balance! We need mental health care reform in California now!
I hope you choose to sign and share his story and bring awareness to the mental health care reform that is so desperately needed in California specifically.
Thank you
Michelle Reed mother of Dajon Reed
Contact info MyBelovedDajon@gmail.com or 559- 365-6490
Read Dajon’s Story in the Fresno Bee October 2022
https://amp.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article266933196.html
Read Dajon's Story, May 2022 “Challenging the System: One Woman’s Fight for Mental Health Reform” | The Jed Foundation
https://jedfoundation.org/.../challenging-the-system-one.../
Watch May 2022 Podcast with “Let's Talk with Dr. Michelle Reed,” Guests Worldwide Boxing Champion Mia St. John, and Katie Cunningham Chief External Affairs Officer with JED Foundation- YouTube
Visit Dajon's website
Watch ABC30 News covered his story
Read about the fight