Linda’s posts about her brother Mark have appeared several times in this blog. A snapshot from Mark’s story is included in my upcoming book, Tomorrow Was Yesterday: Explosive First-Person Accounts of the US Mental Health System — Mothers Across the Nation Tell It Like It Is. Today’s post is an update on Mark’s situation that Linda wrote last week.
Last September, I was sitting in California Senator Bill Dodd’s office for a meeting. We were discussing my brother Mark’s situation and upcoming legislation concerning the seriously mentally ill (SMI). I’d invited Dede Ranahan, author of Sooner Than Tomorrow: A Mothers Diary about Mental Illness, Family, and Everyday Life, and an SMI advocate, to attend with me. The senator’s staff informed us they were doing research on proposals for the next session and we talked about the pros and cons of AB 1572 and SB 640.
In the end, Dede and I couldn’t support the bills as written. We discussed the Grassroots 2020 5-Part SMI Plan that had been compiled by Dede and 90 advocates from across the nation, including myself and my sister, CJ Hanson. This plan to bring serious mental illness into campaign discussions was hand-delivered to each presidential candidate in Iowa by SMI advocates Leslie and Scott Carpenter. I thought bringing one of the co-authors of this plan with me was a good move and I was very excited about the meeting.
I was feeling confident and proud to be in Senator Dodd’s office along with Dede that day. Over the summer, I felt we had made some advancement in our advocacy for Mark and for many SMI issues. We felt we were part of a strong movement for change. We talked about the hundreds of citizens who had contacted us about Mark, concerned about his being in traffic. We spoke about how anosognosia is a condition that impacts close to 50% of the SMI population, and complicates the decisions that SMI individuals can make for themselves if they have no insight into their illness I expressed that it was a miracle that Mark has survived being 100% blind — along with traumatic brain injuries and SMI with anosognosia for 13 years — untreated. I spoke of the many robberies, beatings, falls, infections, injuries, and near traffic accidents that could have killed him. I said I believed he would die on the streets of Vacaville.
I left our meeting disappointed in the two bills that were discussed, but felt proud to help anyone researching new SMI legislation, and I was grateful to Dede for speaking about the 2020 Grassroots 5-Part SMI Plan. I left Senator Dodd’s office and walked the streets of Vacaville looking for Mark, but I couldn’t find him. In our last few visits, he’d been in poor condition and delusional.
The next day opened my eyes to the irony of that meeting. As I sat there asking legislators to address SMI and talking about the horror of Mark’s story, our family’s worst fears had already happened and we just didn’t know. Mark had been hit by a car but hadn’t been transported to the ER. He’d been lying on a Vacaville sidewalk in pain for days. My sister and I were tagged on Facebook and notified of his accident. Finally, he was admitted to a hospital needing surgery. I no longer felt confident. I no longer felt hopeful for Mark’s future or for others with SMI. Defeat replaced pride. I felt naïve to think that we are close to any real change for the seriously mentally ill.
So much has happened since last September. Our advocacy has continued and we’ve received support and advice from national SMI advocates along the way. We took our community on a real time journey with us seeking the treatment and care for our brother that keeps eluding us. The Vacaville Reporter announced, “Vacaville officials are doing plenty on the homeless front.” Then they used a picture of Mark on the front page. CJ and I were interviewed by Jocelyn Wiener of Cal Matters and for other local articles. CJ started her own blog, “Am I Not My Brother's Keeper?" I wrote a blog. Ron Powers, author of No One Cares About Crazy People, wrote blogs. Dede Ranahan published Mark’s story on her blog, “Sooner than Tomorrow.” We circulated a petition to Governor Newsom about Mark’s case.
A few days after being hit by the car, Mark declared, “I’m not homeless. My home is the United States of America.” If only he understood that the country he loves has abandoned him.
Nevertheless, support for Mark continued. Advocates sent numerous emails to the hospital and the Solano County Board of Supervisors about Mark’s case. Our family attempted to get a referral for Laura’s Law (Assisted Out-Patient Treatment) that was denied. CJ visited Mark in the hospital for the first time in 14 years due to medical conditions that keep her homebound.
After that September 2019 meeting in Senator Bill Dodd’s office, everyone realized my predictions had come to pass, but no one knew what was coming next. On February 12, 2020, and again living on Vacaville streets, a second car hit Mark when he walked into traffic. He sustained extensive injuries and was transported to the ICU and admitted for more surgeries. His recovery would be lengthy and Covid-19 concerns were just rising. He was transferred to a post-acute hospital on March 1, 2020.
Mark remains hospitalized seven-and-a-half months later and is still recovering.
No one saw these accidents coming. Except we did. We all did.
