May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but for #familieslikemine, living with serious mental illness, awareness is not enough.
My daughter had strokes at 26. The hospital saved her life. She will tell you they violated her, that the strokes did not happen, that the tachycardia they found is not real. She believes this not because she is lying, but because schizophrenia has made her incapable of knowing she is sick.
There is a name for this: anosognosia. Not denial. A neurological symptom blocking self-perception of illness. As a National Alliance on Mental Illness leader and Pennsylvania policy committee member of the National Shattering Silence Coalition, I have seen this across dozens of families.
Most people with mental health challenges can make their own treatment decisions, and their autonomy must be protected. I am talking about a small subset whose illness has destroyed the capacity to recognize they are ill.
Under Pennsylvania law, because she poses no imminent danger, nothing can be done. We are not protecting her freedom. We are protecting her right to deteriorate.
Pennsylvania must modernize its Mental Health Procedures Act to allow earlier intervention when anosognosia is documented. We need a standard of care, not a standard of neglect.
Carter Hawley
Munhall