Susan Browne was diagnosed in her teen years as bipolar. We used to refer to it as manic-depressive. Without medications, her mood swings were so extreme she couldn’t bear it. With medications, she couldn’t bear not feeling. In large part, Sue’s largest problem was disbelief that she had a mental illness, and so thought she didn’t need the medication which controlled her mood-swings. So, Sue would be hospitalized, medicated and set up in an apartment. Soon, she’d be off of her medications, thrown out of the apartment, sent back to a facility to be given medications, and so the cycle went round and round. Sue wound up disappearing for great periods of time, during which she had no contact with family because they’d know she wasn’t on her medications.

Meantime, Sue's family ~ and especially her mother and step-father, Nancy & Ed Duncan ~ worried at home… Knowing only institutionalizing Sue would help her ~ or at least give her a safe haven, they were told that unless she was a danger to herself ~ suicidal, or a danger to others ~ threatening to cause someone bodily harm, there was little anyone could do. Therefore, again and again, Sue was returned to a world her illness wouldn’t allow her to function in without meds ~ meds she wasn’t mentally prepared to keep taking.

These same laws make it virtually impossible for loved ones ~ and mental health professionals ~ to intervene… until it’s too late ~ until the mentally ill person becomes a danger to themselves or others… until they, during deep depression ~ attempt suicide, or during a psychotic episode ~ kill. And, then we’ll all ask why something wasn’t done sooner… or we’ll incarcerate or execute those who murdered.

Meantime, the suffering grows… and extends from family of the mentally ill person to friends, and even to strangers. Sometimes it grows and extends to loved ones of the person who became a murder victim.

The reasoning behind de-institutionalization is clear – there have been those who were improperly institutionalized on another’s whim or want. However, we’ve come to an opposite extreme. One which reverses one problem, creating another.

It should be difficult ~ but NOT impossible ~ to institutionalize those who show an inability to care for themselves outside a hospital setting. For those who’ve shown a lack of desire, or an inability, to properly take medications necessary to maintain that ‘not a danger to themselves or others’ criteria, we must (once again) allow family ~ along with professionals ~ to get them the help they so desperately need.

Unfortunately for Susan Browne and her family, it’s too late. A year ago this month, Sue died in hospital from ‘unknown causes’. Her family still does not know what happened to Sue, or why she died at only 39 and have been unable to get any straight answers… But her family wants others to know her story ~ and the stories of so many others who the system has failed horribly ~ before it’s too late for you or yours.

Work toward changing the laws of your state so that loved ones can get involved in helping their mentally ill family members get ~ and keep on getting ~ the help they need from the state and the medical profession. Become a loud voice against turning our backs on the mentally ill who are incapable of caring for themselves.

If you have a story pertinent to this issue, which you’d like to share, please do not hesitate to submit it (under Campaign/Appeals) and note the Susan Browne Appeal. Thank you.

To learn more about the problem with the criteria ‘not a danger to themselves or others’, read about Larry Robison. See also, Stigma by Vickie Barnett, along with the following sites:

This is by no means a complete list of reading material about the issues contained here-in… it’s more a beginning. Of course, the end tale hasn’t yet been written, and will be told by future generations.