https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8K26rSE2VZQJ:https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/20/king-county-seattle-homeless-pandemic-/&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-b-1-d
This is sort of what I do in my day job. These people need more resources than society is willing to commit and that lack of commitment results in what politicians and the public complain about in saneist, racist, carceral terms. A small percentage of people with severe issues get over-represented and are made hypervisible because of the prejudice of the media and politicians. Left, Right, conservative, it doesn't matter. They all suck. We get labled as 'public safety issues', as the perpetrators of mass violence, as public nuisances, as risks to children. NIMBYism and racism are there as well. Cities and transit systems try to impose hostile architecture to make life harsher for everyone on the street. But it all comes done to money. If you don't tax the 1%, there is no money. Or realizing that money spent on carceral solutions is mostly a waste because you can't jail/involuntarily commit your way out of a solution. Cops should never be part of any solution. All disabled/addicted/unhoused/poor people need housing that they can afford. If you don't provide that, societies shouldn't get to complain about them being visible in places you say you don't want them.
#mentalillness #publichealth #publicsafety #money #police #abolition #peersupport #peerspecialist #antiracist #HarmReduction

@marzours
perhaps you are not aware of the Peer Movement? I trained in 2017 to become a Peer Specialist here [ https://www.communityaccess.org/our-work/educationajobreadiness/howie-the-harp ]
I use my lived-experience to support other people as part of and outside of the psychiatry system. People in Amsterdam came to the US and created a local model of this school. [ https://www.howietheharp.nl/ ]
#peerspecialist #MadMastodon #livedexperience #mentalhealth #madmovement