Last year, I spent ten weeks volunteering in a homeless shelter in San Jose that specifically housed homeless individuals who also suffered from mental illness.  Residents there told me stories of time spent in prison and about their personal battles with mental illness. Their stories involved physical and mental abuse from family members, cycles of addiction, feeling extremely alone, and almost never having anywhere to turn to for help.

Overwhelmingly, the residents of this homeless shelter felt that without the miracle of finding an open bed at the shelter, they would have been lost. Many have spent years in and out of jail. Others were newly homeless, but being led down a path of destruction.

None of them had the access to mental health care that they needed until they were admitted to the shelter. Some did not even know they were sick until they ended up in a hospital after a serious schizophrenic or depressive breakdown.

Nothing will change until a broken system is fixed. The two things that need to happen are major changes in local, state, and federal policy on mental health care in conjunction with the prison system. The country could reallocate some money from the prison system to rebuilding some semblance of a public mental health care system. The new system would have to focus on outpatient, rehabilitative treatment for individuals who could live on their own and an assisted living situation for those who could not. The system would have to work in conjunction with the prison system, various homelessness groups, policy makers, and begin recruiting volunteer help.

Volunteer at a local shelter or soup kitchen! (Image found in Google search).

Which brings me to what you can do right now. Volunteer. Just a couple of hours a week at a shelter or a soup kitchen or a hospital can make a world of difference. Santa Clara University’s SCAAP even has a volunteer program that any student can join. Individuals do make a difference when it comes to matters of social justice, and it is our responsibility to help others where at all possible.