We will be safer if we help homeless who are also mentally ill

For more than 30 years in the United States, we have not been able to institutionalize people with mental health issues without their consent unless they have broken a law warranting arrest. It is important to protect their rights, but it is also vital that they receive treatment so that we, as well as they, are safe.

To a desperately impaired person living on the streets without medication, the surest way to obtain living space and meals is to break a law, perhaps injure someone. To a desperate person, mayhem can appear to be a viable solution. Attacks harming innocent strangers have happened and will happen again until solid solutions are found.

Of course, not all homeless people are threats. People can and do fall on hard times and get back on their feet. There are organizations and agencies doing a great job of providing assistance. But not everyone gets the aid they need. Our safety nets are not effective if there are gaps.

Our emergency rooms, social service agencies, and police departments need to meet and formulate plans for various scenarios. They must work together. A person who acts violently should not be sent away with no treatment and no place to go.

Ill people need more than goodwill and broken promises, they need full-blown treatment and longterm assistance to assure consistency in recovery and/ or maintenance. Our laws need to be revised to assure that untreated mentally ill people are not wandering our streets in desperation like a ticking bomb.

Our communities want to solve the problem of vagrancy, but we can’t keep pushing unwanted people to the darker edges of society. Surely mental health professionals can diagnose and prescribe action. If we resolve the issue of providing mental illness services for homeless individuals, we will all benefit from improved safety in our neighborhoods and public areas. And we will be helping people who need help.

We must remember that many homeless people needing maintenance medications recover and become contributing citizens. A few, however, will need lifelong assistance.

Your life, or that of a loved one, may depend on our finding practical ways to treat homeless individuals who have mental health issues. We can pay for care now or pay the price of not doing so when someone we love is harmed.

KAREN COODY COOPER, LAKE WORTH