Waffle House shooting, other incidents show burden of dealing with family member with mental illness

CHICAGO - With years under her belt, emergency room nurse Anastasia Robey has treated more patients having mental breakdowns than she can count. She can quickly recognize the symptoms of someone who has skipped urgently needed medication, is experiencing a psychotic break or has become temporarily violent.

But even Robey had difficulty seeing the changes in her older sister Michele's personality over the course of a decade. While some unusual traits emerged, Michele Robey - a supervisor at Cook County's CORE Center whose work helped lower HIV transmissions between HIV-positive mothers and their newborns - had managed to keep her life in order until she lost her job.

"The changes are so subtle that it's not really apparent," Anastasia Robey recalled recently. "You just kind of look at the person and ... it just doesn't fit. It's just so hard to put your finger