Anita Chabria: New York will treat more mentally ill people against their will. Should California follow?
At 13, Maddie Delaney was first chair viola in the orchestra at her San Leandro middle school, keeping rhythm for the violins as her mother, Jennifer Williams, puts it — until she began to have delusions.
Three weeks ago, at 38, Delaney died while sleeping in a dirt lot, her head run over by a big-rig wheel, a victim as much of a brutal hit-and-run as she was of her schizoaffective disorder and our unwillingness to help her live a life of dignity and safety.
"I am angry that I couldn't get help for her," Williams told me, deep in mourning for a daughter she loved for her wit and humor. And I hope when you hear more about Delaney, you'll be angry too.
Recently, California and New York City have made bold moves to help people like Delaney — those with serious mental illness chronically living on the streets — because it has become painfully obvious that for a small set of homeless people with psychosis, it is cruel and dangerous to pretend they are acting with free will.
Whether the result of our inaction is a, it's not ethical or compassionate to demand mentally ill people be abandoned in the name of civil rights. It doesn't have to be an either-or choice between autonomy and help, a false argument of conservative versus liberal.
