Guest Mindsetter™ Morse: Panhandling Reality Check
Sunday, August 21, 2016
We’ve got a problem. Mentally ill patients have nowhere to go. It’s a catch-22 situation; those with the most severe problems cannot keep jobs and have no insurance. Cuts in state spending have reduced the number of “uninsured” beds in the area hospitals. These folks have nowhere to go when they have a breakdown.
A fifty year old guy who looked forty called for help this morning. They said he had a knife and intended to kill himself. The police arrived first and found no weapon, we were called in. The man was obviously depressed. He sat on the curb in front of a dilapidated house in South Providence. The house needed to be razed and rebuilt but there were signs of life there. I asked him if he lived there.
“I wish.”
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTHe’s been staying in homeless shelters for years, can’t keep a job, can’t afford the psych meds that could help him and can’t find a reason to go on living. He’s been incontinent for two days now, the evidence clinging to the bottom and sides of his sneakers.
“Get in the truck,” I said, Al layed some extra sheets on the stretcher and we got moving.
“I just can’t hold it anymore,” he told me when I asked about the mess.
He stared blankly at the ceiling as we rode toward Rhode Island Hospital. There he will be given a psych evaluation. If he is lucky he will be given a bed and proper treatment in a psych ward somewhere, Kent County Hospital, Butler or the Jane Brown Building at Rhode Island Hospital. More likely he will be put into the Clinical Decision Unit at the emergency room until he is cleared. That could take days. The lights never go out, the space is shared with the dozens of intoxicated persons we take in from the streets. He’ll be forced to lay in bed and listen to the maddness that surrounds him. If he breaks and gets overactive or vocal he will be restrained.
I wanted to help this man get back on his feet. Instead, I delivered him to the door of more madness.
Al knew what I was feeling after we brought him in.
“What are you going to do?” he asked, shaking his head, knowing there was no answer.
“Rescue 1 in service,” I said into the mike and we rolled back into the city.
Michael Morse lives in Warwick, RI with his wife, Cheryl, two Maine Coon cats, Lunabelle and Victoria Mae and Mr. Wilson, their dog. Daughters Danielle and Brittany and their families live nearby. Michael spent twenty-three years working in Providence, (RI) as a firefighter/EMT before retiring in 2013 as Captain, Rescue Co. 5. His books, Rescuing Providence, Rescue 1 Responding, Mr. Wilson Makes it Home and his latest, City Life offer a poignant glimpse into one person’s journey through life, work and hope for the future. Morse was awarded the prestigious Macoll-Johnson Fellowship from The Rhode Island Foundation.
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