Portrait of Schizophrenia and Its Victims

It’s delusional to think that projects such as HOMES provide anything more than a Band-Aid approach to mental illness. Pat, who “spends most of her days in bed,” is only a step away from the streets to where the mentally ill were released in the ‘70s.

The dream of adequate community-based services has not been realized. It’s ironic that the only help forthcoming for Pat is freeway-close, but possibly light years away, at UC Irvine medical research.

If there is to be a public outcry against such injustice, it will not come from The Times sensationalizing the symptoms of schizophrenia, which read no better than the old college textbooks. This enhances stigma, rather than eradicating it.

GILDA FEHR

Orange