“Why did you do this? Now they are going to kill me” Those were my sons last words as he was escorted from his Grandma & Grandpas by the Port St. Lucie Police Force in the early morning hours of December 6th, 2017. Every fear he had imagined over the past few weeks had just came true, the government stole him.
The following week he whispered into the phone “If I disappear mom, I didn’t kill myself” still convinced that the hospital staff was trying to poison him and that any minute the government was coming to kill him. His worst nightmare happened yet again, as police officers barged into the mental health facility he had be remanded too for trying to kill himself in jail, and ripped him out of a suicide observation room.
Now he sits in Port St. Lucie Jail in a Behavioral Unit on 23-24 hour lockdown. Recently his vision has become blurry and he is unable to read the postcards he just now earned the right to receive. His hands shake from the schizophrenia, he’s been pepper sprayed and straight jacketed for harming himself…
All because he became ill and our family contacted the authorities for help. We did everything by the book in order to avoid this…and my son…suffers in silence all alone.
My son was Baker Acted – that is a 72 hour hold because he was a danger to himself or others. Two months later he IS STILL SUICIDAL and he has been in the custody of the PSL Sherriffs department since they arrested him besides a brief stay at N.Horizons in which he also tried to kill himself SEVERAL TIMES. The hospital my son was admitted to admitted him as displaying aggressive behavior, WE CALLED THE POLICE BECAUSE HE WAS HURTING HIMSELF Michelle even told the dispatcher he was hurting himself and she was afraid he might accidentally hurt someone at the house…that’s why the POLICE BAKER ACTED HIM. HE WAS A DANGER TO HIMSELF AND OTHERS. He should have been on OBSERVATION, and definitely NEVER LEFT ALONE WITH OTHER PATIENTS IN A PRIVATE ROOM. On Thursday he told me and his fiancé during two separate conversations he had tried to leave the hospital and they wouldn’t allow him too. Yet according to their affidavit they claim my son checked himself out and THEN readmitted himself because he felt he needed help! My son thought the government was trying to kill him and that Jesus Christ had returned to earth and he had been left behind too, he was in no mental state to do so. In fact he was sedated upon admittance JUST TO GET HIM TO THE PROPER FLOOR.
THEY WERE NEGLIGENT IN CARING FOR MY SON AND THUS HERE WE ARE TODAY. Your claims ARE FALSE…HE WAS WAITING ON A DOCTOR TO RELEASE HIM ON FRIDAY!!! My son is their scapegoat…they hope he’s some homeless mentally ill person no one cares about that they can blame for their screwup. He was SUICIDAL AND HAS CONTINUED TO BE SINCE HE WAS REMANDED TO THEIR CARE. HE HAS BEEN ON TEN MINUTE WATCHES FOR TWO MONTHS. When they stopped watching him at N. Horizons he immediately got a pencil and JAMMED IT INTO HIS TEMPLE. IN JAIL HE IS ON TEN MINUTE WATCHES…AND ON 23 hour lockdown…THE PSYCHIATRIC STAFF AT THE HOSPITAL IN QUESTION ARE TRAINED TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE IN MY SONS CONDITION WHY DID YOU NOT CARE FOR MY SON! WHY IS MY SON TAKING THE FALL FOR ALL OF THIS! HE NEEDED HELP AND YOU FAILED HIM! YOUR PRACTICES ARE DANGEROUS – WHAT IF MY SON KILLED THE MAN AND COULD BE EXECUTED IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA FOR IT! ALL BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T DO YOUR DAMN JOB!
MY SONS ILLNESS ISNT ANYTHING I WOULD EVER WISH ON ANYONE ELSE. BEING MENTALLY ILL IS HARD ENOUGH – IMAGINE HOW TERRIBLE HIS CONDITION HAS BECOME BECAUSE OF HIS TREATMENT…IM TERRIFIED FOR MY SON ON THE DAILY. ONCE THEY TOOK HIM WE HAVE LITTLE TO NO CONTACT.
WE PLACED MY SON IN A HOSPITAL FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT AND NOW HE IS WAITING TRIAL FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER – HE WAS AND STILL IS VERY SICK! NOW HE SITS IN JAIL UNABLE TO EVEN READ BECAUSE HE IS LOSING HIS VISION FOR SOME UNKNOWN REASON, HIS HANDS SHAKE LIKE AN 80 YEAR OLD MAN WITH PARKINSONS DISEASE. EVERY NIGHT I PLEAD WITH JESUS TO END THIS NIGHTMARE! ALL WE DID WAS SEEK HELP!
I was a CNA I know what happened here! A patient got injured! Someone’s at fault! Who was supposed to check on my son!
NEVER ONCE HAVE THE POLICE TALKED TO ANY OF US. NEVER ONCE DID THEY ASK WHY HE WAS THERE? NEVER ONCE DID THEY TALK TO THE PASTOR MY SON SPENT AN HOUR WITH AFTER HE HAD TO BE DRIVEN TO A CHURCH BECAUSE HE THOUGHT THE GOVERNMENT WAS THERE WITH BUSES KILLING PEOPLE! NEVER ONCE DID THEY ASK ABOUT THE SCHIZOPHRENICS IN MY FAMILY! NEVER ONCE DID THEY DO ANYTHING BUT ARREST MY SON AND BLAME HIM FOR ACTIONS HE HAD NO CONTROL OVER. THATS WHAT THE PSYCHIATRIC STAFF AT THE HOSPITAL WAS FOR!
These are private messages between my son and I – In November really I noticed a change. Elliott did not even call me on Thanksgiving…this is what Schizophrenia does…it is a thief…that slips in and steals their personality…and steals their peace.
Healthy Mind Ministry 
I have read this and the other article you wrote back in December. I am so sad this has all happened. I am praying for you and your family.
I will re-blog this to help spread the word.
Thank you! I pray everyday God provide us with a breakthrough! A legal miracle! This is terrible!
Reblogged this on Quotes, thoughts and musings and commented:
Schizophrenia is a horrible problem. Please pray for a miracle and a breakthrough.
Jesus quoted Isaiah 61. May Jesus bring good news to the afflicted.
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
Yes. I praise God for his provision! Amen!
I’m so sorry! I’m lifting you up in prayer, asking the Lord for a breakthrough and for His peace and comfort to fill you.
You have a right to be angry. The system at its best, is a nightmare. They need to treat mental illness as an illness, not a crime, and they need to take it seriously. Please don’t blame yourself for seeking help. You’re only one person, one family, you need a big team on your side in order to do what’s best for him. You just can’t do it alone. The fact that the system is not responding as they should, is not your fault. You did the best thing you could do for your son. Keep the faith, try to think positively. Sometimes what looks bad all around you is just the mess before the breakthrough. I wish I could offer you something tangible to hang onto, but really all I can say is lean into the Lord and don’t beat up on yourself. You’re a good mom! You’re doing the best you can with what you’ve been handed.
I never in a million years knew that so many people are locked in jails all over this country, suffering inhumane treatment solely because they are mentally ill. When Elliott was little he always brought these stray people home…along with stray cats, dogs, snakes, opossums and one time a turkey! This time my son took me to them, and he has shown me an evil I can not turn away from, not as a follower of Christ. I definitely need help, an army of prayer warriors who will lift us up…I feel like the soldiers that first ventured into the concentration camps, they said we have to take pictures or nobody will believe this level of humanity goes on! It’s here, in full force, hidden in the behavioral and psychiatric units of the American jail system. Keep praying…the battle is the Lord’s!
I hear you! It’s one of those things that once seen, just can’t be unseen. We’ll surround you with prayer! Keep picturing an army of angels standing right behind you, and keep the faith.
And around my son protecting him in that jail cell 🙏🏻
Every time I read this I feel so sad on your behalf because I understand your son’s illness very well. I pray that God should give you comfort and protect him. His word has never failed, I believe breakthrough shall come and your son will walk out of that place. Just as Paul instructed the church, “pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”
I Thessalonians 5:17-18 NKJV. God will surely answer your prayer.
God is faithful. He is at work this very moment! He loves a Elliott more than I do, and he knows the way out for him!
Continued prayers ❤
It's frustrating and so hurtful to know this is happening.
Just keep praying, God is faithful!
❤ amen! Yes, He is!!!!
Reblogged this on Matthew Winters (Comeback Pastor) and commented:
The mental health system is doing this young man a huge injustice to say the least, and those who love him are suffering too. Hear this mother’s story and help if you can.
Thank you Mathew!
In the late 1960s, when I was fourteen years old, I had a mental breakdown. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and committed to the now-defunct state mental hospital in Nevada, Missouri.
Shortly after I arrived there, I asked the ward psychiatrist how soon I could go home. He told me that 97% of the people committed there were never released. “If you are here longer than one year,” he added , “then your odds of ever leaving this place alive will go down to less than 1%.”
Seeing what must have been a look of shocked disbelief on my face, he told me to ask the other women on my ward how long they had been there. I did ask, and the shortest answer I was given was eight years, the average more than twenty.
I ran away the first chance I saw, but was quickly caught and punished with solitary confinement, strapped down to the bed, for a week. The third time I ran, I managed to elude recapture for almost two days, and my escape was broadcast on the news. When I was caught and brought back that time, a furious hospital administrator ordered my transfer to the maximum security ward, where they kept the criminally insane. This was where I spent the majority of my two year stay in that institution, although I had never been violent against anyone, myself included. But when I reached the one year mark of my incarceration, I hung myself.
For almost two years, I heard voices nonstop in my head. I saw visions everywhere. I felt as though I were dreaming while I was awake. But then… a social worker suggested that I try self hypnosis to make the voices and visions go away. I tried it and it worked!
In the past five decades, I have been told by numerous doctors and therapists that I must have been badly misdiagnosed, because there is nothing schizophrenic about me, and “schizophrenia is incurable.” But I know they are wrong. I know that I did have schizophrenia for almost two years. And then, I got over it.
I have raised three children. In my forties, after my kids were grown, I went to practical nursing school and was elected class president. I made straight A’s in every subject. And scored in the top 1% of the nation on my licensing exam.
One of my sons, who works in the jewelry business, just bought a gorgeous expensive house. My daughter is in college, working toward her master’s degree in psychology. She is also currently working as an intern, a therapist in training. Her daughter, my awesome granddaughter, is graduating from Harvard in a couple of months with a master’s in social anthropology.
Back when I was in the mental institution, people were advocating for the forced sterilization of the mentally ill, because we were considered hopeless, and expected to have hopelessly crazy children.
No one is hopeless. No one. I have no doubt that I found my path to healing from schizophrenia, because a minister and his wife, who had led me to the Lord when I was six years old, were praying for my healing every day.
I am praying for your son, and I am praying for you. Our mental health care system was abysmal in the 1960s, and it is even worse today. But God is not limited by our man-made institutions.
Pray without ceasing. And when your son is free of the system, I think you would do well to look into two kinds of therapy for him: neurofeedback, and hypnotherapy.
Your son was once of sound mind. He can be of sound mind again. The same God who created your son’s mind in the first place, can create his mind anew.
I was schizophrenic for nearly two years. I have been free of schizophrenia for the past forty-nine years. Glory to God!
You have no idea the hope your testimony just gave me. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your personal story with me. It spoke straight to my heart. God bless you and I am a firm believer that a God is UNLIMITED…healing, freeing, and restoring my son are all in his will! Thank you for praying for us it means the world to me.
You are very welcome. When my youngest child was a teenager, he began having some serious symptoms of mental illness. He was also threatening to commit suicide and threatening to harm others. His father and I made the very difficult decision to put our son in a psychiatric hospital, against his will.
Now, he is 37 years old. He recently bought a $175,000 house.
I will continue to pray for you and your son. ((HUG))
I just wanted to add that I know there are others who have recovered from schizophrenia. We just don’t often talk about it, because of the way most people react when they hear the word “schizophrenia.” I know of at least one formerly diagnosed schizophrenic who posts on Mad in America. He works as a school teacher. And there are many others I have heard of and talked with over the years, in the blog world.
I think schizophrenia is a lot more common that people think. I’ve met sooooo many people since elliott became ill that are dealing with this illness or know someone who is. But I do agree, it doesn’t have to destroy the persons life! Unfortunately for my son he is having to deal with these horrendous charges because of it…right out of the gate. I pray they go away and he is released from jail soon, so he can process what is going on with his family! Thank you for all of your advice and insight.
Those with mental illness are treated like the lepers in Biblical times…cut off…and health care for mental illness is sadly lacking all across our nation. Prayers for you and your whole family. Oh, for the day when treatment actually becomes…treatment!
As Christ Ministry shows we are to go to those treated poorly by society. Mental illness truly is the “new leprosy” – great analogy! Please continue to pray for Elliotts miraculous release and all of this life altering charges to be dropped. Thanks for rebooting as well!
You got it!
Reblogged this on Kingdom Pastor and commented:
How sad that those with mental illness are still being treated different than say someone with cancer…Let’s pray and WORK together so that people with mental illness are treated no different than those with other diseases…
I am sorry to hear of such injustice. I’ll be uplifting you and your family in prayers.
Thank you Diana – I truly believe that God is in control and is able to move mountains miraculously to get him to a compassionate place of care and melt away all of these legal issues 🙏🏻
He certainly is in control! We’ll keep praying, Tamara. 🙏
❤️ thank you
Not an area where I have much expertise. I have just had experiences I cannot share and don’t want to repeat.
Hopefully things have improved since you wrote this post. Since you have stopped posting, I can only guess. Whatever the situation, forgive. It won’t do any good to blame anyone. Not yourself. Not your son. Not the system. Not even an incompetent fool. When we see someone behaving insanely, few know what to do. I know I didn’t. We are too busy being confused, shocked, and frightened. Never felt so helpless.
Our laws? They are not for the insane. Only because there is no one else does government put itself in charge of the insane.
Unfortunately, government has little capacity to help people who cannot help themselves. Politicians may promise otherwise, but what is such a promise worth? So for your own sake and your family’s sake, forgive. If some bungler needs to be fired, forgive him first. Then worry about getting him fired.
Actually, we were able to bail him out of jail and get him in a better psychiatric treatment center. He spent a week there before coming home. He is doing better, and it is a daily walk. Some days are better than others. We are trying to give him lots of love and support. He is on new medication that has gotten rid of his blurred vision and hand tremors. The voices only come along sporadically now. He still wrestled with paranoia and can be delusional at times BUT he is alive…he is learning how to cope…and as a family we move forward to face his legal issues together….
I have been quiet as I have been devoting my energy to starting a mental wellness ministry here in my community through my church. When I’m silent it usually means I am busy. But thanks for checking on us….I will post an update soon. God bless!
That’s good news! Thank you for passing it on.
Given what your son has been through, I am surprised he is already at home. Must be a resilient young man with a lot of love and support.
Love and support is what we all need most. Until we go through a crisis, we may take it for granted, but love is the foundation upon which we build our lives. When we lose the confidence that anyone cares about us, we give up. All that is left is pride. Because it is meaningless, pride is not enough.
May our Lord bless your ministry. Most people still keep severe mental health problems confidential. We can comfortably talk about open heart surgery, but a psychotic episode is so frightening and deeply personal we clam up. Yet to recover from a psychotic episode — to put our lives in order (including family and friends) — we need more help, more love and support, from our friends and neighbors. So I say again, may our Lord bless your ministry. Such is very much needed.
Thank you. He is recovering, some say it may be a year before he is “better”. It is a hard diagnosis to process for the one suffering with it . And yes I agree the stigma is still extreme when it comes to mental health issues. Schizophrenia is twice as likely to occur in our population than Alzheimer’s and 6 times for likely than Multiple Sclerosis….there are 51 million schizophrenics in this world…it’s more common than many other illnesses yet still so taboo to talk about…I pray I can be a part of changing that. Suicide is a very large cause of death in those who are schizophrenic … it’s the number one cause of death…and I feel it’s partly because no one talks about it. We need to shed light (God) on this darkness. Thank you for your blessings. I truly appreciate them!