A local woman Thursday went public with a very personal and devastating fight in an effort to get her sister — who went from the girl next door to living on the streets — the mental health help she desperately needs. YouTube Tips ⓘ
Cassie Godwin grew up wanting to be just like her big sister, Alycia Schlesinger, who Godwin said was smart and beautiful with a magnetic personality.
Cassie shared photos with CBS Los Angeles that show Schlesinger addressing a crowd of college students in 2012 as an inspirational speaker, but she had a “psyschotic break” that occurred after their mother’s death in 2011. Since 2014 Alycia has been hospitalized 25 times, has been arrested several times, and currently lives on the streets in San Fernando Valley.
See the CBS Los Angeles report ‘I’m Doing This To Save Her Life’: Sister Of Woman Living On The Streets With Mental Illness Says Law Prevents Her From Taking Action and a gofundme page for support.
My sister Alycia has been suffering from Mental illness for over 6 years. She went from a brilliant, beautiful, self-sufficient, contributing adult to a person who is living on the street paranoid and aggressive. Looking at her today, you would never know she holds two master’s degrees and was an inspirational speaker. She has been in and out of hospitals, in and out of jail, in this vicious circle of not getting the help she, and many others like her, needs. The system is broken, and we are desperate. Her condition is worsening, and we keep getting the same answer “She is an adult and there is nothing we can do”? Prior to this past arrest, she was assaulting people, delusional, hallucinating, and walking into traffic regularly. I fear for her safety and the safety of others. She is not a drug addicted “psychopath” like strangers are saying, she is a human with a heart going through a horrific time. She does not know what she is doing, she is not herself and has not been herself for a while. She is in jail yet again on a Felony failure to appear warrant, but this time people are paying attention. We can get her the help she so desperately needs. Current laws prohibit jails from administering involuntary medication, Alycia needs to be in a hospital, with required and monitored medication. The system requires individuals on a felony warrant, who have been deemed incompetent to stand trial, to be transferred to state facility, while those on a lesser charge can be transferred to a county hospital. This is a critical distinction; the wait time for a state hospital is four to five times that of a county facility. With Alycia, and many others, time is of the essence. Studies show the longer a mentally ill person goes without proper treatment, the more unlikely they are to return to their normal, healthy baseline. We are asking for funds to retain an attorney in hopes of reducing the charge so that we can get Alycia into a county hospital as soon as possible, and to start her on the road to recovery.
Any Funds gathered in excess of Alycia’s needs, will be directed toward individuals and families in similar circumstances, in need of legal assistance in order to get treatment.
Highlighted YouTube comment from CBS Los Angeles video …
“We can spend trillion on “gender studies” for other countries but can’t afford to help our own citizens with mental issues.”
— John Sebastian
^^ MOBILE? USE VOICE MIC ^^
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