Almost 15 years later, Nathaniel Ayres lives in a locked mental rehab facility, and the rest of us live at the center of an epic collapse of care and a failure of leadership.
When we met, in 2005, I wouldn’t have guessed we’d still be in each other’s lives this far down the road.missing two stringsAnother thing I wouldn’t have guessed was that all these years later, Los Angeles would still have thousands of people living under the stars, many of them reeling from mental illness as severe as his.
Early on, when I wanted to help Nathaniel but had no idea what I was doing, I’d call a psychiatrist for guidance, naively hoping that someone more knowledgeable would have an easy answer. I still have moments when I’m lost and frustrated as I try to help Nathaniel. And I still seek advice. But I no longer expect quick fixes.
“Let’s listen to Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky,” he said when I visited him a few days ago. And so we have tents everywhere, blocking sidewalks and taking over parks, much to the frustration of residents who feel as if they’ve been hit by a storm with no FEMA coming to the rescue. And we need people who demand answers to stop saying no when the proposed shelters or the services are near where they live.
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