Plea for intervention

In Oklahoma, a woman diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia stabbed her younger sister. The woman had been hospitalized multiple times, but was unable to be admitted to a mental health center because she didn’t meet the criteria. In a letter to the editor, her family explains:

We know what the criteria is, that’s why my daughter called. Her sister has had an ongoing mental issue for at least 12 years. She has been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. She does OK sometimes, but then there are times when she is not OK. The voices she hears wreak havoc with her and she has had to be hospitalized numerous times.

If this sick young woman had been hospitalized three weeks ago a young woman would probably not have been stabbed and a young woman would not be facing criminal charges that she cannot even understand. She was trying to “save” her nephew from what the voices were telling her had happened to him.

I am merely asking that everyone be a bit more understanding, cooperative, more empathetic — and pro-active — to stop this type of tragedy before it occurs again.