His medication is free, if only he were willing to take it

How many times will we have to read the same terrible story? How many more lives and families will be destroyed, simply because a state fails to employ its laws correctly?

Today’s Fort Worth Star Telegram details the Matthews family’s long struggle to get care for their brother, a veteran of the United State Navy. Their story echoes ones we hear from families everyday – when their brother receives a daily regimen of medication and counseling, he becomes more lucid. But when he is discharged, he doesn't take his medication and invariably relapses. Usually, he ends up living on the streets.

Texas law allows for much more than what is currently being done. Texas has an effective AOT law, one that allows a judge to order treatment in the community and looks to the person’s history of care and ability to participate voluntarily in treatment. In far too many parts of the state, it isn’t being used. And so consumers, and their families, will continue to needlessly suffer.