Rachel Streiff

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

So initially I had a family member that developed serious mental illness and made a very good recovery.

And the medication that took years to access was called clozapine.

And it's a really important antipsychotic medication.

That family member's doing great.

That was many years ago.

At the time when all of that situation happened, I had really no idea about serious mental illness.

I didn't know much about those disorders.

I had taken maybe a psychology class in college that talked about schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but I had never really known anyone.

And I just didn't have any experience with anything like that.

And if serious mental illness is not on your radar, you...

Really have no idea.

Like, I really didn't know what a psychiatrist even did.

And I had never even visited one.

Since that time, I had the opportunity to meet people.

Once something like that happens to a family member, you see individuals on the news and on the side of the street.

Your perspective is a lot different.

I met an amputee that was living on some cushions behind a building.

I was able to recognize a serious mental illness and I was able to get him some help and become his advocate.