Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Jessica Ferguson : Brother in Crisis: A Family's Desperate Fight for Mental Health Support
15 May 2025
Send us a text Jessica Ferguson shares the deeply personal story of her brother's struggle with serious mental illness and how systemic failures led to his incarceration after being accused of a triple homicide when he should have been in psychiatric care. • Her brother had been stable with his mental illness for a decade before showing concerning behavior changes in early 2023 • Despite three psychiatric hospitalizations within months, he was repeatedly discharged after 72-hour holds with no substantial care plan • Family pleas for help were ignored as healthcare providers cited voluntary treatment requirements and HIPAA restrictions • Only after being accused of a crime did he receive consistent psychiatric care • The jail system provides minimal mental health support compared to psychiatric hospitals • Families need healthcare proxy arrangements and better knowledge of resources before crises occur • Massachusetts lacks Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) options that could mandate treatment • Mental health systems must partner with families who know their loved ones best If you know someone with a story to tell, send them to TonyMantor.com. Tell everyone everywhere about Why Not Me, the World, the conversations we're having and the inspiration our guests give to everyone everywhere that you are not alone in this world. https://tonymantor.com https://Facebook.com/tonymantor https://instagram.com/tonymantor https://twitter.com/tonymantor https://youtube.com/tonymantormusic intro/outro music bed written by T. Wild Why Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Full Episode
Welcome to Why Not Me? The World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantor. Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. real life people who will inspire and show that you are not alone in this world.
Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World, Humanity Over Handcuffs, the Silent Crisis special event. Today, we're joined by Jessica Ferguson, who will share the deeply personal story of her brother's struggle with mental illness.
She'll take us through the challenges of supporting him, the events and circumstances that ultimately led to his incarceration, and the family's ongoing efforts to advocate for mental health awareness and reform. Thanks for coming on.
Yeah, no problem. No problem.
Can you give us a little background and what led your journey to supporting mental illness?
So I have a sibling who has severe mental illness. And at the beginning of 2023, he's been very, he'd been with his treatment for the last, he's had it for 20 years, but I mean, so the last 10 years he's been stable and fine. In the beginning of 2023, we started to notice some changes going on. He was not quite himself.
And then just kind of navigating the system and, you know, trying to get him help, you know, the next three to four or five months or so. And just constantly being, you know, involuntary hospitalizations for 72 hours and left back out without any kind of involvement of the family or any care plan put in place. even though we're begging, please keep him. He's just not right.
And truthfully, you know, we were like, big question, Massachusetts is always, are they a harm to themselves or others? And of course, at the time, I'm like, of course, I'm going to answer honestly, like, no, I'm not afraid of him or anything. I mean, if anything, at that time, I was probably more afraid something was going to happen to him. Like he was hit by a car or something like that.
Like he wouldn't be paying attention. And he had odd behaviors at that point. He was walking around barefoot. So like I was fearing like, is he going to step on a nail or something like that? I don't know. But anyways, so goes through that whole process back and forth, back and forth, gets let out.
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