Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Leanna May Franklin: Love Without Structure:Navigating Serious Mental Illness as a Family
Thu, 5 Jun 2025
Leanna May Franklin shares her journey as a mental health advocate after her son experienced a psychotic break at age 19, revealing the challenges of navigating care even with resources and professional expertise. • Experienced a life-changing moment when her son had a psychotic breakdown during a family gathering • Recognized signs that she initially thought were typical teenage behaviors but were early symptoms of mental illness • Her son is now diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder depressive type with polysubstance use • Despite having resources and knowledge, faced enormous barriers in getting appropriate care for her adult son • Co-founded a holistic mental health clinic offering integrated approaches including blood testing and IV therapy • Advocates for successful community treatment models like one in Yakima, Washington that provides services with minimal budget • Discusses "ambiguous grief" – the unique pain of losing someone who is still physically present • Emphasizes the importance of documentation, understanding system language, and building support teams • Believes in setting boundaries as an act of protection while continuing to advocate for better care • Works with National Shattering Silence Coalition to influence mental health policy reform If you'd like to learn more about Liana's work or need advocacy support, contact her at [email protected] or call/text 425-393-4762. She is available to attend meetings anywhere in the US to support those navigating the mental health system. 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)
Chapter 1: What sparked Leanna's advocacy for mental health?
So if you would, tell us what led you to become an advocate.
So I've always been in the health field. I've been practicing in medicine for almost 20 years. And in 2021, my adult son suffered a psychotic break. And that's when I got deep into mental health.
Okay. What age was he at the time that this happened?
He was 19 years old.
19. Okay. So I hear many times that a lot of younger people show signs of psychosis, but it goes unnoticed. Were there any behaviors or indicators that preceded his psychotic episodes?
What was happening beforehand was what I thought to be typical teenage behavior. So, you know, isolation, mood changes, slight behavior changes, but he was still functioning and, you know, showing up for school every day. He was the best driver in our family. You know, he had a lot of strengths and qualities that caused us to maybe not look at those challenges so closely.
Okay, that makes perfect sense. So what happened that made you realize that you had to look at this more seriously?
So my son had been hanging out a lot with his friends, and we hadn't seen him for a couple weeks. And he came home on Fourth of July weekend to celebrate with the family. We're all having a barbecue, and he wasn't himself. Halfway through our celebration, he had a meltdown, which I've never seen him really have such a meltdown before.
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Chapter 2: What signs indicated Leanna's son had a mental health issue?
And as the weekend progressed, we had to really examine what was going on. And he had a complete executive functioning meltdown, which I've never even witnessed in a person before. And so from that point on, I mean, he went into an inpatient facility. And from that point on, we've been looking at every intervention that is out there, holistic
conventional, working with the best professionals, the best programs, and even with the means and the support, we have had very similar stories as someone who doesn't have access to these programs. Yeah.
So can you describe what the executive meltdown looked like? Because if you've never seen one, then I'm sure a lot of our listeners haven't either. It just might help them as well.
Yeah, so disorganized speech, responding to internal stimuli, audio and visual hallucinations, very aggravated and agitated, you know, unable to sit still. He just wasn't feeling well. He just did not feel well. He needed our help. He knew something was wrong and he really needed our help.
So was he in a capacity where he knew something was wrong or was he one that thought everything was just okay?
In my son's case, he knew. He knew before any of us knew when he was age 15 that something wasn't right. And he actually advocated for his own treatment early on. Again, at the time, we all thought it was typical hormonal stuff, depression, anxiety, social challenges, academic challenges, just the stress of life. But he knew something was wrong.
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Chapter 3: How did the family respond to the psychotic break?
And he actually did a lot of his own research online. At one point, he did say to us at age 16, I think I might have schizophrenia.
Really? Wow.
At the time, I was very dismissive.
Understandable.
Chapter 4: What is the executive functioning meltdown?
Even though, you know, I'm getting him the help he needs. We had one of the best psychologists in the United States, etc. I, at the time, was in complete denial as a mother and thought, well, this is just the phase.
Sure.
Because it doesn't run in our family. And I had always thought that schizophrenia and bipolar was genetic.
Okay.
And it's a long-term diagnosis. You don't just diagnose somebody, right?
Right.
So I thought my child's reading stuff online and he's getting, you know, ideas of what an extreme scenario would be. And, you know, you don't, a diagnosis of schizophrenia usually takes up to 10 years because it has to be consistent symptomology, right? So here we are 2025, you know, almost five years after his meltdown and we've learned a lot.
What did you learn out of this?
We've learned that he absolutely has schizoaffective disorder, depressive type, and struggles with polysubstance use. And it's been a real challenge getting, now that he's an adult, getting the treatment that he needs. So we're at the point, you know, we've worked with coaches and mentors and caregivers and friends of families and professionals and people that I've hired as peer support.
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Chapter 5: What challenges did they face in treatment?
Fortunately, after 12 hours of an escalated incident, 12 hours of me calling every single mental health crisis number that we have available here in King County and getting no help, he was arrested for his behavior. And at that time, AOT finally got involved and took his case.
So had I not been advocating for months up until that point, working with the local case management team, etc., he would have not had the care that he received while in custody at King County. So fortunately, AOT was able to at least supervise his experience there. He did not get charged with any crime. He was on a mental health hold for two weeks.
And then he was released without a treatment plan. It wasn't just a gap in treatment. It was more of a cliff where they're not giving me any visibility because he's an adult.
Yes, very common.
You know how it goes. And so now the AOT team is saying they're going to provide wraparound services. So I'm hopeful that the AOT program will develop and I'm aiding in that process, right? I'm getting as many people involved as possible.
So that sounds like things are starting to work out. Now, since he's been released, how has that gone? Has it been a bumpy road or have things smoothed out and all the other things you're putting in place are starting to work the way they should?
So we're in the process of building a wraparound team. I am bringing together social workers, public defenders, advocates. We're petitioning for court ordered treatment. I'm setting boundaries, right? I love my son with every fiber of my being, but love without structure can become enabling. And so boundaries are an act of protection for both of us.
Absolutely.
I'm pushing for policy change. So every day I'm talking to the people in the community about what we can do next. He does call. So he's currently homeless. He does call about once a week. He'll call either myself or his father. We're encouraging him to seek treatment. I don't believe that he has the self-awareness to really climb out of the hole that he's in. So he needs wraparound support.
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Chapter 6: How does Leanna advocate for policy reform?
To say that out loud to a public audience is very, very hard because we moved mountains to make sure that he wouldn't fall through the cracks. And so that's why I bring this back to this isn't a matter of economic status, right? This isn't a matter of education or funding.
It's a matter of there is no model to address the challenges that we have, especially when you're dealing with an adult family member who is is by law unable to make their own decisions. We have very little room to intervene.
So what's your next step? He's living where he's living. He understands there's a problem. Unfortunately, he's not getting the medication or the treatment that he needs to turn that around so he can get past it. So what's your next steps to make this better?
So we're working closely with the assisted outpatient treatment team. We're putting together an ACT team, which is assertive community treatment. They will go to him, wherever he is, they will visit him. We're bringing together peer support, surrounding him with people that are his age, that have lived experience, that have grown out of these challenges and have brought their lives together.
We have other interventions available when he's ready, such as metabolic psychiatry and support, functional medicine providers. We've put together a caregiving training program at the local care agency.
When he's ready to live on his own again and live independently, we can provide that caregiver support and actual caregivers to come in the home and help him maintain his autonomy as much as possible. So these are the things we're working on. I'm the type of person to take action when I'm being challenged or when I'm trying to cope.
So if I don't have something I'm working on, I will also go into a meltdown. You know what I mean? I have to be constantly taking action. So I do have my checklist. I think the thing we're focusing on the most and what's most urgent is petitioning for court-ordered treatment at this point.
Okay, that's great. So what happened to your son? Did that lead you to starting your own charity?
So I don't run a charity. What I have is a holistic mental health clinic here in Bellevue, Washington. I've partnered with a psychiatrist and addiction specialist who is integrated in his practice. He's also the chief medical officer at the largest behavioral health agency in the state of Washington. And so at our clinic, we offer holistic therapy.
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Chapter 7: What are the next steps in supporting Leanna's son?
That is happening in Yakima, Washington, which is they're about two hours drive from the greater Seattle area. And in my personal opinion, from what I've seen from Washington State, it is by far the best model. They've been able to provide more behavioral health services and more housing solutions than any other organization in Washington State in only six months.
Wow, that's great.
So they're making big, big change over there. Huge change. And they're doing it with virtually no money. So it's not hundreds of millions of dollars into these kinds of projects. They've been able to successfully launch and maintain their programs with virtually no budget. So this is what we're advocating for.
How do they do it when you've got all these companies across the U.S. that are all about the money? The more money they get, the more things they can do. And then you have a clinic like this that is operating on little or no money and succeeding. So tell me, what's the difference?
That's a loaded question. So, you know, it's about bringing humanitarians together. I think that it speaks volumes when we're having a celebratory fundraiser and there was no cost to putting on the event. So these are the things you want to look for if you're looking to support an organization. It was hosted at a church. The entertainment volunteered their time.
The culinary catering volunteered their time. We had people from the shelter helping to serve the dinner. The CEO, his name is Michael Kay, was offered a raise from the board of directors at Comprehensive, and he turned it down, saying that we can't afford to give me a raise right now.
Wow, very impressive.
It's really about finding the right people who care. And you'll know if they're that type of person or not when you see this kind of evidence, right?
Right. So is this all across the state or is it just in their area?
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Chapter 8: What holistic approaches does Leanna's clinic offer?
So it seems like that model needs to be spread out, at least through your state, to make it better for everyone.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And we're happy to share this model with anyone who wants to take a look at the blueprints and how they put it together. They're actually assembling shipping containers. We've had amazing testimonies. We've had homeless members of our community that have been 100% rehabilitated after the
Years and years and years of homelessness and polysubstance use and society had given up on them and they're fully rehabilitated and back in society. So I'm optimistic that this is a great model.
Yeah, definitely sounds awesome. So what's the next step? You've done all this so far. What are the next plans to possibly take this to a greater level?
So if my son were here with us today, he'd be sharing the songs that he writes. He'd be making you laugh. He's a big dreamer and he deserves to do just that every day. Every person with serious mental illness deserves the right to thrive and not just survive. So if you're listening, I want you to ask yourself, what can I do to make a difference? Okay.
Maybe it's writing a letter just later in your area. Maybe it's showing up at a local mental health board meeting. Maybe it's checking in on a friend who's caring for someone in crisis. You can reach out to us at Shattering Silence or visit our website for toolkits, letters, and advocacy templates.
You can reach out to me personally if you'd like to learn more about any of the interventions I mentioned or need advocacy. I will attend any meeting anywhere in the U.S. provided I have the availability on my schedule. You can reach me at Leanna at SeattleNAD.com. That's L-E-A-N-N-A at Seattle like the city, NancyAppledog.com. My phone number, you're welcome to call or text 425-393-4762.
This is what it is. These are the next steps. It's staying engaged. It's staying connected. It's communicating new ideas, communicating what's working, what's not, and it's not giving up.
Yeah, I think the most important word that you just said is not giving up. You just got to keep plugging away. So what do you tell people? Schizophrenia can feel like an overwhelming and isolating experience, not only for those diagnosed, but also for their loved ones who often feel lost and afraid when faced with this complex situation.
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