Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
NSSC: Voices of Change Part 3: Serious Mental Illness, Missed Care, and the Criminal Justice Gap
06 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide. Hosted by Tony Miator. Broadcasting from the heart of Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests share their raw, howlful stories. Some will spark laughter, others will move you to tears. These real life journeys inspire, connect, and remind you that you're never alone.
We're igniting a global movement to empower everyone to make a lasting difference by fostering deep awareness, unwavering acceptance, and profound understanding of autism and mental health. Tune in, be inspired, and join us in transforming the world one story at a time. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide.
Before we jump in, if you haven't already, I invite you to tap follow. It only takes a couple of seconds and it helps this show reach more families who need to hear these conversations. Thanks for being here. Today we bring together a group of seven voices, each with their own experiences, perspectives, and stories.
We will talk about something that affects far more people than we often realize, serious mental illness. In the spirit of Mental Health Awareness Month, this is not just a discussion, it's an opportunity. An opportunity to listen, to understand, and to bring light to conversations that are too often left in the dark. Joining us today is Crystal Fox.
David Hagar, Laura Krasian, Linda Mims, Judge Milton Mack, Rachel Strife, and Anne Cochran. This topic matters. It touches families, friendships, and entire communities. This is the final episode of our three-part series that will focus on serious mental illness.
Today, we are creating a space where honesty is welcome, where stories can be shared, and where understanding can begin or deepen for all of us listening. I'm grateful to everyone that's joined us today. Let's start this episode with this.
When someone says they have the right to refuse help, but they're clearly in the middle of psychosis or severe mental illness, are they truly capable of making that decision? And if not, how do we ethically step in without being seen as taking their rights away, but instead as trying to save their life?
You know, there is power of attorneys which can be used for mental health. And for those people, you can say, look, while you're competent to make decisions, you can put off this power of attorney and you can define who is going to be your care provider and you can define what kind of treatment you'll accept. And you can take yourself out. Now, that'll take yourself out to a point.
It won't take you out in case you become violent and actually dangerous to other people. It'll take you out of here at risk of harm. Now, there's someone in the Carolinas that's come up with that form, but it hasn't worked so far.
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Chapter 2: What does 'choice' mean during severe mental illness?
Delusions, especially bizarre ones, are so disconcerting that it feels like the floor is coming out from underneath us. If we could give that shock value to the parents and the youth in high schools or middle schools, then maybe we could be seeing some change.
What's really hard to reconcile is in this particular case I'm about to tell you, everyone was doing their job, yet the system still failed them. A 17-year-old kid went out and did not come back. His mother went to the police. The police said, oh, he's 17. He's probably just hooked up someplace. Don't worry. One o'clock in the morning, he was at a gas station and their credit card dinged.
They called the police. They said, do not let him go. We are on our way. They got there. No kid, no police. So they go to the police station and they tell them, well, he was just sleeping in the car. He wasn't a threat to us or himself. So they let him go. So they're still looking for him.
Chapter 3: How can power of attorney and psychiatric advance directives help?
And the next day, he stabs a lady a few times in her leg, winds up in jail. Unfortunately, it took five years before it all got worked out. Another sad fact, three to four years, he was in a state of psychosis before they finally figured it out. From that very first night until it finally got resolved within the court system, it took five years. How do we change that dynamic?
We get treatment for those people, ASAP, with whatever tools we have. And if we don't have the tools, we make them make the tools.
In this case, he was in psychosis for three and a half years, but they couldn't get anything done because during that time, he became of age, 18.
Not right.
You know, I want to get back to something. I want to get back to something Linda said about the college can't tell the parents about the mental health crisis. I assume that's not because of HIPAA. It must be because of something else. It's a bad law.
I forget what it's called, but there is a law.
It's FERPA, probably.
So we're in Michigan. One of our bills, which everyone's supporting, would mandate that hospitals can share information with families in the event of an emergency or for continuity of care. And because our Michigan statute is focused more on history than what's happening right now, that history becomes very important.
So it's incumbent upon hospitals now to reach back to find out from families what's been going on and what's the history.
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Chapter 4: What is anosognosia and how does it relate to homelessness?
And you know, when you're a mom or a dad, but mostly the moms I find, and you have taken your little infant from the very beginning into the doctor to keep them healthy with their inoculations, their checkups, et cetera. And then right at 18, when many start exhibiting the symptoms, You're told you no longer can do that. You no longer can help your child. And then you have people in your county.
You call all these people when your child starts getting sick and they say the best thing you can do is kick them out of the house, make them homeless. Perhaps they'll get picked up by the cops and then put in jail and maybe they'll get treatment. No, that's not acceptable.
I've heard that scenario so many times, put your child in the system. That goes against everything that we've ever been told, and that was keep your child out of the system. Exactly. So how do we fix that broken trust and create a system that actually supports families instead of overwhelming them?
I think a lot of it goes back to that education. This morning, I was at a collaborative meeting with CIT offices. And so there were organizations there. NSSC got a seat at the table. And all of the offices that were there, they really care and they want to make a difference. And so I I think it was you, Linda, saying, you know, we have to get to the offices that want to be a part of this. Right.
And, you know, those are the ones that should be on the CIT teams. And it really it was encouraging for me to be in that room and see so many people that did care. So I think, and we brought our brochures, had them spread out all on the table and they were taking them. So it really is, you know, that educational piece.
And we've had one CIT officer, he took our, one of our brochures at a community event we hosted a couple months ago, and he put it on LinkedIn saying, this is the best thing that I've ever seen. Most helpful.
So in the spirit of education, education, education, I wonder, just wondering, should we plant the seed in high school?
I think education in any form definitely helps. The only thing I've been told about schizophrenia and anosognosia is that it happens over a period of time. And when you're in that family dynamic, it's just a daily routine and you don't really see it coming on until boom, it's there.
Yeah, I remember that with my sister. Our family normalized her oddities. Yeah. It's just the way she was and eventually things fell apart.
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Chapter 5: How does CIT training impact law enforcement's response to mental health crises?
Now, if you're not as severe, you're going to have a chance for complete recovery. Schizophrenia can have complete recovery if we just find it in almost everybody.
Well, I wanted to...
give marching orders to listeners. There is a bill in Congress, H.R. 4022, that will end the IMD exclusion and as a plus would also add that states need to be more robust with their assisted outpatient treatment. So this bill is being voted on now. If you write to your congressman, you can maybe affect change that would have lasting results.
Education, start early, influence a generation to maybe care more and understand what's going on. Some of them will have an interest because they'll know that they'll have some experience with people who are falling apart at their age.
I so agree with Dr. Hagar because, again, in college, I have gone back to my undergraduate college and urged them to make sure that everybody, freshmen on in, professors, the clinics, have education about these illnesses. I think young people are so much more open because so many of their classmates are on medication.
You know, they've diagnosed a lot of things early, not specifically schizophrenia. And I do want to end on this note with schizophrenia. I want to say it is a very scary word and it's not the right word to describe the illness. In Japan, they renamed it integration disorder and so many more people came in for treatment. schizophrenia means split mind. I believe it comes from Greek.
This is not a split mind. This is an integration, whatever you want to call it. I know there is a big cadre of psychiatrists who are trying to get it renamed because it isn't correct. So here we're talking about these illnesses. They have the wrong nomenclature and
And I think that describing these illnesses in the correct way will mean all the difference between if people can accept what you're saying to them and listen and then reevaluate their ideas about what these illnesses are and that they're treatable.
I think we need significant healthcare workforce development, and it needs to happen in medical schools, in nursing schools, even in pre-med and nursing programs. Our workforce does not understand serious mental illnesses. Our psychiatrists are not trained appropriately. We have, especially in community mental health, where
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Chapter 6: How can early warning signs of psychosis be identified?
That begins with first, having earlier intervention. before someone is in crisis, before someone needs hospitalization. Second, outpatient treatment should be the default remedy in mental health proceedings. Third, there should be procedural reforms to simplify the process for going forward.
I mean, for example, a psychiatric nurse practitioner with experience in psychiatry ought to be able to testify in probate proceedings. And then finally, this might be the hardest one, is having a pathway for emergency psychiatric assessment and intervention.
I was part of a group that took a look at this, and basically someone could be certified to require care, and then for seven days, they could provide care over objection. And after seven days, if it's still a problem, then you would petition. But up with those four pillars, we could intervene earlier and do a lot better job.
All good points. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to do this. What we covered here wasn't just a conversation. It was something real, something meaningful. I truly believe that anyone listening is going to come away with a whole new level of understanding because of what you brought to the conversation.
Thanks, Tony. Thank you so much. Thank you, Tony.
My pleasure.
Thank you, Tony.
Good work. Thank you, Tony.
Appreciate your time.
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