By Ross Jones: For Entire Post, Go Here…
ngd- This is what happens when support systems orient themselves to bureaucratic denial and capping of services…
Michelle Burt followed the ambulance closely.
Last October, the mother of three was headed west on I-96, behind an emergency vehicle carrying her her 15-year-old son Johnathan, who had just left an appointment with his therapist.
“He told her that he put a gun barrel to his head,” Burt recalled. “He said: ‘I’m angry, I’m sad, I don’t know why. I just don’t want to live.’”
The family lived in Clarklake, a small town just outside of Jackson. But on this October day in 2019, they were making an urgent, two-hour trip to hospital in Grand Rapids. It was the nearest psychiatric bed available in the state.
At an age when obtaining a learner’s permit is normally a teen’s biggest challenge, Johnathan’s struggles were far greater.
Earlier that year, he had been diagnosed with manic depressive disorder. Two years before that, he began suffering from epileptic seizures. Later that month, Johnathan would be charged with a misdemeanor stemming from an incident at school.
“I’m not ready to go home.”
He was admitted to Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in Grand Rapids on October 24. It wasn’t long before he made friends with another patient there, 17-year-old Aly Stid.
But over the course of his admission, Stid said Johnathan seemed to get worse.
“I could see it in his face, I could hear it in his voice. I knew he was hurting himself,” she said. “He wasn’t hiding that from anyone.”
