Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia

Gionfriddo, a nonprofit director and onetime mayor of Middletown, Conn., has written a memoir that makes a strong argument: the public policy around mental illness is in shambles. As he recounts, states failed to replace hospitals with adequate care and treatment options when they defunded their psychiatric hospitals in favor of treating people locally. Tragic consequences followed for mentally ill people, including Gionfriddo’s son, Tim. In grammar school, Tim began to exhibit learning disabilities. He became depressed, was periodically “out of control,” and seemed, to his father, to lack empathy. Middle school saw Tim bring a BB gun to school. Then came alcohol and drug use, theft, auditory hallucinations, and, ultimately, a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Tim attended seven different high schools over four years. Meanwhile, Tim’s parents learned to navigate the worlds of special ed, the law, and medicine. In one of the most shocking episodes of the book, a psychiatrist allows 15-year-old Tim to decide whether he should take 50 mg or 100 mg of Serzone. High school was followed by a swift descent into deeper mental illness, homelessness, and prison. Gionfriddo’s story is powerful, persuasive, and sad. [em](Oct.) [/em]