LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – In between a full time job as a truck driver, operating a non-profit for at-risk youth and elevating his circle of relatives, Clay Anders has taken on being a caretaker and advocate for his brother with mental health wants.

“It’s impossible,” Anders mentioned. “He is struggling and you have to be there for him every day.”

Documents present Anders’ brother, whose id we aren’t sharing for his privateness, has been identified with schizophrenia. Clay mentioned his brother struggles to care for himself and when he’s not taking his medicines can show conduct that might be perceived as harmful,

Through a collection of failed calls to police for help, Clay mentioned his brother ended up within the prison justice system.

“Just to get a call from the county attorney a couple of days later saying we got good news. He’s in the county right now facing a terroristic threats charge,” Anders mentioned. “In my mind, that’s not good news. That’s one of the worst things that could happen and what I was trying to avoid in the first place, because he’s not going to get the essential resources that he needs there.”

That was a number of months in the past, when 10/11 first sat down with Anders. Since then, his brother was accepted right into a therapy program, simply to be kicked out once more. He tells us this cycle is irritating.

“It’s just a system that is broken and it’s not working,” Anders mentioned.

Unfortunately, Anders’ state of affairs with his brother isn’t distinctive. Kristin Nelson, emergency companies director for Region V Systems, which is the company accountable for distributing state support, mentioned she consistently hears from households whose grownup family members are struggling.

“Every single day, every single day. And it’s very sad, because they are stuck,” Nelson mentioned.

While there are such a lot of companies locally offering help for the bulk of folks in want, these 10/11 spoke to mentioned they will’t help all of them. Over greater than 30 interviews with folks on the frontlines, 10/11 has realized, the state wants extra assets, more cash, extra folks and extra choices as a result of proper now, too many in want of help find yourself behind bars.

“Our state prison system has become our largest psychiatric facility in the States. And that is not how things should be,” Omaha State Senator John Frederickson mentioned.

Doug Koebernick, Inspector General for the Department of Corrections, mentioned the quantity of inmates with mental health wants in our jail system is excessive.

“There’s a number of people that have come across, where do you think, well, if they just had a treatment-oriented facility that they could be in that you would see this positive change,” Koebernick mentioned. “But as much as the Department of Corrections and their mental health team tries to help somebody, it’s a much different environment. It’s not a therapeutic treatment environment.”

Nebraska’s probation workplace does work to get folks mental health assets earlier than and after sentencing, Deb Minardi, Probation Administrator for the state mentioned.

“They’re not being arrested necessarily for their criminal activity, as much as their criminal activity is driven by their mental health, or their instability with their mental health,” Minardi mentioned.

Kari Rumbaugh, Assistant Deputy Administrator over Juvenile Probation mentioned getting folks these assets is essential to public security.

“What we’ve learned is we can’t ignore mental health,” Rumbaugh mentioned.

But as soon as a person is behind bars, assets are restricted. The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, who declined an interview, mentioned all inmates are screened for behavioral health wants and in critical instances they will present month-to-month remedy and drugs.

Anders mentioned he desires higher for his brother.

“Yeah, they could give him his meds in there and they have caseworkers but then when everyone goes home and he’s in solitary confinement because he’s mentally ill, what is that helping him,” Anders mentioned. “That’s actually hurting him more and that’s not how it should be.”

Watch Suffering in Silence Documentary

We have extra on this subject within the full Suffering in Silence documentary, viewable within the video participant above, on the ten/11 News YouTube Page, or on the ten/11 NOW app on the next streaming platforms: Roku, AppleTV, FireTV, AndroidTV.

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