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Anyone in the Santa Cruz area?

June 20, 2005 - 1:56am — Rochelle

I have a mentally ill friend in California who just had his van towed. He's on the street, and was not allowed to get his belongings before the van was towed. The van is in his dad's name, so his dad can fax permission for someone to pick up the belongings. We've got feelers out for help lots of places, so I thought I'd see if anyone is close by Santa Cruz, or is familiar with social/support services in the area.

Thanks--rochelle

Comments

June 20, 2005 - 3:55am — mdoneil

Red cross

I think the Red Cross would be helpful, they do that sort of thing here.


Failing that I'll do it. California loves it when I visit.


Of course that does not solve the problem of the reason for the towing, nor the mental illness. Those are problems that need to be addressed. If it is simply a parking/license thing that should be simple to fix with a fee based storage lot, and paying the license fee. The mental illness is another problem but should your friend be disposed to see a social worker they should be able to get him the treatment he needs and find appropriate housing and perhaps even help with the van problem. I've a friend who is an RN at Dominican Hospital who can problaby direct him to the appropriate community resources, although I think they are a community hospital w/o psych he should be familiar with whats available locally.


Good luck to your friend.

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June 20, 2005 - 12:40pm — Rochelle

Re:Red cross

The mental illness led to the towing--he's extremely paranoid and gets really freaked out by new parts on the van. It needed a battery so he *could move it, but you never know what sorts of tracking/mind control devices "they're" going to put in car batteries these days. You've worked in health care long enough to understand how difficult it is to work with/treat paranoid schizophrenics.

He needs long-term residential treatment for meds to take effect, but because of insurance limits and other factors, they usually keep him for 3-7 days, he pretends to take his meds and within a couple weeks is back to the usual. His parents are in Cleveland, so it's been extra hard for them to help him.

I appreciate the Red Cross tip. Thanks much! Are you serious about doing it yourself? E-me, if so.

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June 20, 2005 - 7:03pm — mdoneil

Re:Red cross

I'll make some phone calls first, but if it needs to be done, I'll do it.

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June 20, 2005 - 8:29pm — Daniel

Re:Red cross

Thanks for showing us what good people do even for strangers!

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June 21, 2005 - 7:13pm — Rochelle

Re:Red cross

It really does take a great deal of support to help keep a mentally ill person safe and healthy. We're still all working on helping my friend--at a minimum, getting his stuff out of the van before its salvaged. His folks are thinking that getting the van out of the salvage yard isn't even going to be worth the expense at this point, but it be nice if my friend could have his shoes back. :-(

Public thanks to Matt for putting his faith into action.

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