Jenifer's Funeral Fund

A Call for Change in Mental Health Care: My Mother's Story

Earlier this week, my mother lost her life in a house fire after years of battling severe mental illness. She struggled with psychosis and mania, but despite our family’s constant efforts to seek help, the mental healthcare system failed her. And as a result, she lost her life.

In the last few months, we pleaded with doctors, social workers, and hospital staff to keep her in care, to get her the help she so desperately needed. But each time, she was discharged — because the system states that unless a person is a direct danger to themselves or others, they can’t be held against their will. Psychosis and mania, even in their most severe forms, don’t meet that threshold.

Just this past Wednesday, despite the family’s warning that she was not in a safe state, she was discharged again. The system turned its back on her, leaving us helpless, and now she's gone.

I’m sharing this because I want people to understand how broken our mental healthcare system is, and how it failed my mom — and continues to fail countless others. Mental illness is real, and it needs to be treated with the urgency and compassion it deserves. People like my mom shouldn't be left to suffer, abandoned by the system that is supposed to protect them.

Please, let’s raise our voices. Mental health care should not be a privilege; it should be a right. Families should not be forced to watch their loved ones deteriorate with no help, no support, no options. I’m not sharing this for sympathy — I’m sharing this so that my mom’s story doesn’t fade away. She mattered. And maybe, by sharing this, we can make sure others don’t have to go through what she did.

Please, let’s keep fighting for better care, for better support, for better outcomes for those struggling with mental illness. No one should be failed by the system like this.

Thank you for reading.

#MentalHealthMatters #MentalHealthAwareness #EndTheStigma #FixTheSystem #JusticeForJenifer