About this item
Paul Gionfriddos son Tim is one of the 6 percent--an American with serious mental illness. He is also one of the half million homeless people with serious mental illnesses in desperate need of help yet underserved or ignored by our health and social-service systems.In this moving, detailed, clear-eyed expos, Gionfriddo describes how Tim and others like him come to live on the street. Gionfriddo takes stock of the numerous injustices that kept his son from realizing his potential from the time Tim first began to show symptoms of schizophrenia to the inadequate educational supports he received growing up, his isolation from family and friends, and his frequent encounters with the juvenile justice system and, later, the adult criminal-justice system and its substandard mental health care.
About the Author
Paul Gionfriddo was born and raised in Middletown, Connecticut, and received his B.A. from Wesleyan University. He was elected to the Connecticut State Legislature in 1978 and served until 1990. He was Mayor of Middletown from 1989-1991. He has run nonprofit organizations in Connecticut, Texas, and Florida, was on the adjunct faculties of Wesleyan University and Trinity College, and has authored a popular blog, Our Health Policy Matters. He was appointed to the National Advisory Council of the SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services in 2013. He was named President and CEO of Mental Health America, the nation's oldest mental health advocacy organization, in 2014, where he leads a national effort to promote early identification and intervention around mental health concerns under the umbrella #B4Stage4.
