Patients may not take medication and might dismiss therapist. Patients will often try and avoid taking medication. Families often remain unaware of this because of privacy laws so doctors are unable to talk to them about these issues. Those who do not take their medication can harm themselves and other people. For example, a man from Maine bludgeoned his elderly mother to death after refusing to take medication for his severe schizophrenia. He killed her after assuming that she was an al-Qaeda operative. And as a citizen of the United States, he had the right to refuse medication and treatment. Laws like this keeps doctors from treating those who are mentally ill.
The opposition will claim that the mentally ill are being inadequately cared for, however, with the limited resources offered to them, people are doing their best to help those with mental illness. Many organizations offer support, information and care for patients with mental illness. For example, NAMI, or the National Alliance on Mental Illness, educates children and parents about the effects of mental illness and how to cope with it. They offer a call line to encourage and support those with mental illness. Individual organizations like NAMI do their best to help people who suffer from mental