The Soloist

Based on a personal experience and novel by Steve Lopez, the film“ The Soloist” brings about a few social issues dealing with caring for those with a mental illness. However, for the purpose of this assignment, the focus will be on the main issue in the film. Near the beginning of the film, we learn that one of the main characters, Nathaniel Ayers, developed schizophrenia as a young adult. Having never received any kind of treatment or public assistance for his condition, he ended up dropping out of Julliard, abandoning his family, and becoming homeless on the streets of Los Angeles. People with mental illnesses becoming homeless has been a large issue in this country. Often times we see that those that have become socially deviant due to a …show more content…
Although the people on skid row are all brought together in the same place for different reasons and have completely different backgrounds, LAMP allows the members of the community to create meaningful relationships within the setting. The program seemed to give the surrounding area a psychological sense of community, which can be seen throughout the film. Towards the beginning of the film we can see that the people in the LAMP courtyard all seem to be tending to themselves, but later when we see a support group in session we can see that the members provide social support for one another in the right setting. LAMP allowed for the members to have mutual support systems and group involvement that helped some of them to cope and feel as though they belong somewhere and are not alone. This sense of community can also be seen clearly in the end of the film where there appears to be a celebration going on inside the LAMP building. The community members seem to enjoy each others company, creating companionship within the setting that they all have unfortunately become a part of, and they seem to find comfort among each other. Since they help to provide temporary homes and assistance in finding jobs, LAMP helps the community with personal development. They allow the members to gain autonomy and get back on their feet, along with helping them to develop skills in the group support systems. A downside to LAMP may be that they don't have a well kept system maintenance or change in the way that the program is run. As mentioned, there seems to be sub par implementation of the program based on what is seen in the film.In order to tackle the issue of people with mental illnesses becoming homeless, there are a few things that we can do as a community. One of them is to provide more programs, specifically on skid row, in order to help the community to gain a better grasp on