victimization by a community

Over time I have found that working on the crisis lines that there are things that I hear that make my skin crawl even though I have heard some of these stories before.  This does not mean to say that these occurrences are common place but it happens enough times that one wonders why nothing has been done about it and all the police have to say is well you have a mental illness as if to say that mental illness equates with ones credibility.  I guess I have to take a step back here and explain.  I work on the crisis and Manitoba suicide lines for the most part sometimes the sexual assault lines as well.  There have been times that I have received calls from women who suffer from various forms of mental illness that have become victims of violence and generally speaking it is not their first time.  The worst thing is that it is not their families or partners that are the perpetrators but rather it is members of the community at large, their landlord, neighbour and strangers on the street.  

According to The Canadian Mental Health Association, mentally Ill individuals are 3 to 5 times more likely to be the victims of violence then the general public.  Those that suffer from sever mental illness are 2.5 times more likely to be the victim of violence then the average person.  In my experience a lot of the people that fall in to this category generally are living in poverty and have issues with substance abuse a fact that is also supported by the Canadian Mental Health Association. American literature that a large number of the street population suffer from some form mental health issue ( Perron et al).  Even though these facts are not broken down to show the difference between men and women the statistics are still frightening.  What is interesting to note is that there is not a great deal of research done on this topic in both Canada and the United States

I think that what bothers me the most is that society seems to be willing to look the other way when it comes to people who suffer with mental illness.  What is interesting to note is that when I tried to look up the information about mental illness and violence, its seems interesting to note that there were more articles on mental illness and domestic violence, or that those that suffer from mental illness are less likely to be violent but really nothing about the victimisation of the mentally ill and the struggle they under go to be taken seriously by the law.  Talking to other colleagues at the Klinic they actually confirmed this observation as well as that there is no break down between male and female victims.  It seems that we talk about human rights, we devolved our mental health system in order to provide freedom of choice and self determination but we as a society never set up a programming that would protect these individuals from us.  As Mullaly points out in a typical Liberal society one doesn’t fix something until there is a flaw in other words we react rather then be proactive.

I did find a brief done by The Justice Centre in the States that identifies women with mental illness to be more vulnerable to being victimised then men, for sexual assault is also added to the mix. They identify that homelessness and poverty for women with mental illness are at a greater risk of being victimised.  That women who have PTSD from domestic abuse are 5 times more likely to commit suicide then women who have not gone through domestic abuse.  Women are also more likely to be targeted because of their medication and its street value.  In other cases it is because they are not taking their meds and they are open to victimisation.  In the end the brief stated that further research was needed in the area of women with mental illness and their victimisation.

Lisa

Canadian Mental Health Association, http://www.cmha.ca/bins/content_page.asp?cid=3-108, November 23, 2011.

Mullaly, B. (2007). The New structural Social Work (3^rd ed.). Don Mills, Ontario, Oxford University Press.

• Perron, 
Brian Edward, 
• Alexander-Eitzman, 
Ben, 
• Gillespie, 
David F,
•  
• Pollio, 
David. (November 2008)., Modeling the mental health effects of victimization among homeless persons, Volume 67, Issue 9, Social Science & Medicine.

Violence against Women with Mental Illness, The Justice Center the Council of State Governments.  2007.

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