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MENTAL HEALTH
Vagina Ghosts and the Challenge of Defending the Mentally Ill
The system fails them over and over again.
Our client was charged with assault because she bit a security guard.
She bit the security guard when she tried to leave the ER and he restrained her.
She was at the ER because she had vaginal pain.
She told paramedics she had vaginal pain because of ghosts.
Terry (all names have been changed) has been mentally ill her entire life. She somehow managed to graduate from high school, but has never held a meaningful job and lives on welfare and Social Security Disability payments.
Her home life was chaotic, she has no real relationship with her mother or father, and she’s spent considerable time on the streets. The assault charge is just one more in a long line of trespassing, obstruction, domestic violence, and various drug charges.
In fact, she’s our client in another court, besides the assault, for three counts of theft.
She believes she has a license that allows her to steal.
Which leads us to the impossible question, “What do we do with people…
