BPDFamily.com

To be brief, my uBPD19 brother is set to serve several months of jail time next month. What can my family do, if anything, to let those in charge know about his mental health issues?

The jail actually does have a fairly helpful FAQ about who to talk to and where to send information, but since my brother does not have a diagnosis, is not currently seeing a therapist, and is not taking medication (those are all the things that you can alert the jail about), I'm not sure what really can be done. My brother is also not aware that we strongly suspect he has BPD.

In the recent past he has said things like "If I have to go on probation again, I'll kill myself" (he's technically on a sort of probation now), and it feels like my family should tell the jail *something*... .  but without a diagnosis and with his refusal to get therapy or treatment, I'm not sure what we can say. I think the only "paper trails" or "proof" of his issues to draw from are perhaps a past diagnosis of depression/subsequent meds prescribed (but not taken), past run-ins with the law, a few times where a crisis center has responded, the few times where my brother was taken to the hospital and it was recommended that he check himself in due to his mental state (he declined to in the end)... .  

Any thoughts or advice here?    Is there something I'm not thinking of?

Contact the local NAMI and tell them just what you have written. Tell them yoh want him evaluated, as he has a mental illness. We did that with our son and they were more than helpful... .  keep posting

When my ds was in jail I called them and asked to speak to the mental Heath unit.  I explained the things he struggled with and they were very cooperative.  They separated him from the general population, got him a social worker, a therapist to talk to and cognitive therapy. 

In many cases you just have to ask.  They all need an advocate otherwise it won't happen.

Thank you for the tips - my parents have a NAMI Family to Family meeting tomorrow, and they're planning to ask about it then. My brother lives several hours away, so I'm not sure how easy it would be to get him an NAMI evaluation (not too familiar with how that process works), but it definitely seems like it would be good to... .  

I'm thinking that at least if the jail is notified that my brother has struggles with depression and suicidal ideation (not even bringing up the possible BPD), that will at least be something. Last time he was arrested, my parents didn't have too much luck getting through to who they were supposed to in the jail, but perhaps this time they'll have better information to use.

If you ask, nami will send someone in.

Do you mean, in to the jail? Or beforehand? (or either?) Thanks!

I think they mean NAMI will send someone to the jail.

(Aren't our members awesome!)

Yes, nami will send someone in. Call the local nami office and tell them you are concerned because your brother has mental health issues and you feel he needs an evaluation. They will put him in a different section.

Thanks so much - I'll recommend my parents try this. He is not currently in jail, but is set to be next month.

We also don't have the greatest/constant contact with him, so it's hard to know exactly what's going on. My mom tried calling him today to see if he was doing okay with money and he yelled something about feeling "95% abandoned" before hanging up. *sigh*