Jacqueline (
https://jacquelinejanssen.com/) has turned all she has learned about mental illness from her son’s mental health journey into incredible advocacy. Her latest book,
Every Homeless Person Has a Mother, chronicles Jacqueline’s experience as a parent of an adult child with schizoaffective disorder. Jacqueline’s son’s battle with mental illness started when he was 19 years old. Jacqueline talks about the myriad of therapies and treatments her son received and how he ultimately ended up homeless as a result of anosognosia (
https://www.nami.org/about-mental-illness/common-with-mental-illness/anosognosia/) or the lack of ability to recognize and treat his mental illness. Jacqueline has been a tireless advocate for families through her own work and with NAMI (
https://www.nami.org/) and encourages families to get involved in their local NAMI chapters. Jacqueline emphasizes that when a loved one is incapable of making decisions for his or her own good, HIPAA (
https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/php/resources/health-insurance-portability-and-accountability-act-of-1996-hipaa.html) allows mental health providers to talk to families. Jacqueline also discusses strategies for reunification of families if there is estrangement due to mental illness. Jacqueline graciously shares many resources with listeners: