University Seminar 101

“The Soloist,” written by Steve Lopez, tells the story of a homeless man, named Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, living life with a mental disease. His feats and faults are exploited for the world to read, as well as to prove that homelessness and mental illness is a very real problem. One of the reasons that Nathaniel progresses is because of the author, Steve Lopez. Steve is Nathaniel’s support system and friend. Psychiatrist, Dr. Ragins, tells Steve he should stick by Nathaniel: “The best thing you can do for Nathaniel is be his friend” (Lopez 252); and she is right. Without friends and family he has nothing but his music. Since Nathaniel has Steve, he has been living in an apartment, receiving music lessons, and has regular meals.

Mental illnesses can cause people to become homeless, to lash-out, and be unpredictable; and this is the reason they need help. If Steve had overlooked Nathaniel on that day of discovery, who knows what would have become of him? Music is part of the reason that Nathaniel survived; in addition he had friendship. Steve Lopez completes “The Soloist,” a story of one homeless person’s struggle to live daily, but what about other homeless people? Is Nathaniel’s illness the worst out there? This story is important to send a message, but there are so many other mentally ill homeless people: “16% of homeless are mentally ill” (Why are people homeless?).

This book is important for many reasons, including awareness. Steve Lopez has given Nathaniel the voice he never had by writing his story:

“He’s the one who’s had to muster the courage to face each day. He’s the one who has given a face to the anonymous thousands in the same fight. And he’s the one whose story, I hope, is helping de-stigmatize mental illness. (Lopez).

It may not be known whether the purpose of writing Nathaniel’s story was for funds for Steve, Nathaniel, or to promote awareness, but it has been a successful book. More people are becoming aware of the homelessness around them and what they can do to help with this critical problem. Steve’s heart is in the right place and you can tell by his words: “I’ve been asked to speak at mental health symposiums, skid row fundraisers, universities and high schools…” (Lopez). He does more than just stand by and wait for others to take charge.

As the cover of “The Soloist” says, “A LOST DREAM, AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP, AND THE REDEMPTIVE POWER OF MUSIC” (Lopez); there is more than just a message of helping the homeless in this book. It means something more than words, something that cannot be easily explained, about helping your neighbor.

The Soloist brings up mental disorders in the homeless. This is the main issue in Nathaniel’s case. It is basically the main reason Nathaniel is homeless. This made me wonder how many homeless people have mental disorders or other problems that they cannot control. Statistics show that one in every five homeless persons has a severe or persistent mental illness (United States Homeless Statistics).
An average of 16% of the single adult homeless population suffers from some form of severe and persistent mental illness (National Resource and Training Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness, 2003). While 22% of the American population suffers from a mental illness, a small percentage of the 44 million people who have a serious mental illness are homeless at any given point in time (National Institute of Mental Health, 2005). In a 2007 survey performed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, of the 23 cities surveyed, 7.9% of the homeless population of individuals in a family suffers from some type of mental illness. Additionally, 22.4% of the homeless individuals in this survey have a mental illness (Mental Illness and Homelessness).
Between 150,000 and 200,000 individuals with schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness are homeless among the 744,000 homeless population (total homeless population statistic based on data from a 2005 national survey). These 150,000–200,000 individuals are equivalent to the population of such cities as Dayton, Ohio; Des Moines, Iowa; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Providence, Rhode Island; Richmond, Virginia; or Salt Lake City, Utah. At any given time, there are many more people with untreated severe psychiatric illnesses living on America’s streets than are receiving care in hospitals. Approximately 90,000 individuals with schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness are in all hospitals receiving treatment for their disease. The New York Times reported that in Berkeley, California, “on any given night there are 1,000 to 1,200 people sleeping on the streets. Half of them are deinstitutionalized mentally ill people. It’s like a mental ward on the streets” (Homelessness: Tragic Side Effect of Non-Treatment).
These are a lot of statistics for a paper, but it was important to me to include them because it just shows how big of an issue it is and that we need to take action. Especially for the homeless people that have mental disorders because they might not know what is going on or how to help themselves.

Nathaniel is suffering from schizophrenia which is a biologic brain disorder; schizophrenic patients show some characteristic symptoms including delusions, hallucinations or disorganized speech (Boostani). The illness affects about 1% of the world’s population. Persons with schizophrenia have hallucinations and sometimes disassociate feelings as if they are someone they are not. I have had one experience with a person who had mental health disorder. He was telling me he was in world war one and that the world was ending. It was about a two hour conversation about all these things that I knew weren’t true. After a while you start to question if the world is ending and all the things he had told me where going to happen.
The idea of a specific relationship between homelessness and schizophrenia was first formally expressed in the scientific literature in Germany. Studies of homeless populations have suggested that the onset of mental illness, particularly schizophrenia, usually precedes the onset of homelessness (Timms). Typically the onset is around the age of eighteen or early adulthood. The best treatment for schizophrenia according to Dan Aune, (LCSW), is medication; Aune states that they are not good candidates for talk therapy. They are however, good candidates for low level support groups; which are groups made up of a cohort of similarly diagnosed persons. They benefit from routines, safe environments, and connectedness to helping people (Aune).

There is no known single cause of Schizophrenia, but there are many links to some of the common denominators that are prevalent in sufferers of this illness. People who have an individual in their family with Schizophrenia are much more likely to suffer from this
affliction than those who do not, which would indicate that there is a predisposed genetic relation. Some of the environmental impact aspects that have been linked to Schizophrenia are doing psychoactive drugs during the teenage years, parents having kids at an older age, trauma
or abuse during childhood, extremely stressful or traumatic experiences during their lives anytime, malnutrition or exposure to toxins/viruses in the womb. (Mayo Clinic)
Paranoid Schizophrenic sufferers may often deny attempts to provide treatment options suggested because they many times believe that what they believe is real indeed and the current laws that are in place protect them to make that decision, unless they actually do
something criminal. So, because of these laws protecting these sufferers, often a sufferer may go untreated indefinitely. When a paranoid schizophrenic sufferer does decide to receive
treatment or when the sufferer does something criminal and is forced to address their illness, there are limited proven remedies to offer to the sufferer. Some of these treatment options may include shock treatment, medication, vocational skills training, counseling, or admission
into a Psychiatric Ward where the sufferer will remain to be administered any or all of the above, until they can be deemed sufficiently treated and no longer a threat to themselves or
others. Unfortunately the facts remain that the sufferer of Paranoid Schizophrenia has a lifetime illness to address that can be a rollercoaster of ups and downs and never fully treated,
but may be manageable with diligent therapy, counseling, medication and the help of a support group and/or family. (Howd, 1)
Paranoid Schizophrenia will be a worldwide problem until our medical industry improves dramatically. Poor individuals like Nathaniel will continue to suffer and lead a life of diminished opportunities and ability to pursue their potential, gifts and dreams. Hopefully sooner than later the necessary breakthroughs in this field are achieved to free these sufferers of this affliction of the mind and spirit. Until then we can only be optimistic that those sufferers will get the best treatment available and that the affects can be as manageable as possible.

Lopez writes about the meaning of friendship and how important one’s impact can be on a struggling soul. Friendship is used to describe a relationship with cooperative and supportive behavior between two or more people. This relationship consists of trust, knowledge and affection/care for the significant other. Steve takes this chance of making a friend as an opportunity to use this story for work. Soon to find out Steve realizes this guys isn’t well; he has schizophrenia. He decides this is a priceless story and the public thrives for stories like this.

To make this story perfect he must gain trust with Nathaniel before he can dig deeper for more details of this man’s life. “This bond just gets stronger with time; the trust between the two people grows and so does the attachment (3rd paragraph dgreetings.com).” Steve uses music to connect even though he knows nothing about this subject, but by showing interest in his music the situation becomes more comfortable quickly. Steve has put himself in a tight situation with this friendship, because of Nathaniel’s mental illness. His schizophrenia affects the brain most commonly as auditory hallucinations, paranoia, delusions, or disorganized thinking with major social dysfunction. This is the most significant factor in their relationship and it affects it greatly. This unexpected friendly relationship turned into an unbreakable friendship that will last for years because of the bond that has formed. Friendship is one of the strongest relations you can have, and these two men have formed a priceless friendship. Steve showed the world that friendliness is something everyone should think about daily.

@kritanya.lambert
For a major portion of this blog I am in agreement with the author. I am a little unsure of the claim “diminished potential gifts and dreams,” and “sufferers of this affliction of the spirit. Is the author saying that Nathaniel has no potential? Lost potential? Nathaniel has grasped onto his dream simply by playing music on many different and available instruments. He surely can’t be the only person out there with a mental illness who has bettered himself, right? Perhaps his hardships and ailments caused him to develop his talents even further—rather than diminishing his potential.
I am in agreement with the majority of the author’s reason and arguments. The author says, “Paranoid Schizophrenic sufferers may often deny attempts to provide treatment options suggested…current laws that are in place protect them to make that decision, unless they actually do something criminal” this allows the mentally ill person to make their own choices, but sometimes intervening may save a person’s life.
As a more drastic example, a man was off his medication, had schizophrenia, and killed two men. The article states, “Had Weston been consistently on medication, odds are two lives would have been saved, and a third spared legal and mental limbo” (Barber) he would have been “competent enough” to know what he was doing, but no one could force him to take his medication. Now he may be forced to take them to stand trial for murder and go to prison. The article goes with stats such as: 40% of 3.5 million people in America go untreated with schizophrenia or bipolar disorders, the number of crimes committed by the mentally ill estimated at 4.3 percent of America’s homicides each year, and that the reason is no effective drug treatment and psychotherapy are available yet (Barber). If this man was required by law to take his meds, before the shooting, would it even have happened?
If the country were to agree with what this author is saying, the law would allow someone to make the decisions for the mentally ill person when they were no longer capable, it would perhaps save some heart ache. As Steve Lopez says in The Soloist, “Mental illness…arrives like an unexpected storm…” (Lopez 242), something such as mental illness is not planned. A family would want to do anything they could for their mentally ill family member, but because of the law that person’s rights make it impossible. Does this have reason beyond civil rights? Is there no limit to how much suffering can be caused before help can be forced on a person?
There are a couple of sections that the author writes that I can not particularly agree with. To quote her, “until our medical industry improves dramatically” I don’t have any problem with what she is trying to say, but I think she means the “medical research” instead of the industry. To define ‘research’ by the definition of dictionary.com which means, “Diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc..example: recent research in medicine” (Dictionary.com). Research must continue and improve in order to help those afflicted with this illness. The author also mentions that mentally ill persons have, “affliction of the….spirit.” Nathaniel had no affliction when it came to playing music, his dream to play was strong. How is his spirit inflicted? I don’t believe that this generalization is supported, if there was anything that did not seem to be inflicted it was Nathaniel’s spirit! Throughout The Soloist, Nathaniel shows that there is hope out there for the mentally ill and it was his spirit and talent that saw him through the illness.

@kritanya.lambert

First of all, I like were you have taken this aspect of mental illness. The explanation’s of the causes, the treatments, and how the world of homelessness is suffering from Schizophrenia are very thorough. I agree that Schizophrenia can be caused by genetics and/or from the environment around them. Such examples are their childhood, traumatic events, and viruses as said before by Kritanya’s source. Schizophrenia I think is really a tough disease however to help “cure”, however. The disease really is different for every person and there are different degrees of affects on a person through Schizophrenia. It will be tough to help the mentally ill without affecting their behavior as a whole I would think. In the future we may generate an amazing medicine. Which would surely be nice, but how can it help every person the same way? Everyone has a different degree of mental illness with schizophrenia. So maybe the medicine will work for some and that is a start. Probably the most effect way to help this disease is to show “care” and get them to be comfortable around their fears and discomforts. There is no set way of doing this action but as long as these people are cared for and showed that they can come back and be a very productive citizen in this world. They may be tremendously improved over an amount of time. This is almost exactly what Mr. Lopez has done with Nathaniel. He showed a sense of support and “caring” of this individual and helped him find his way that he can be a part of this advanced world. Nathaniel found that he can conquer his disease and leave his past behind.

But as you said it is hard to help these people suffering under this disease when they don’t want or care if they receive help. It may be an entire rollercoaster of ups and downs as you said and some may never receive full help. But one thing is for sure. These people need help and we need to give the ill a reason to why they should be helped. Why should we just sit around and see it get worse right before our eyes? We need to do something and like you said maybe a miracle one day will happen and a medicine will be formed to help stimulate their brain without affecting their natural emotions. The future is tomorrow and the preparation for the future is today. And someday there will be a better way to help.

@siera.mattix

The media does not affect the number of homeless people being helped. “The federal government simply doesn’t have the resources to solve this problem (Steven, Manning).” Yes, it may make small differences, but as a whole, without the resources and finances needed from the government, it is just a hope, not a reality. People are largely influenced by a feel good sensation that they are making a difference, which in some cases may be, but even media attention will not get the entire population of the United States involved in this one problem area.
Sierra Mattix also state “His feats and faults are exploited for the world to read, as well as prove that homelessness and mental illness is a very real problem.” Homelessness is a real problem, and yes mental illness can be one of the reasons of homelessness, however there are more significant reasons that need to be addressed first. “16% of homeless are mentally ill (Mattix).” This is correct, however she failed to mention the whole picture of who the homeless are. “39% of homeless individuals are under the age of 18. 65% are males. 42% are African American, 39% white, 4% Native American, and 2% are Asian. 22% of homeless people are victims of violence. Veterans make up 40% of the homeless population, while 65% have addictions. Finally, 25% of homeless people are homeless because of a loss of a job (NCH).” People fail to realize that homelessness is a larger problem than just mental illness. There are larger problems such as age, gender, ethnicity, violence, veterans, addictions, and employment as stated by the NCH, that make up more than just mentally ill individuals. If we truly want to make a difference, focus on the higher percentages first, therefore a larger difference will be made.

@kritanya.lambert
Cortney Hammerland
U.S 101-11a.m
Kent Davis/Mike Fox
March 3, 2009

Kritanya,
I really like your essay. But the first sentence is kind of wordy, making it confusing. I like how you make it a point to say that it is a predisposed genetic relation but is it only a genetics factor and triggered by surrounding factors or are there other ways of it developing, is there proof that schizophrenia is only genetic? Are these people the ones who are providing treatment or are they resisting treatment in your second paragraph? It almost sounds as if it could go either way, and what do they believe is real? The wording is confusing and makes your point hard to understand in this paragraph.
I like how you brought in the treatment options for these patients. I looked up some of these options and found the cruelty and I thought it was interesting how doctors thought volts of electricity, inducing convulsions on vomiting would make their conditions less intense. I looked up lobotomy and found that to be even more interesting because there were two ways of going about the procedure. The first method is where the doctor would drill through either side of your forehead near your temples and nearly disconnect the pre-frontal lobe from the rest of the brain. The second was called the ice pick method in which the doctor would roll back the eye lid and tap an actual ice pick up through that eye socket to reach the pre-frontal cortex and then would swish it all around. This was done through each eye socket to ensure the extreme behavior would be lessened. There were a few cases where patients made a full recovery from this procedure with help. These people had to re-develop their motor skills such as feeding themselves, dressing themselves, language skills have to be relearned as well as countless other things we do every day without thinking about it. Despite few releases, most of these patients didn’t get the attention and care needed to make the full recovery. This is because of the ever growing amount of people admitted to the hospitals. The staffs were extremely outnumbered so in the end most lobotomy patients laid in bed and had everything done for them because there wasn’t enough staff to spend the amount of time it would take to re-teach everything to these people and release them.
Other treatments that were used that I had looked at were bleeding in which large amounts of blood were removed from the body because it was impure or evil. Many people died from this as well as from the cold water treatments. These water treatments were brutal because you were wrapped tightly in a sheet and then submerged in extremely cold water until it caused the patient to pass out. This could have easily caused hypothermia or pneumonia. Asylums also used isolation rooms. This for the patient would be misery because they were in a small room all by themselves sometimes in the dark, listening to the voices in their heads and to the screams of others down the hall. They were put in isolation because of anti social behaviors or for disorderly contact.
Turns out that most of the staff members were afraid of patients because of violence. Could you imagine being surrounded by people that have unpredictable personalities and set offs.
I really like where your paper is going and it is interesting but it’s kind of general with facts linking them together. Maybe you could talk a little bit more about what Nathaniel dealt with like Thorazine a medication that made his surroundings a blurry mess. You could bring up what may have personally triggered Nathaniel and why. What keeps them from seeking further treatments?

@sarah.ralls
I think it is interesting that you say that once you invest certain amounts of time into someone you become attached. I think that takes a certain person. Not everyone is capable of that kind of emotion. So I don’t think that that it is a completely true statement. I do not understand why you state that it is hard to fulfill someone’s wishes or to keep promises. It’s simple, why would you make promises or fulfill wishes that you wouldn’t be able to make happen? It’s a choice, you can choose to fulfill wishes and make promises, just make them reasonable. Also why is it a problem to become emotionally attached to someone? I understand there are ramifications by getting involved with someone like Nathaniel but I think that by becoming emotionally attached to someone or something strengthens the relationship. It makes it easier for people to trust, for example Nathaniel. Yes it was only supposed to be a couple articles, but when you become consumed by something like Nathaniel’s situation, you are driven to show how amazing you think it is to other people. I just think Lopez was so captivated by Nathaniel’s situation that he wanted to share it with as many people that he could make possible. I do not think that he was expecting what had happened next. He was completely surprised when people sent him letters back saying that they wanted to help, especially when they said they wanted to send Nathaniel instruments. Back to the statement of becoming attached, even if you just read a column about someone, and you’re not actually around them you can become just as attached as the person who is writing the columns.
I do agree that Nathaniel became attached to Lopez. I believe that at first he did not want to become attached and he didn’t want to rely on him. It was great that Nathaniel finally had someone to trust, but I do not think that it made things a lot better and that is because of his disease. His schizophrenia blew up normal arguments ten times more than needed. I think the reason Nathaniel felt like he didn’t need help, wasn’t just because of his disease, I think it also had to do with the fact that he was comfortable where he was. I think the idea of being in a place like Lamp scared him because he would be around people all the time and when he would have to leave his room he was scared people were going to steal his things, where as when he lived on the streets he had his cart, which he watched and carted around everywhere he went. Nathaniel has also been let down before, by his father, so I think trusting people is a little different for him. It’s difficult for people like Nathaniel to trust people when they have been let down before especially when they have a disease like schizophrenia. It takes a very strong person to take on the responsibility of helping someone put their life back together.