No Country for Old Men with a plot twist ✝️ @p82home • serving families affected by serious mental illness with @GeeslingMatthew • cowboy fast-draw
Phoenix, AZ
Joined December 2020
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A THREAD 🧵 HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The day Decarlos Brown Jr. crossed paths with Iryna Zarutska on a NC light rail train ended in tragedy. Minutes later she was dead.
This was not an isolated event. It was the outcome of decades of broken policy on serious mental illness.
The IMD Exclusion is one of the quietest rules in Medicaid law yet it has fueled homelessness, incarceration & tragedy for decades. This thread traces how we got here & why it must end.
I’ve been advocating for 15 years and I’ve never seen such an honest and reflective piece from a peer in the “nothing about us without us” movement. Worth a read.
“There are reality checks we need to be honest about. We are a lovely community; yes, we are victimised more than we victimise but when we are psychotic or drunk or whatever, we can do terrible things not only to ourselves but to those we love more than anything and to people we don’t even know and in those circumstances our autonomy and freedom, while important, sometimes matters less than the need to keep us and others safe.”
open.substack.com/pub/graham…
Deborah Geesling retweeted
Michelle Dewitt tried to get her son into a mental health facility, but there were no beds. She petitioned a court for involuntary commitment, and a hospital held him for 14 days before releasing him back to her care.
With no other options –– the family dropped him at a homeless shelter. She later saw him walking the streets.
August 22, 2025 –– he boarded a Charlotte train without purchasing a ticket.
Psalm 37:10-11
In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.
I haven’t watched a baseball game all season. But in the last two days, my husband schooled me on both teams in the series. So now I’m a Brewers fan, and he fell asleep on the couch 🫠
Deborah Geesling retweeted
In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a convict fakes insanity to escape a prison sentence, lands in a psychiatric ward, and leads the patients in rebellion against the nurse who runs it.
It won 5 Academy Awards. It also became a powerful piece of propaganda the deinstitutionalization movement used: the asylum as prison, the patient as hero, the cure as escape.
A generation came away convinced that mental illness was noble resistance and the asylum an instrument of oppression.
Today the U.S. has fewer than 40,000 psychiatric beds. More than half are filled through the criminal justice system. The number of mentally ill homeless people is the highest on record.
The movie ended. The patients are still outside.
Deborah Geesling retweeted
YES! Can’t wait to read “All in Your Head”
“… how disability activism, deinstitutionalization, romanticization of the mentally ill, and the anti-psychiatry movement (with its accompanying anti-medication agenda) have ended up harming the very individuals they propose to help.”
Deborah Geesling retweeted
Really excellent list of 11 things APA could be doing that would mateeially improve the lives of our patients- unlike DSM6 which will improve only the profits of APA.
I would add just 1 more: Fighting hard against chatbot harms to psych patients- eg promoting symptoms/addiction/privacy violations.
Psalm 37:8-9
Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
For the evildoers shall be cut off,
but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.
Deborah Geesling retweeted
Classic move in policy is to roll something out widely based on some small-scale sign of potential, but before any rigorous evidence that supports large-scale implementation (and some evidence against it). Doing this inevitably burns public dollars on something that’s ineffective at best and harmful at worst.
Over the weekend, Politico reported that a VA official told investors that the agency wants psychedelics in the hands of 2.1M veterans. They're not proven safe or effective, and the scant research is largely investor/enthusiast funded:
thedrugreport.org/2026/10/26…
My husband hasn’t practiced all year because he’s been taking care of me and my bad back. He still came in first place in the B bracket at the Arizona Gunslinger shoot last weekend. Way to go @GeeslingMatthew! #cowboyfastdraw #cfda
Deborah Geesling retweeted
Over the weekend, Politico reported that a VA official told investors that the agency wants psychedelics in the hands of 2.1M veterans. They're not proven safe or effective, and the scant research is largely investor/enthusiast funded:
thedrugreport.org/2026/10/26…
Psalm 37:7
Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
over the man who carries out evil devices!
Deborah Geesling retweeted
Did you know the federal government BANS states from using mental health block grants on inpatient care?
The Community Mental Health Block Grant sends states more than $1 BILLION a year to treat serious mental illness. It can’t buy a single hospital bed.
The U.S. has fewer than 40,000 psychiatric beds, and HALF are filled through the criminal justice system. The sickest end up on the street or in jail.
ciceroinstitute.org/blog/sam…
Deborah Geesling retweeted
🚨ATTENTION AMERICA: After losing in court, the homelessness lobby is QUIETLY asking Congress for $5.1 BILLION—an $800 million raise.
The push is on to get it into the spending bill before funding expires DECEMBER 11.
Per the National Alliance to End Homelessness, Congress should limit “the loss of overall funding for a state in any year to no more than 5 percent,” no matter how a state performs.
My son, who has schizophrenia, knows I advocate for people with serious mental illness but doesn’t understand everything my husband and I do. Tonight, before taking him home, he said about our work, “Mom, remember that there will always be someone more powerful, smarter, and better than you.” 🎯
Deborah Geesling retweeted
Dear Lord, please make it stop. We need competent people in these positions.
Deborah Geesling retweeted
This is a dangerous and frightening choice.
Please wake me up from this nightmare.
science.org/content/article/…
Deborah Geesling retweeted
Sounds like NIMH and its $2.2B budget is going to be in trouble, shirking a seemingly competent Deisseroth lab alum to lead for a different candidate that believes schizophrenia symptoms can be treated by a ketogenic diet
Please wake me up from this nightmare.
science.org/content/article/…