Family's Plight: 'I Just Gave Up'
by Louis Llovio (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
A Chesterfield County mother and son who were living in abject filth despite several visits from county representatives have been moved out of the house as a mental health agency and volunteers help them clean up the home and get on with their lives.
The 41-year-old mother and her 24-year-old son suffer from severe mental health issues, depend on medication and have lived in the home for years.
“At some point, I just gave up,” the son, Zachary Schoolcraft, said Tuesday. “Between dealing with my situation and my mom’s situation, (I figured) I’d be better off if I killed myself or better off in prison. Then it would all be over.”
The condition of the home, which is near Jefferson Davis Highway in Chester, required workers to don hazmat suits and ventilators to start cleaning it last week, said Eric Branch, owner of Heaven’s Touch Landscaping, who volunteered to lead the cleanup.
Branch said the home was filled with mounds of garbage, emaciated animals and piles of human feces.
The floor in Zachary’s room was covered with garbage, and his mother was sleeping on a lawn chair on a back patio. There was no running water, so bathing was sporadic.
Branch said it will take at least six months to clean the house and make it livable.
The issues facing the Schoolcrafts, their caseworkers say, illustrate what happens to many people who suffer from significant mental health problems and are unable to get the help they need to transition back into society after bad episodes or hospitalization.
In too many cases, they say, people who are mentally ill are left to fend for themselves.
The family has been living in a nearby hotel since caseworkers with New Pathways Youth and Mental Health Services discovered the home Thursday.
The caseworkers with New Pathways, a Richmond-area mental health support agency, say the Schoolcrafts’ living conditions were brought about by a cascading list of troubles that they were unable — and unprepared — to deal with.
Both suffer from bipolar disorder, severe depression and several other ailments .
The family spoke in concert with their caseworkers Tuesday in the hope that publicizing their story could raise awareness of what some people with mental health issues are dealing with. Zachary did most of the talking as his mother, Michelle, who is getting back on her medication, sat nearby.
Zachary, who has more than a half-dozen scars on his left arm from where he cut himself, has been hospitalized in the past for suicide attempts.
His mother has tried to kill herself in the past as well. She has been institutionalized five times, by her count, this year.
New Pathways was alerted to the house and the family last week after Zachary’s probation officer came by to speak with him.
Zachary has spent time in jail and is on the sex offender registry for an incident that occurred when he was in his teens.
But the probation officer was just the last of several county employees to visit the house after neighbors complained repeatedly about its condition, and that has caseworkers at New Pathways concerned.
“The system failed this family,” said Rebecca Kidd, who works with adults with mental health issues and is the Schoolcrafts’ caseworker.
Maurice E. Morgan Jr., CEO and program director of New Pathways, believes that county workers have a moral responsibility to call organizations like his when they run across people who are obviously suffering.
“What bothers me is that this is not the only family. It can’t be,” he said. “No one should be left to live like that.”
The county Health Department has at least four complaints on file and the zoning department has taken Michelle to court for household trash in the yard.
The family also said police, animal control and emergency medical technicians visited the home at one time or another over the past couple of years.
Ashley DeBaise, a code compliance specialist with the Chesterfield Planning Department who dealt with a complaint about household trash and a sofa in the yard, said Tuesday that she only saw the house from the outside and was unaware of the condition the Schoolcrafts were living in. DeBaise said she’s pointed residents toward services before.
Jack Watts, environmental health manager for the county Department of Health, said a worker didn’t see the inside of the home but would have acted if he had.
“Normally, if we come across a situation like that, we will contact other departments to see if there is anything in the works,” he said. “As human beings, we have to tell someone.”
County spokesman Don Kappel would not discuss specific incidents at the house because of confidentiality, but said “several county departments have responded to situations” there in the past.
Kappel said that in general terms, the county will address issues with individuals when the need arises and involve the requisite departments — social services, mental health, building inspectors or others.
Because those situations require confidentiality, the county’s role can go unheralded, opening it to criticism that it did not do enough, he said.
“It’s always easy for people to say that and we are constrained from providing information to counter that because we’re not allowed to discuss it,” he said.
The probation officer who called in New Pathways did not respond to a voicemail.
While Morgan said it is easy to point a finger at individuals when a tragic situation like the Schoolcrafts’ emerges, he noted that the entire mental health system is constructed in such a way that it’s too easy for people to fall through the cracks.
Michelle, for example, was sent home from the hospital with information on how to get further treatment as well as people she could call for help.
But Morgan said her situation — health problems, mental health issues and limited financial means — leaves her unprepared to take even those steps.
He says the system — public and private — needs to do a better job of communicating about individual cases if it wants to improve how it deals with patients suffering from mental health issues.
For the Schoolcrafts, their story has a positive ending for now.
New Pathways is looking for a place they can stay long term as their house is rehabilitated, and the agency is working on getting them back on medication and access to the services they need. Caseworkers plan on spending up to 12 hours a week with them for the next year or so, working to teach them basic life skills.
They’ve also received new clothes — the first in many years — and meals at a Cracker Barrel. And Michelle is getting a manicure, pedicure and her hair styled today.
But resources are limited and the family will need to learn to function independently — they both want to get their GEDs and Zachary wants to buy a car so he can get full-time work.
A week ago, Zachary was a young man buried under an avalanche of bad luck. Now, buoyed by a chance to restart his life, he was asked why he stayed in the filthy house.
That’s simple, he said.
“I wasn’t going to walk away from my mom, so I stayed and did the best I could.”
The 41-year-old mother and her 24-year-old son suffer from severe mental health issues, depend on medication and have lived in the home for years.
“At some point, I just gave up,” the son, Zachary Schoolcraft, said Tuesday. “Between dealing with my situation and my mom’s situation, (I figured) I’d be better off if I killed myself or better off in prison. Then it would all be over.”
The condition of the home, which is near Jefferson Davis Highway in Chester, required workers to don hazmat suits and ventilators to start cleaning it last week, said Eric Branch, owner of Heaven’s Touch Landscaping, who volunteered to lead the cleanup.
Branch said the home was filled with mounds of garbage, emaciated animals and piles of human feces.
The floor in Zachary’s room was covered with garbage, and his mother was sleeping on a lawn chair on a back patio. There was no running water, so bathing was sporadic.
Branch said it will take at least six months to clean the house and make it livable.
The issues facing the Schoolcrafts, their caseworkers say, illustrate what happens to many people who suffer from significant mental health problems and are unable to get the help they need to transition back into society after bad episodes or hospitalization.
In too many cases, they say, people who are mentally ill are left to fend for themselves.
The family has been living in a nearby hotel since caseworkers with New Pathways Youth and Mental Health Services discovered the home Thursday.
The caseworkers with New Pathways, a Richmond-area mental health support agency, say the Schoolcrafts’ living conditions were brought about by a cascading list of troubles that they were unable — and unprepared — to deal with.
Both suffer from bipolar disorder, severe depression and several other ailments .
The family spoke in concert with their caseworkers Tuesday in the hope that publicizing their story could raise awareness of what some people with mental health issues are dealing with. Zachary did most of the talking as his mother, Michelle, who is getting back on her medication, sat nearby.
Zachary, who has more than a half-dozen scars on his left arm from where he cut himself, has been hospitalized in the past for suicide attempts.
His mother has tried to kill herself in the past as well. She has been institutionalized five times, by her count, this year.
New Pathways was alerted to the house and the family last week after Zachary’s probation officer came by to speak with him.
Zachary has spent time in jail and is on the sex offender registry for an incident that occurred when he was in his teens.
But the probation officer was just the last of several county employees to visit the house after neighbors complained repeatedly about its condition, and that has caseworkers at New Pathways concerned.
“The system failed this family,” said Rebecca Kidd, who works with adults with mental health issues and is the Schoolcrafts’ caseworker.
Maurice E. Morgan Jr., CEO and program director of New Pathways, believes that county workers have a moral responsibility to call organizations like his when they run across people who are obviously suffering.
“What bothers me is that this is not the only family. It can’t be,” he said. “No one should be left to live like that.”
The county Health Department has at least four complaints on file and the zoning department has taken Michelle to court for household trash in the yard.
The family also said police, animal control and emergency medical technicians visited the home at one time or another over the past couple of years.
Ashley DeBaise, a code compliance specialist with the Chesterfield Planning Department who dealt with a complaint about household trash and a sofa in the yard, said Tuesday that she only saw the house from the outside and was unaware of the condition the Schoolcrafts were living in. DeBaise said she’s pointed residents toward services before.
Jack Watts, environmental health manager for the county Department of Health, said a worker didn’t see the inside of the home but would have acted if he had.
“Normally, if we come across a situation like that, we will contact other departments to see if there is anything in the works,” he said. “As human beings, we have to tell someone.”
County spokesman Don Kappel would not discuss specific incidents at the house because of confidentiality, but said “several county departments have responded to situations” there in the past.
Kappel said that in general terms, the county will address issues with individuals when the need arises and involve the requisite departments — social services, mental health, building inspectors or others.
Because those situations require confidentiality, the county’s role can go unheralded, opening it to criticism that it did not do enough, he said.
“It’s always easy for people to say that and we are constrained from providing information to counter that because we’re not allowed to discuss it,” he said.
The probation officer who called in New Pathways did not respond to a voicemail.
While Morgan said it is easy to point a finger at individuals when a tragic situation like the Schoolcrafts’ emerges, he noted that the entire mental health system is constructed in such a way that it’s too easy for people to fall through the cracks.
Michelle, for example, was sent home from the hospital with information on how to get further treatment as well as people she could call for help.
But Morgan said her situation — health problems, mental health issues and limited financial means — leaves her unprepared to take even those steps.
He says the system — public and private — needs to do a better job of communicating about individual cases if it wants to improve how it deals with patients suffering from mental health issues.
For the Schoolcrafts, their story has a positive ending for now.
New Pathways is looking for a place they can stay long term as their house is rehabilitated, and the agency is working on getting them back on medication and access to the services they need. Caseworkers plan on spending up to 12 hours a week with them for the next year or so, working to teach them basic life skills.
They’ve also received new clothes — the first in many years — and meals at a Cracker Barrel. And Michelle is getting a manicure, pedicure and her hair styled today.
But resources are limited and the family will need to learn to function independently — they both want to get their GEDs and Zachary wants to buy a car so he can get full-time work.
A week ago, Zachary was a young man buried under an avalanche of bad luck. Now, buoyed by a chance to restart his life, he was asked why he stayed in the filthy house.
That’s simple, he said.
“I wasn’t going to walk away from my mom, so I stayed and did the best I could.”
