According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. (43.8 million, or 18.5%) may experience mental illness in a given year. Currently I serve as a court appointed attorney for persons with mental illness facing civil commitment proceedings in the state of Massachusetts. Based on my experience, this is what it is like to be an attorney who represents persons who are indigent, mentally ill, and being held in a psychiatric hospital against their will. Rich people who are mentally ill may be treated as delightfully eccentric while quirky poor people are written off as a public health crisis. For this reason, I feel good about my work helping mentally ill clients navigate the court system, particularly on the rare occasions when the court system sets them free.

Source: Huffington Post January 15, 2018 00:45 UTC