Unseen Struggles: 3 Real-Life Mental Health and Homelessness Stories

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Collage Podcast

Episode: Unseen Struggles - 3 Real-Life Mental Health and Homelessness Stories

Host: Feed My Sheep
Date: May 5, 2026
Location: Temple, Texas

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the hosts from Feed My Sheep share three sobering, real-life stories of women in Temple, TX, who are navigating the complex intersections of mental health crises, homelessness, and broken support systems. The discussion is driven by direct experience and aims to provide listeners with a raw glimpse into issues typically hidden from everyday view, urging greater awareness and compassion within the community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Reality Behind the Stories

• These are not isolated or exceptional cases; they're representative of what Feed My Sheep encounters “just today.”
• The hosts stress that these situations are not fabricated or exaggerations, but rather everyday occurrences in their work (A, 02:15: “We are not making any of these stories up… they just happen to be the stories we are talking about on this Tuesday.”).

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2. Scenario One: The Invisible Barriers to Mental Health Care

Timeline: [03:30] – [17:00]

• The Story:
  “YR”—a 38-year-old woman with deteriorating mental health—has become catatonic, seldom eating or interacting, prompting deep concern from her mother, Nancy (B), and the team.
• Systemic Challenge:
  She doesn’t meet criteria for emergency intervention (not suicidal/violent), leaving police (not health professionals) as the only resource for forced intervention.
• Hospitalization & the Unknown:
  Admitted to the ER via emergency detention, YR refuses visitors, leaving her loved ones locked out for both information and involvement (B, 05:31–10:00).
  • “They wouldn’t tell me anything. In fact, they told me they had no record of her even being there.” (B, 08:30)
  • After hours, with nowhere to turn, staff try to confirm her location. She’s ultimately discharged to a mental health facility, but HIPAA restrictions keep her fate a mystery.
• Problem Illustrated:
  Vulnerable adults with severe symptoms fall through protocol cracks. Even when taken to a hospital, they may be discharged alone, with few safeguards or communication with their support systems (A, 15:20: “Discharge, for a person like her, means… there's the door. Walk outside and you’re on your own.”).
• Notable Detail:
  YR, a sexual abuse survivor, may not have even received a rape kit before being lost in the system.

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3. Scenario Two: Discharged Into the Unknown

Timeline: [17:01] – [24:00]

• The Story:
  An 18-year-old woman, new to Temple, attempts suicide. She’s treated at a mental health facility for a brief period, then summarily discharged without family, resources, or a local support network.
  • Facility literally Ubers her to Feed My Sheep and leaves her after hours, despite it not being a shelter (A, 20:43: “They drop her off here after hours... Facility, brought her to Avenue G... we are not a place to discharge mentally ill patients.”).
• Hazardous Discharge Practices:
  Patients often exit in hospital gowns, with wristbands, IV ports, and sometimes without shoes, to nowhere and no one (B, 24:44: “I can’t tell you how many people I’ve greeted in the afternoon… in a green hospital gown... with an IV port in their arm.”).
• Safety Risks:
  She’s subject to criminal trespass by being left at a non-shelter property, must survive the streets, and relies on a visible knife for self-defense.
  • “She’s always very well put together… but always has a pocket knife, easy to grab, on her shirt collar.” (A & B, 23:49)
• Problem Illustrated:
  People are discharged to the street as soon as facilities exhaust their financial or medical obligations, regardless of safety or outcome. The criminal justice system is left to handle health crises.

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4. Scenario Three: No Right Door for Treatment

Timeline: [25:00] – [34:00]

• The Story:
  A 35-year-old woman is hospitalized after a miscarriage due to domestic violence and is in end-stage liver failure from alcoholism.
  • Barred from a liver transplant until she completes addiction treatment, but no program will accept her due to her medical condition.
  • Option: Seek (unavailable) rehab, or go on hospice and die.
• Catch-22 of Rehabilitation:
  “She needs to go to rehab because she's an alcoholic... She can't get into rehab because her liver is failing.” (A, 31:33)
• Systemic Outcome:
  Multiple facilities are contacted statewide, but none can or will take her—despite her willingness to get clean for a second chance at life.
• Problem Illustrated:
  Medical and mental health systems are not set up for high-need, high-risk individuals—those unable to “fit the box” often go untreated until death.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Relentless System Gaps:
  • “What more could she do? She was at the one place that could help her.” (A, 34:53)
  • “Broken. Exposed to the elements. Exposed to all kinds of awful scenarios.” (B, 38:28)
• Contrast With “Normal” Hospital Discharges:
  • “I’m not sure I can find me a scenario where... there’s not a way that they keep me there until somebody comes and picks me up because I got insurance or whatever.” (A, 38:35)
  • Story of a non-homeless man accidentally released from VA, which triggered a large-scale family and community search, contrasting with the lack of safety nets for the women in the main stories (B, 39:27–42:38).
• On Troubling Mindsets:
  • “Oh, they just need to hit rock bottom.” (A, 48:48)
  • “In our world, some people that we deal with don't get the luxury of finding the bottom of the pit. Their life gets ended before they even get that opportunity.” (A, 49:36)
• On the Purpose of Sharing:
  • “We're just hoping... shedding a light on the complexity of what is going on in this world.” (A, 49:59)
  • “If you have the answer to all of these scenarios, let us know, because you are a gojillionaire and you’re going to be super rich if you can solve this.” (A, 51:04)

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |---------------|------------------------------------------------| | 03:30 | Scenario One: YR's mental health crisis | | 14:09 | The challenge of hospital discharge | | 17:01 | Scenario Two: 18-year-old discharged to street | | 24:44 | On patients being discharged in hospital attire| | 25:24 | Scenario Three: Woman with liver failure | | 31:33 | Rehabilitation catch-22 explained | | 39:27 | Contrasting hospital discharge experiences | | 44:09 | How newcomers to Temple are often “brought” | | 45:59 | Typical vs. marginalized discharge experiences |

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Episode Tone & Conclusion

• The hosts speak directly, sometimes with frustration, but always with compassion and an urgent sense to bear witness to unseen struggles.
• They refrain from easy answers, instead calling for awareness and “pondering” by the community.
  • “There must be awareness in the community. Maybe there is. I just don’t see how I could not have grasped until you see it day in and day out.” (A, 47:16)
• The call to action is not legislative or prescriptive but humanitarian and neighborly.

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Final Reflections

• These three stories underline a system that, even with the best intentions, often fails those most in need—especially when mental health, poverty, and trauma intersect.
• Listeners are invited to recognize the human cost of these systemic deficiencies and to care enough to seek understanding and perhaps action.
  • “Hopefully… you’re going, ‘I had no idea that that could be possible.’” (A, 51:31)
• The episode closes with requests for prayers—both for the people living these realities and for those trying to serve them.

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Summary for Listeners

If you haven’t listened, this episode provides a rare, heartbreaking window into the real-life barriers and dangers facing those with mental illness and no support. It challenges easy assumptions about homelessness or treatment, exposes painful failings in systems of care, and urges compassion and increased community awareness as a first step toward change.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Hey, we want to welcome everybody to another collage podcast. Hope you are doing well out there and you are having a great day. We are here at Feed My Sheep. Physical location is in Temple Texas. Something we do. It's a little discussion that we're kind of just to put words out there to kind of give people a glimpse of the world that we get to look at every day which I learn is different than the world that a lot of people get to see every day. Not better, not worse. It's just different. And so we're going to kind of continue with our discussion. We've been talking about a young lady getting help and we have several, several young ladies. We won't say any of the particular stories but. But in of themselves. We're going to explain the three different scenarios of these young ladies. No names. Okay, so no names. We don't. It doesn't matter. We're not even going to speak about institutions that are involved in this. But for people out there, this is. Because that's before we even started this. These are independently completely dawning task. If you just had one of these, people wouldn't even believe these scenarios. I don't think in temple if we describe these and we are going to talk about these scenarios and I will promise you this, Nancy, vouch for this. We are not making any of these up.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Correct.

[B]

I wish we were.

[A]

I wish we were. We're not making any of these stories up. They just happen to be the stories we are talking about on this Tuesday.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Are these stories? They are. They're high end in our normal stories. Like these are a whole lot.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Not outside of the realms. Not like I'm going up. That can't possibly be true. No, these are not like somebody just won the lottery. No. These are just fairly normal scenarios.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay, so what we are going to do we will start with one story and a brief one. So with the YR story people out there, if you've been listening, she's somebody that we've talked about and with her family and this and this and this and this. Okay. So she plays into this. She is just one. And then we're going to put all three. I'm going to ask you to tell me the stories, Nancy. So tell me about and use some of the. Why are yesterday. What happened to her and where is she at today?

[B]

Okay, yesterday. Well, let me give an overview of maybe the last week.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I've been going by there and checking in on her and taking her food. She's in her Apartment she has been consistently staying there as I've been taking her food and checking in on her. She has not been speaking. She's either been asleep or she's pretending to sleep, but she's not speaking. And I've, you know, kind of shaken her a little bit just to make sure she's okay, you know, and not has, you know, something hasn't happened to her. But so she's either, she's either sleeping or pretending to sleep. She has been eating the food that I've been taking over there. Like I'll, I'll pick up an empty container and drop off a full container. So I know she's eating, but she's not interacting like the normal yr would interact. So been texting with her mom and you know, just kind of voicing my concerns. And her mom is concerned as well. So that brings us to yesterday. I encouraged them finally to come and check in on her because mom had said, you know, we're considering coming. And so I was like, yeah, I really feel like that's a good idea because I can't break through to her and I don't, I don't know what to do. So I was, I was sort of at a loss as well. So mom and dad came back to town yesterday to check on her and she was a little bit more responsive to them. She said a few words, but she was still very confused and not normal, not acting like her normal self. She still had not showered and they were also just concerned about her generally.

[A]

So

[B]

in, in our world, we can't just say, you know, call 911 she's not acting right. We need her to be taken to the hospital. If there's not something physically wrong, like if they're not having a heart condition or, you know, some kind of medical, physical, medical problem, 911 won't take them place someplace. They won't take them to the emergency room for a, for a psychological or, or an emotional or a mental crisis. So the options that we're left with are to call the police. And sadly, the police are the ones that deal primarily with psychological or mental health issues in our community. So she called them and they did an evaluation on her and agreed that she was in crisis. And so they did what's called an emergency order of detention, which essentially takes if, if they can justify it by the symptoms that the person is displaying or, you know, the behavior that they're displaying, if they can justify it and come to the conclusion that they're either a threat to themselves or others Then they can do this emergency order of detention and basically take their rights away from them as a person and make the decision for them that they need to go seek medical help. And then they call the ambulance to come and pick them up. And that process sort of starts from there. But without that emergency order of detention, there's really no option unless the person is willing to go voluntarily for an evaluation. And she doesn't have the mental capacity to even understand what that means at this point. So they came and picked her up, they took her to the emergency room for an evaluation, and mom was there with her. Mom and dad were there with her initially, but they came in through the front door of the emergency room and yr came in through the back door via ambulance to the emergency room. So she was taken from the ambulance to a waiting area that's actually in the hall of the emergency room because there wasn't an actual room available when she got there. But waiting in the hallway, you can still have visitors come back there and see you. She told the doctors and the nurses there that she did not want to be visited, so she didn't want any visitors, so they would not let mom and dad back to that area to see her. So she mom texted me and was keeping me informed and telling me about all of this stuff and hoping that I could do something to help her, you know, at least keep track of what was happening, get reports, you know, anything like that. And I was tied up with another client in the afternoon, so I wasn't able to stay on top of it during business hours. I think it was maybe 6:15 by the time I got to the emergency room to check in on her. So social workers leave at 5 and that's really been my inroad to finding out what's happening with clients in the emergency room or wherever. And so I didn't have anyone within the social work department that I could communicate with. And so therefore I didn't know. I couldn't find out what had happened. They wouldn't tell me anything. In fact, they told me they had no record of her even being there. So I at that point am assuming, okay, they've either transferred her to a different facility, potentially one of the mental health treatment centers in Temple, or they've discharged her out the door essentially. So I started basically driving around looking for her, you know, if I could find her. I called mental health treatment facilities in Temple and they won't tell you, they won't confirm or deny that that someone's there because of HIPAA rules. And I understand that, but at the end of this exercise I think it was pushing seven. I finally just texted her mom and said we'll have to pick this up in the morning when I can talk to the social work departments and see what I can find out. She since has texted me, mom has texted me this morning that she did find out that she was discharged to a mental health treatment center here in town. So I've reached out to that social work department via email this morning to see if there's any additional information that I can provide to them and then also to just let them know that I'm still her case manager, I still can help with transportation or whatever services that she needs. And my contact information is changing in less than two weeks. And so I made sure that they knew what that was. But at this point I still don't have confirmation about her state like how she's doing, if she's okay. I can't get any information and neither can her mom.

[A]

Okay, scenario one, everybody out there you can. So why are you was in a mental crisis not doing well. Your avenues of. So in it let's put she was not threatening to kill herself, right? She was not making verbal threats to kill herself. She was not making verbal or acting upon threats to harm anybody else, right? So in it so then we can go the crisis team or whatever, they're not going to come in because she's not doing these things. So she's not a harm to herself or to others in that sense. So then even if you know she's having medical difficulties mentally, it's okay, we're not licensed professional. But you go, this is not normal. Even her family, that's not right. She's still in our world a grown 38 year old adult that can say the sentence, I don't want to go to the hospital, I don't want to go to treatment. And the story ends right there, right? If they want. Okay, so then we got that established. So then out of it you realize crud, we got to do something because she's not well in the world that we are in. Okay. And I the police do a magnificent job. They are tasked with doing a whole lot of things that is not what they were hired to do.

[B]

Right?

[A]

So your then next task is we call the police because they will come and they can meet with this person. Okay. Mind you, they are police officers. Their job is to keep law and order to society. But they can come and do this where you can say yeah, I think they need some real help. Then they can get taken to a hospital regardless of if they want to go at that moment. Okay. So then that catches us up. So everybody knows that's pretty simple in our world. Not simple to do, but pretty simple to understand the explanation. Okay. So she gets taken to an er, and this is where it gets a little bit hazy because there's HIPAA and these things we get. And I'm not trying to violate that, but then a whole other set of rules start coming into effect once they're in a hospital.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay. Which I get. I mean, I sort of get. But hey, if the adult says, I don't want to talk to anybody, they don't talk to anybody. And you can't get past the curtain of the hospital, even though you were the ones that helped bring the person there.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay. And why it is so. And then we'll move on to story two and three, because we're not going to. So. Okay, the why it is even so difficult from geography for all of you out there. So where this young person was located that she got transported from her house, as she would know it, or her apartment. Okay. Let's say three miles as a crow flies.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, so three or four miles. Okay. For a person who has no means of transportation, anything of that. Why do I even mention that? Okay. The reason and she was concerned and why she would drive around the area is if there's no room at the end, for lack of a better term, or the doctor's like, there's nothing we can do for her, they can discharge them.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And so then unbeknownst to anybody, and discharge for a person like her means there's the door. Walk outside of it and you're on your own.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

Okay. That's what discharge means for us. Okay. Most of us, like when I go to the. Whatever, I had surgery, you can't leave until we see that you get in a car and that you are safe. Okay, Whatever. This discharge, why Nancy was driving around in the neighborhood, would mean in the evening time, possibly. The concern was she gets let loose on the street, which she has before.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

From this place. So we know this is something that would occur. We do know that. Then she gets disoriented. Last time she went the opposite direction from where her normal location to stay was, and we ended up finding her week or two weeks. Two weeks later. Two and a half weeks later, something like that, in the bushes on a whole other side of town.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She didn't know. She got discharged because they said there's nothing wrong with you. She walks the other direction, finds a place to stay in the bushes and she's holed up in the bushes. Luckily police officers today was seen that one Jim, that's scenario one. We've got somebody mentally ill in a terrible situation. And add this to the caveat deal acknowledge through a verbal affirmation of nodding her head. Have you been sexually abused?

[B]

Right.

[A]

And she said yes. So she went to the hospital under those not well supposed to get a rape kit. Don't know if she did or didn't so I'm not saying she didn't. That's why she's there and then out of it. So we now think she might be in a another facility. Okay. Don't know because I get hipaa we don't know. We don't know what facility, we don't know where. We're hoping to make some headway on that but ready and then we're going to come to the next person is if that facility decides economically she is not making us money. Not that they would ever do that. Oh okay. But they do. Okay, that or our services are no longer needed by her. She's not going to kill herself. Nothing we can do. They discharge her from there same way, right? Okay, same way. Maybe, maybe because I've had some. Maybe they'll bring a van, drive them over this direction and drop them off here. Even though we're not a shelter or have a place for people to stay. So I will quickly say scenario two similar okay, we're just giving you a glimpse of what goes on in this world. Scenario 2, 18 year old young lady who's here in our world now that I don't know, let's say a month, several weeks ago, whatever. She's new to our area, she's not from Temple, she has no family in Temple, she has no connections to Temple. But somehow roughly in our area like maybe north of Waco, maybe somewhere around in here. I don't know if it necessarily occurred in temple but she made an attempt on her own life.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay, so she acted upon. So she was a harm to herself and acted upon that. Okay, so she tried to take her life. She goes to a mental health facility here in our town and they treat her for whatever the two weeks or whatever it was and she's out of time. Okay, and why would I even bring that up? 18 year old young lady with no family here doesn't even know Temple Texas, has no transportation, has no family, has no friends, has whatever family is in North Carolina and North Texas. Mom's in North Carolina, which she can't go to because. Not an option, just leave it at that. And that is not an option because of abuse and such like that. That's her family. So, hey. So she goes to this facility because she has tried to take her life. She has mental issues that she has dealt with. With body issues.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

She has had not, well responses to those kind of things in her life. She's done with their program, their system, or their economic value to them. And she's discharged now. They got her an Uber and brought her over here. Facility, brought her to Avenue G. Again, let me say this one again, okay? We do not have an overnight shelter here at Feed My Sheep. We're open from nine to one. We are not a place to discharge mentally ill patients.

[B]

Right.

[A]

They drop her off here after hours. Keep in mind, anybody on the property, because we got to work with the police in the city, Anybody on the property after 2 o', clock, if they're not doing normal, if we don't have something special going on, they're criminally trespassed, they're committing a crime.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But still we got facilities that are dropping people off here all hours of the night.

[B]

Mm.

[A]

Okay. Even counting the jail system, we get Bell county inmate, we get inmates that will be dropped off here. But so this young lady, she gets dropped off here and good luck.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

18 year old young lady on the street here. Scenario three, that's number two. So scenario one is she is going to be dropped off, she is going to be discharged. It's just when and where they're going to drop her off.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Number two, she got discharged. She would be the first to say she is not completely well. She needs help, she needs a place. And so in this one, she knows she's not well. She's not from this area. She's already. I don't even know how, how she has this amount of sense. She's already waiting tables at a restaurant during the day. She's working right now. I watched her walk by.

[B]

She's working.

[A]

She's working 100%. 100% because she needs money to survive. I believe her. Okay, so anybody out there is going, oh, homeless people are all. But I believe her in that, her sobriety, that she is clean at the moment. She has had issues in the past with addiction. I do believe.

[B]

I do too.

[A]

I believe it right now that she is staying clean from that. How? I couldn't tell you, but she is. And I give her props for that. She is working, walks Herself over there to the restaurant, keeps herself clean, works a full shift, and then figures out how to survive on the street another day.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Scenario three. So the note, I'm just. These are just. We're putting it out there so for people. Do I have a solution to that one? Absolutely not.

[B]

And I do. I do think it's important. Not that it's. Not that there's ever a person that is prepared to be out on the street without any sort of resources from a mental health facility. Okay. But she's beautiful. 18, 5, 4, 110 pounds.

[A]

If. Yeah.

[B]

No. No way of defending herself. No way of. Like that. Like, the streets are harsh.

[A]

How does she sit? How do you see her?

[B]

She's always very well put together. She's.

[A]

If you see her sitting out on the street, tell me. She's sitting over across the street, underneath the shade tree. Okay. Nobody else around. She doesn't interact at all.

[B]

Right. Right. She's kind of a loner.

[A]

She always has on her shirt a

[B]

knife, a pocket knife.

[A]

Open.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Easy to grab. It's always on the collar of her shirt.

[B]

I wonder if she had that when she was released, like from the hospital, from her facility that she. You know, I mean, I don't. I guess as a medical transporter, it's. If I were a medical transporter or an Uber driver or whoever, picking someone up from a place and taking them and dropping them off at another place, and I. If I saw her, I would be like, no, I can't.

[A]

Okay. You'd like to believe that would occur. And this is nothing. This is not. This is just. Unfortunately, this is what? No, I can't tell you how many people that I have greeted in the afternoon that are in a green hospital gown.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And they ain't got no shoes. Wonder where they came from. They got a white bracelet and a red bracelet that says fall risk and all their patient identification on, because they never take that off.

[B]

And some of them even still with an IV port in their arm.

[A]

Okay. And that's true. That's true. Anybody? So whatever. So that is legit. Saw it with my own eyes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Saw it with my own eyes. So. Okay. Had to call EMS on that one. So whatever. Scenario three, briefly tell us this one. No names. This one is astounding.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Tell me this.

[B]

So sad. So I guess it would have been Thursday. Thursday of last week. Received a call from the police department about this client. She was at the hospital, had been admitted because of a domestic violence situation that resulted in a miscarriage she was beaten so badly that she miscarried.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

She has liver failure that's currently happening because of alcohol use to the point where she's jaundiced and she's in very, very poor health. Young, 35, 35 years old. Yes. Has children that have been taken from her. The man that she was with, her significant other that had abused her, kicked her out of the house, wouldn't let her back in. So the police were contacting us to try to help figure out what a next step would be. The doctors won't put her on a liver transplant list, which is what she needs. She needs a liver transplant. They won't put her on a list until she goes through treatment.

[A]

It makes sense a little bit.

[B]

Okay. So that's really what we were scrambling to try to find at the end of last week was a solution for her treatment.

[A]

Okay. And then keep in mind, so if she doesn't receive a liver transplant or go to treatment program, what is option two for her?

[B]

The doctors are going to put her on a hospice list and in hospice to die.

[A]

Okay, that's right. Okay. So option one is she goes to rehab and tries to get clean from alcohol addiction. And. And she agreed to that, correct?

[B]

Eventually, ultimately, yes. I think the crime victims liaison with the police department was able to talk her through several different scenarios, and she ultimately did. Did agree to go to treatment, and that was on Friday.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So we started looking pretty heavily at different treatment facilities, and we're recording this on Tuesday.

[A]

So, like, give you the span of time. So let's say four days ago, five days ago, whatever. So options for this lady, she's. She gets the tar beat out of her. Horrific. Has a miscarriage, goes to the hospital, which she needs working with the police. So mind you, person one.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is working with the authorities to try to figure out how to find this perpetrator who did this thing to her.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Okay. Scenario three. Okay. She's working with the police. I mean, this guy beat her up. She's working with the police. She's doing the things on that front.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So take that card off of anybody. Oh, they're trying. In our system, they're trying to work with the things that they have. She goes to the hospital a, she gets kicked out of the only place she knows to live. So she's homeless. So that is Thursday and Friday. She, I'm sure, had a pretty rough Friday. Hey, you had a miscarriage. So that child you were carrying is no longer inside of you. You don't have a place to Stay. I'm sure she at some point cared about the person that she was with. So. So this person, this relationship, it is no more. And you've got to go to treatment, which is a good thing from the outside, but still, that's a whole lot to hear. And you've got liver failure. And if you aren't able to go to treatment or choose not to go to treatment because it's an adult, they can make their decisions. If you choose not to go, you will be put on hospice. And hospice means that you are terminal.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay. That's gonna. They're gonna make you as comfortable as we possibly can while you pass into the next life.

[B]

Yeah. And I think you and I would think, okay, that's an easy choice. Treatment or death. Definitely would go for treatment.

[A]

Like to believe so.

[B]

Yeah. And she felt the same, Was on board with treatment.

[A]

Okay. Ready? So then you'd go. Why'd you even include this one on the list of complexity as you go? Okay. That one seems pretty simple.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Is go to rehab, get clean. Get on the list. New beginning.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I would not disagree. Okay. On the front, just before we started doing this, the reason we've included. So to see how complicated and how difficult this world is, here's a new scenario for her. She's agreed to go. I would like to get clean. She hopes to have a new lease on life. Okay. Let's pretend. Which is possible, that it could work for her. Like a new beginning of life could begin.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Let's put this in the mix. Okay. With the. Our entities here at Feed My Sheep that work with rehab programs. There is not one. There's not a local one that will take her.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Because of the medical condition, which is her liver failure from alcoholism. Let's just chase down this crazy trail.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. She needs to go to rehab because she's an alcoholic. Her body is failing because she is an alcoholic. She wants help from alcohol and realizes she can't do it on her own. Okay. And she can't get into rehab because her liver is failing. And they cannot take. Take her because of her medical issues. And you go, well, that's absolutely crazy. And where we sit right at this moment, we have contacted numerous facilities. Not saying. We've contacted every single one in the state of Texas. That's beginning. Because I am not prepared. And we are not prepared as an organization to not turn over every possible stone. Because the answer. If we can't find somewhere for her to go that will take her for rehab, what is the scenario?

[B]

Death.

[A]

Death she doesn't make it right. Okay. Unless we can somehow in this jacked up system that we are left to meddle in Scenario two. I love her to death. She is strong willed. She's got so much potential. Unless something occurs, the scenario that will play out for her in all probability is death.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Nowhere to go. She's, she cried out. So she, she's had eating issues and won't eat or this or that. Or makes herself throw up. Gone to try to get help for that. She knows she's not well. She's trying to get help. Trying to take her own life. Okay. And so you go, okay. Scenario three. Unless something happens in this crazy system, it's not going to work for her. Number two ain't gonna work for her. And strong. Yeah, strong, strong, strong. I'm not saying it's not gonna work. I'm saying the system is not set in such a way to help her succeed.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Scenario one. Okay. What's her scenario gonna be in probability? Probably death.

[B]

Probably death? Yeah.

[A]

She can't get help. There's, it is to look at. I'm not predicting predicting that, but looking at the system, there is limited options to find help.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Even as we're recording this on scenario one, there is a probability, we just don't know it yet, that she has been released from this mental treatment facility. And she could be walking on the street right now in the rain.

[B]

She could be.

[A]

We don't know.

[B]

Right.

[A]

We can call till we're blue in the face and they will go up. Don't know if we've had that patient. Don't know if they've ever been here. Okay, I get it, Hippo, but you'd go, she was at the one place that could help her. What more could she do?

[B]

Right?

[A]

What more could she do? Number two, she's at the place that could help her, that is in place to help her.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And they said now that's all we can do. Good luck. What's she supposed to do? Scenario three. She's at the hospital. She's at the place. You know, I'm pretty sure I mean that sarcastically. That she didn't want to get beat up to such a level that she has to go to the hospital. She's at the hospital. She did at least say, I'd like to get well and have another shot at life.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

She's at the place that could provide help and there's none to be had. All of this to just say nothing. I'm not attacking hospitals. I, I, I don't like I don't have an answer. Like I'm not sitting here and here's the answer. We just need you to just whatever, support this house bill, blah, blah, blah or whatever. I don't know. That's not the answer.

[B]

No.

[A]

All we're saying is I want y' all to see out there. There is some tragically sad things that are occurring every day in our community. People that are crying for help that cannot find it even when they try to go to the places that are called to provide it. And that's not negative to these entities. I get it. Whatever I sort, I don't know. I don't know what I get.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

On this. But I'm saying for all of you out there to simply hear this, three different ladies. Okay. Three different stories. Just today. This is just today. Not like we're, we're going back in the archives and going, hey, draw back this story from five years ago because that's all. That's a good one.

[B]

That's a doozy.

[A]

Yeah. No, this is just today. This is just Tuesday.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Or actually this was Monday. We're just starting Tuesday. This is, this is just Monday. And you take her where you take yr to the hospital to get mental health because that's what she needs. And you spend the rest of the evening driving around back streets and alleys trying to find out if they discharged her to the street.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We got scenario two. Who was discharged to the street.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Ain't even from this town. They drop an 18 year old girl off on this street and say good luck. Figure it out. And by the way, we just facilitated a crime because we dropped you off on property that you're not allowed to be on and you're not allowed to camp, but we just dropped you off and go camp and be on the street and be on property you're not allowed to be on. Good luck.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Broken.

[B]

Yes. Exposed to the elements. Exposed to all kinds of awful scenarios.

[A]

Everyone. Yeah, everyone. So all this to say is. A lot of us get discharged from these facilities very differently than other people. I'm not sure I can find me a scenario where I go to the hospital. Maybe it's coming up, I don't know. But where I go to the hospital and there's not a way that they keep me there until somebody comes and picks me up because I got insurance or whatever. They're making money on me. Yeah, I get it. I mean, so I'm just pointing out in this that's not how it always works.

[B]

Yeah. Interesting. Interesting sort of contrasting story.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Last winter. Oh, no, I guess it had to have been the winter of 24, so like December 24, because it was Christmas time in the evening on a Saturday night, it was super cold. I had a ring, my ring. Camera went off in my backyard and went out, out to check it out and see what it was. And there was a man in my backyard looking in my barbecue pit. I live about, I don't know, I'd say a mile from the va approximately.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember this.

[B]

But he had on a T shirt, some sweatpants, flip flop shoes, and it was cold outside. And a wristband. You could tell he had just come from the hospital. And he had a cap on that was a college cap. And it said, like, I don't know, whatever college it was, dad, you know, like Tarleton dad or something. I don't think it was Tarleton, but so you could tell that he. He was not experiencing homelessness, but also very confused. Said he was trying to find his daughter who lives near the meteor crater in Arizona, and. And he was hungry, which was why he was looking at my barbecue pit. So I called my son, who's a police officer and said, hey, you know, this man wandered up into my yard. He seems to belong to somebody. You know, what do I do? I won't give all the details of what my son had recommended initially, but ultimately he said, call the non emergency number at the police department and they'll let you know if they're missing somebody. So I did. And sure enough, his family had been looking for him for over an hour. The VA had put out this APB on him, called the police. The police were also looking for him. The entire, like, you know, I don't know, 30 people that were either related to him or called to action through the police department had been scouring the neighborhood to find him. Once I told him where he was, they came and the whole family showed up and they were so excited to have found him. He had wandered off from the va. He had been experiencing dehydration, I want to say, and just was very disoriented. Couldn't find his way back or didn't know what was going on. Just kind of wandered off. And they were just also relieved. Okay. Now, in contrast, we have these other people who don't have family, they don't have means, they don't have connections with anyone that would call the police. And if the police were even alerted to them wandering the street, it would be in a negative context.

[A]

Fair.

[B]

That would end up ultimately in some sort of, you know, criminal trespassing, you know, whatever. Sad. Aside from me hunting her last night, did it even make the radar? You know, maybe her mom would have joined me. I feel like she would have if she hadn't already gone back to her home, which is outside of this town. But there's no. There's no big family for them and there's no all points bulletin put out. They're just told to leave and they go. And they go with the shirt on their back or with their clear bag of belongings and their medical bracelet and they just go. Yeah.

[A]

Can't tell you how many people we got to say this, how many people that we come across here. Don't. It's not like people got to understand. It's not like homeless people are going, man, I'm going to go to temple. Because that's the mecca of homeless ville. No, generally somebody new. A conversation will begin. Now. Where am. Where is.

[B]

Where am I?

[A]

Where is Temple?

[B]

Yep. I was brought here.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

For a medical.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

Psychological.

[A]

Psychological. I was discharged from the jail. Mental health facility. Hospital.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Where is temple? Is it close to so and so? No. We're not anywhere near Oklahoma.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

We're not near North Carolina. Where's the shelter? It's full. Yeah, we don't have one.

[B]

We can give you a sandwich.

[A]

Give you a sandwich.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's a broken, broken, broken system.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

All this is not discouraging. It's just if you don't know, you would never guess right. Your point of reference to how every time you've walked out, you and your family, little one falls and they break their arm. Guess what? Y' all take them home because that's your kid. They ain't discharged on the street. You're not discharged on the street. Matter of fact, you're irritated sitting in the waiting room because they won't let you leave. You know, you can even tell them, I'll go on my own. I'm fine. No, no, we can't let you leave until we know that you're all right and somebody's there to take care of you. That's our norm.

[B]

Won't even let you walk out. Like they want you in a wheelchair. That's it. Yeah.

[A]

Until they see with their own eyes that you are safe in our world. That is not the case.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Discharge to the security guard. Security guard takes you out to the parking lot, tells you you need to leave the parking lot and be off the facility.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or you're out of money. Here's your two weeks. That's. I don't know. There's some billing stuff on the facilities that. Oh, that's all we can pay for. You're. Well, she has medicine. She was prescribed and she was there. Guess what? You can't get that. Mm. All of these. There's so much. So much mess. So all that is simply for just people to see. Three different stories that are today. We don't know how they're going to play out. We're not predicting, but there's. The gravity of the issue is big. I mean, it's real. Like, these scenarios are real and they're big and we don't know. I mean, as you're listening to this, I don't know what Wednesday holds for any of them. Yeah, we don't. And we don't know what new ones as we had who just got dropped off while we're doing this. Don't know. Go meet him at lunch and. But what do you do? So mine is the first step is there must be awareness in the community. Maybe there is. I just don't see how I could not have grasped until you see it day in and day out of what's going on.

[B]

And if there was awareness, how in the world could this continue?

[A]

Agreed. So then mine. This is my hope. The only reason we even do this, the hope is that humans are kind and they were just unaware of how severe and broken things are at the moment.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then when awareness becomes in the equation, it is no longer tolerable for a community to go. That's all right. She's 18. She's been homeless since she was 13. Good luck to her. Yeah. She's first one. She's mentally ill, you know, ain't worth fixing.

[B]

Or maybe if she experiences some hardship, she'll make better choices. I've heard that one a lot.

[A]

Well, yeah, whatever. This like the way I'm gonna go down this road. That's all. Oh, they just need to hit rock bottom.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm not sure how much more rock or bottom you could get. Them getting raped. I'm not sure how much more rock or bottom you could get than, huh, I can't eat or I'm going to kill myself. Like, I'm going to attempt to take my life. That's about as rock bottom as you could get. That's absurd. I hear that. Oh, yeah. Once they hit their rock bottom.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Then I'd also say, in our world, some people that we deal with don't get the luxury of finding the bottom of the pit. Their life gets ended before they even get that opportunity.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That's what I'm saying. Weren't lucky enough to find their rock bottom. They found the bottom of the casket. It's not the world that we were called to live in, you know. And to look and to see others. So out of that is just for you to ponder three different stories and to look and to see. We're just hoping nothing, whatever. Shedding a light on the complexity of what is going on in this world and the different scenarios. These happen to be women. We mentioned. It happens to men, too. We can go online. There will be men out there that have been discharged. Okay. Just the same as women. But just happen to have three women in these stories.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. In the sexual crime stuff, there is men just as well as women that are getting abused in horrific ways. So we're not picking. It's just not one gender or the other. It is all over. This happen to be the stories.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So don't think it's just a female issue. So that's that for you to ponder. And if you have the answer to all of these scenarios, let us know because you are a gojillionaire and you're going to be super rich if you can solve this. Because there's many communities that are struggling just the same. A health care system, no offense to it. That even itself. I don't see how they could say they're not broken.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Okay. I get it. But I also get there's a community that could come together. And just to say. And we saw that. And this is not all right here. Start that progression. So that is that. I hope you're having a good rest of your day. Maybe have something to think about and to ponder and to hear. Maybe you're going, man, I had no idea that that could be possible. That somebody could want to go to rehab, but they can't get to rehab because they need a transplant from the disease that they're trying to get cured from. And I would hope somebody's not out there so cold to go. That's what they get for drinking all these years.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's absolutely ridiculous. Won't even go down that road. But hopefully nobody's saying that. But anything else, Nancy Glover?

[B]

I don't think so.

[A]

I'm hoping Tuesday is not as complicated and difficult as Monday.

[B]

Agreed.

[A]

There's a lot of hours left in this day. So I have faith that we will be perplexed to our core before this day even ends. If I've learned anything here.

[B]

Yeah. Ask for prayers for the people that work here. Ask for prayers for the people that come here, those who have been and those who will.

[A]

Yeah, Agreed. So have a good rest of your day, and we will talk to you later.