As soon as once more, he was within the psychiatric ward of L.A. County jail, the final stage in a repeated cycle that had led from a promising new begin to creeping irrationality or a sudden break from actuality, then homelessness, then arrest for trespass or disorderly conduct or public indecency.
It was 2021. After 15 years of futility, unable to achieve by the cloud that enveloped him and let down by a psychological well being system that would do no higher, his brothers and sisters shared their experiences with The Instances, realizing so many others have been going by the identical recurring nightmare.
The story, printed that November, left John Maurer going through a hopeful however unsure future. Tales like his don’t actually finish.
However now, after two years of dogged work by his sister Sarah Dusseault and a group of psychological well being advocates, Maurer’s has taken the very best flip. On Valentine’s Day, he checked out of the locked psychiatric facility in San Bernardino County that had been his residence for 2 years. After a 90-minute drive, he stepped out of a van on Stanley Avenue in Hollywood to start out a brand new part of his life.
Tall and barely stooped with buzz-cut hair and sporting an open black sweatshirt over an NBA T-shirt, Maurer broke right into a smile when he noticed Dusseault ready with a Valentine’s reward within the driveway of Bel Air Visitor House, a 32-bed board and care facility.
John Maurer is comforted by his sister, Sarah Dusseault, on the board and care residence in Hollywood.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Instances)
After an extended hug together with her brother, she helped the 2 interns who had accompanied Maurer carry six plastic luggage of belongings to the second-floor room he’ll share with a roommate.
“Do you wish to see your rest room?” she requested. “See you’ve gotten your individual.”
Then he was summoned to the entrance workplace for consumption. The workplace clerk went over the home guidelines, paged by a sheaf of papers for him to signal and peppered him with questions, some superficial and others deep.
“Have you learnt your Social Safety quantity?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re listening to voices?”
“I hear a variety of voices.”
“Do you’ve gotten any hallucinations?”
“No. I see shadows typically. Generally I really feel just like the radio stations are speaking about me.”
“How about emotional?”
“Um, effectively,” after an extended pause, “I misplaced my freedom earlier than I got here right here. That turned me to be emotionally depleted.”
“Do you’ve gotten issue functioning?”
“No, I perform pretty effectively. What made me gravely disabled was that I couldn’t afford a roof over my head. I didn’t actually have a tent. Now that I’ve a roof over my head, I feel I’m OK.”
In an apart, Maurer volunteered a self-assessment.
“This final arrest, it modified my life,” he mentioned. “I wish to say I wasn’t arrested. I used to be rescued.”
The primary day had gone effectively. Dusseault deliberate to enroll him subsequent within the Hollywood Clubhouse, a gathering spot for individuals with psychological sickness run by her pal Kerry Morrison, the founding father of Coronary heart Ahead, a nonprofit that advocates for psychological well being system reforms.
“That is an finish of a interval,” Dusseault mentioned reflectively. “It’s additionally the start of reconnections each to households and group.”
Underlining the enjoyment of the day was exhaustion from the lengthy and attempting journey that led as much as it, a saga of determined kinfolk navigating a psychological well being system bedeviled by roadblocks and inconsistencies and, at key moments, brightened by devoted public servants.
Sarah Dusseault, left, spends time together with her brother, John Maurer within the backyard on the board and care residence in Hollywood.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Instances)
“At completely different events, you simply encounter these angels who’re phenomenal at their job,” Dusseault mentioned. “They’ve a mountain of individuals to attempt to assist, however they only do their greatest.”
After he had languished that six months in jail on bench warrants associated to 2 indecent publicity instances, a decide lastly acceded to his household’s lengthy expressed want to have him positioned beneath conservatorship, a authorized standing by which somebody — typically a public guardian — would assume management over his life: the place he lived, how he spent his cash and what medicines he took. On this case, Dusseault took on the huge accountability.
The subsequent two years of her life present that even individuals like Dusseault — who has sturdy connections in Los Angeles politics and a deep understanding of the psychological well being system — face a relentless battle to get their family members the right care.
Whether or not her story could possibly be a mannequin for others, with out such a background, Dusseault is just not certain.
Her first step was the seek for a facility that might settle for Maurer, a jail inmate with greater than 15 prior arrests and a registered intercourse offender at that time in a deeply psychotic state.
For weeks, Dusseault corresponded with a care transitions liaison on the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, beginning with an e-mail authorizing her to “search placement in a locked long run care facility.” However the search went nowhere.
The transitions liaison emailed again that she had made referrals to seven locked amenities, however “at the moment we don’t have any acceptances.”
Three weeks later she emailed once more asking whether or not Maurer had been ordered to register as a intercourse offender.
That wasn’t essentially a deal breaker, however within the competitors for scarce locked beds, it could possibly be the deciding issue.
John Maurer stands exterior his room.
(Dania Maxwell/Los Angeles Instances)
Dusseault turned to her private connections, of which she had many, having served as aide to a Los Angeles council member, a mayor and a county supervisor.
Assist got here from her pal Morrison, who instructed a locked facility that she knew accepted intercourse offenders. The one drawback was it was within the metropolis of Highland, 60 miles away.
“At that time I’m conservator. I’ve to agree,” Dusseault mentioned. “I simply wished him out of jail. Something that mentioned, ‘Sure,’ I used to be going to take.”
Sierra Vista Behavioral Well being Middle was all the things she hoped for, with a nice facility and a caring employees. Nonetheless, it was tough. The drive for visits was about 90 minutes every approach. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing lockdowns in nursing amenities, she typically wasn’t allowed to see him in any respect.
They talked each couple of days. On every go to she gave him a handful of change for the pay telephone.
After a 12 months, she may see a distinction, and so may the employees at Sierra Vista.
“They have been saying he is able to be transferred,” she mentioned.
On the time, there was nowhere to switch him to. The primary selection, a step-down facility with enhanced providers for these leaving locked care, was shortly dominated out. Maurer’s legal file made him ineligible for all however a handful of step-down beds. He must be on a ready record.
Dusseault and a caseworker began phoning board and care houses, the following stage down on the care hierarchy. Operated in both single-family houses or residence buildings, they supply meals, 24-hour supervision and drugs administration. However they battle beneath an outdated funding mannequin that has compelled many to shut lately. Free beds are scarce.
Dusseault and his caseworker went down an inventory, on the lookout for a mattress.
“It felt like chilly calling,” Dusseault mentioned. “ ‘Hey, do you’ve gotten a mattress?’ Given his legal background and background of homelessness, he wasn’t essentially the most aggressive applicant for these locations. We weren’t getting any response.”
As soon as once more, Dusseault’s pal Morrison got here up with an answer. Morrison had a long-standing relationship with Galina Samuel, proprietor of the Bel Air board and care, the place she provides a weekly Bible examine class.
Samuel provided a mattress and walked Dusseault by the appliance for county psychological well being help that might permit his caseworker from Wesley Well being Facilities to stick with him.
The ultimate hurdle required dogged work — a mixed effort of the caseworker and relations to rebuild Maurer’s official id — Social Safety card, beginning certificates, driver’s license and revenue verification — all misplaced within the switch from jail.
After two weeks at Bel Air, Maurer obtained a go to from The Instances to be photographed. He was in an upbeat temper and readily described his routine of every day walks, AA conferences and actions similar to taking part in “Household Feud” with different residents.
Requested how he favored being there, he lower off the query along with his personal.
“Free?” he requested. “It feels good. I don’t wish to mess up once more. I’m not going to mess up once more.”
He appeared dispassionately into his personal story of dependancy, panhandling, paranoia and homelessness.
Two years earlier, his consent to inform his story was mumbled in phrases solely Dusseault may interpret. This time it was succinct and clear: in order that others “may see that homeless individuals have been actual individuals.”
Not like his sister, Maurer has little question what others may study from it: “unconditional love.”
“Sarah went all out, heads over heels for me,” he mentioned
It could be unimaginable to untangle the numerous influences in Maurer’s story. Did Dusseault’s political connections give her a bonus in in search of to turn into her brother’s conservator? Would she have discovered placements for her brother with out the assistance from her community of psychological well being advocates? Did the story in The Instances make a distinction?
Dusseault doesn’t have the solutions however attracts from them one perception.
“I work lots on this house,” she mentioned. “I advocate on this house. I’ve made a ton of friendships. It’s nonetheless troublesome for me to assist my brother. It takes a variety of analysis, a variety of trial and error.
“I’m utterly compassionate to relations who simply hand over. We have now to make it work higher.”
