More service cuts for the vulnerable
My father-in-law comes over two mornings a week to watch the
kids while my husband and I work. He's very good with them, and they love their
Grandpa John. It is a gift beyond measure that they have been able to spend
their first years in his care.
The sky was darkening on a recent Tuesday morning, so I put
the kids in the car and went to pick John up at the bus stop so he wouldn't
have to walk and get drenched. The rain had just started when we met him a
block from the stop. His head was down, and he didn't greet any of us as he
climbed into the car. He simply started listing the things that were going
wrong. He seemed not even to hear my older daughter as she chirped her hello.
John suffers from bipolar disorder. He has managed his
condition for years with the careful attention of one who ruminates obsessively
on details. Accessing the resources he depends on--housing, health care, food
stamps--is a full-time job. With the help of a gifted counselor and a finely
tuned cocktail of prescription drugs, he has been able to maintain some degree
of stability. But change, understandably, is a source of incredible stress.
