Tony Mantor: Why Not Me the World
Jessica Ferguson : Brother in Crisis: A Family's Desperate Fight for Mental Health Support
Thu, 15 May 2025
Send us a textJessica Ferguson shares the deeply personal story of her brother's struggle with serious mental illness and how systemic failures led to his incarceration after being accused of a triple homicide when he should have been in psychiatric care.• Her brother had been stable with his mental illness for a decade before showing concerning behavior changes in early 2023• Despite three psychiatric hospitalizations within months, he was repeatedly discharged after 72-hour holds with no substantial care plan• Family pleas for help were ignored as healthcare providers cited voluntary treatment requirements and HIPAA restrictions• Only after being accused of a crime did he receive consistent psychiatric care• The jail system provides minimal mental health support compared to psychiatric hospitals• Families need healthcare proxy arrangements and better knowledge of resources before crises occur• Massachusetts lacks Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) options that could mandate treatment• Mental health systems must partner with families who know their loved ones bestIf you know someone with a story to tell, send them to TonyMantor.com. Tell everyone everywhere about Why Not Me, the World, the conversations we're having and the inspiration our guests give to everyone everywhere that you are not alone in this world.https://tonymantor.comhttps://Facebook.com/tonymantorhttps://instagram.com/tonymantorhttps://twitter.com/tonymantorhttps://youtube.com/tonymantormusicintro/outro music bed written by T. WildWhy Not Me the World music published by Mantor Music (BMI)
Chapter 1: Who are the guests and what is the focus of this episode?
Welcome to Why Not Me? The World Podcast, hosted by Tony Mantor. Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry. real life people who will inspire and show that you are not alone in this world.
Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? The World, Humanity Over Handcuffs, the Silent Crisis special event. Today, we're joined by Jessica Ferguson, who will share the deeply personal story of her brother's struggle with mental illness.
She'll take us through the challenges of supporting him, the events and circumstances that ultimately led to his incarceration, and the family's ongoing efforts to advocate for mental health awareness and reform. Thanks for coming on.
Yeah, no problem. No problem.
Can you give us a little background and what led your journey to supporting mental illness?
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Chapter 2: What is Jessica Ferguson's personal connection to mental illness?
So I have a sibling who has severe mental illness. And at the beginning of 2023, he's been very, he'd been with his treatment for the last, he's had it for 20 years, but I mean, so the last 10 years he's been stable and fine. In the beginning of 2023, we started to notice some changes going on. He was not quite himself.
Chapter 3: How did Jessica’s brother’s mental health condition change in early 2023?
And then just kind of navigating the system and, you know, trying to get him help, you know, the next three to four or five months or so. And just constantly being, you know, involuntary hospitalizations for 72 hours and left back out without any kind of involvement of the family or any care plan put in place. even though we're begging, please keep him. He's just not right.
And truthfully, you know, we were like, big question, Massachusetts is always, are they a harm to themselves or others? And of course, at the time, I'm like, of course, I'm going to answer honestly, like, no, I'm not afraid of him or anything. I mean, if anything, at that time, I was probably more afraid something was going to happen to him. Like he was hit by a car or something like that.
Like he wouldn't be paying attention. And he had odd behaviors at that point. He was walking around barefoot. So like I was fearing like, is he going to step on a nail or something like that? I don't know. But anyways, so goes through that whole process back and forth, back and forth, gets let out.
Ten days after his third hospitalization in three or four months, he's being accused of a triple homicide.
Wow. So what's happening now moving forward?
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Chapter 4: What challenges did the family face in navigating mental health care?
I couldn't tell you what happened that day, if he did it or not, or all I can say at this point is that he is accused of it. The silver lining is now they've given him help the past year. So maybe if they had done all of that back when we were screaming for them to do it, he wouldn't have even been in a position, meaning he would have been like in a hospital situation. to be accused of anything.
So I think that, you know, it's like Massachusetts, and again, I can only speak for Massachusetts, almost the only way to get them help is for them to get caught doing something or in trouble for doing something. Then they're finally like, oh, well, yes, he needs to be hospitalized. Well, yes, he actually needed that months ago. And when I told you that, he didn't want to listen.
So that's kind of the short version of my story.
That's a very tough situation to be in with a sibling.
Just looking back on everything. I mean, there's just so much leading up to it. Like, honestly, I didn't know. Like, I'm the older sister. I mean, some people, some family members are like the parents and they've been in it forever. Like, my relationship with my sibling was, I was his sibling. Seven years ago, our mother passed away. So I'm the oldest sibling. So I guess I'm taking on that role.
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Chapter 5: What were the consequences of inadequate mental health support?
And I was just learning as I go. First hospitalization, I think I thought, oh, they let him out. Doctors are the experts, so he must be fine. He's good. Like, of course they would let him out. You know, he called me on a Wednesday in the middle of the day. Come pick me up. Oh, OK. They're just letting you out.
That's I guess that's how it works, because that was my experience with hospitals at that point. I mean, I've gotten colonoscopies before and they won't let me drive myself home or let alone leave the office without someone physically coming up. You cannot take a taxi. You cannot take an Uber. They're letting my brother out. Okay, they know. Doctors are the experts, right?
And that's when I started to realize, you know, he gets home and my sister, she's like, yeah, he's not okay.
So what's his age now?
He is, let me do some math here, 42 right now. Okay, 42. So when did this all start? This happened in 2023, so he was 41.
What were some of the events and developments that led you to believe that he needed help?
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Chapter 6: How did the family try to get help and what barriers did they encounter?
The words my sister and I would use to another, he's just off. And the final catalyst for us to call our mobile crisis unit was she called me at like 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning. It was like he's taken everything out of his room. Many years ago, he's had other episodes, you know, again, this point had been about a decade ago.
He'd kind of gone through this like purging of all of his things, perfectly good things. There's nothing wrong with them. And so he completely emptied out his entire bedroom and was, you know, taking mattresses outside and just desks, everything out of his room. And when we asked him what he's doing, he's on winter cleaning. That point, I said, he was still at a point where he was agreeable.
I said, you know, why don't we call your care team and see, just have someone come out and talk to you. And he was fine with that. In Massachusetts, you have the mobile crisis to come out. The patient has to agree to it. Everything in Massachusetts is very voluntary. Like they won't let you, there's not a whole lot of like involuntary. So you have to have their buy-in. So at that point-
Sure, they can come. Like, you know, he's very agreeable at this point. And the mobile crisis unit clinician came out. At that point, it wasn't like, take him away. Or I wasn't saying take him away. I was like, someone just evaluate him. So they were going to evaluate him. Well, when the clinician got there, he kind of was like, I'm not ready to talk to them. took his time.
And then we kind of left him out, gave him some space, left him outside for about five minutes. And once we went outside to go get him, he was gone. And so then it turned into this like, well, where is he? Where is he? When the clinician saw that behavior, the clinician made the determination that he needs to go to, based on what I'm seeing, the little I've seen, he needs to go and be hospitalized.
So the clinician is the person that pink slipped him. That's what started it. And then even after that first hospitalization, he was still at a point mentally where he was agreeable or at least playing the game. And, you know, he allowed us to be part of the conversations with his clinician and his prescriber.
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Chapter 7: What role did hospitalizations and mobile crisis units play in his care?
We got on Zoom calls with him and his prescriber, and he was, you know, willing for us to have this be part of the conversation. Meanwhile, I'm also emailing the clinician because they're seeing him for 45 minutes on a Tuesday. And I'm seeing him all week. And so I'm emailing them and being like, just so you know, this is what we're seeing. We're still concerned. We don't think something's right.
And they were kind of like, okay, yeah, okay. And then it got to the point by March that he had determined, my brother had said, must have told the conditions, you can no longer speak to them. So then they were like, we hear you. But unfortunately, I am not able to speak to you about him any longer. So at that point, he kind of cut us off. And that's when it was steady decline down. So-
After that happened, when did you get involved again and trying to get some say on what needed to be done moving forward?
you know, March, I kind of like backed off. And my younger sister was saying, you know, he's annoyed at you being pestering and, you know, meddling. So I kind of backed off. I was like, all right, I'm going to give him some space. Like, and again, I'm not a medical mental health expert. I had no idea how to like handle this. I'm just trying to take my best guess at things.
I'm calling, we have a behavioral health fund. I'm calling them and they're telling me, oh, take him to this walk-in clinic. They can observe him. I'm like, I'm I don't think he's going to go for that. At this point, he's like turned off by anything that I have to say. Like I'm just a thorn in his side. I suggested to him as suspected. No. A friend of his suggested to him. No.
So he kind of just I would say by April, May, we're like just kind of like standing by being like somebody pick him up and take him to the hospital again. Like I don't know what else to do because it is hard to be like the one to pick up the phone and be like,
take my brother to the hospital i mean you don't want to be the bad guy or anything like that at that point like also like i had no idea what a rogers guardianship was or what kind of options there were other than this 800 behavioral health line that i've heard about and this mobile crisis unit that i had already called once before and at this point they had told me that he needs to agree to it so i i'm like he's not gonna agree to it so why am i gonna bother calling them again
So in May, the police ended up picking him up and taking him to the hospital on their own. I don't know exactly what happened, but there was some incident. We were like, oh, thank God. And it was kind of near Memorial Day weekend or so. He was there a little bit longer than just the three days. I think it had to do with like weekends don't count. And then you had a holiday in there.
I think something to that effect. And again, I'm not exactly sure. So I ended up being there a little bit longer. I didn't have any direct conversations with anyone at that hospital. stay. Again, at that point, I was kind of like, I don't know what to do. Like, he's bothered by me. His friend and my sister were probably a little bit more involved with that hospital stay.
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Chapter 8: What lessons does Jessica share about mental health advocacy and system reform?
Because at this point, like any money he could get his hands on, it was spent within before it even hit his pocket. And so by June 11th, I was driving by his house, and his stuff is outside again. He brought everything outside of his room. After the first time, I went and, like, retrieved everything, you know, out from the garage he'd put it in, wherever he'd put it around the house.
I had retrieved it all. He had taken his mattress back outside. Some of my belongings are outside, and I'm, like, one, irritated that my stuff's outside, and, like, what is he doing? And I was like, that's it. I'm calling, like, this is ridiculous. I called 911 and told them, like, listen, please come. Because again, that's what I thought you did. I didn't know.
It was either mobile crisis or the police. I don't know. So they came. He disappeared. They looked for him. And they got him again. And they brought him back to the same hospital he went to the second time. Again, there was very little communication with the family. And then we hadn't heard anything. And so I called. Like, hey, I'm just calling to see what's going on. I haven't heard anything.
And they're like, yeah, we're releasing him today. I'm like, I'm sorry, what? Like, yeah, we're releasing him. I was like, um, no, no, this is, and I go into this whole spiel about this is the third time, you know, whatever months we've already done this 72 hour whole thing. He needs to stay longer, like blah, blah, blah, blah.
And they're like, yeah, well, this is only his second time here at this hospital. So we can't keep him longer. And I was like, but this is the third time in a hospital. Like, I don't understand. And they're like, well, let me see what we can do. And I think, you know, listen, I've worked at customer service. They're just trying to talk me off the ledge.
So they got me off the phone for five minutes, call me back. And they're like, yeah, we talked to the doctor. There's unfortunately we can't, can't do anything. If you want to go to, and now mind you, this is the middle of my work day. I'm sitting in my car, like talking to them. They're like, if you know, if you want to file with the courts, you can, but you have to get a lawyer. I
I don't know anything about this. You're telling me this at the final hour that this is my option. Like, OK, thanks for nothing. I don't know. So I was like, I don't even know what to do with it. I don't know what you're what you're saying means.
So with all this happening, not knowing what to do, what were the next steps for you?
And so then my sister calls. My sister lives with him, with her child, who's young, elementary school age, begging them, please, like, don't bring him home. Of course, is he a danger to himself or others? And she's like, I mean, he's doing things that could be dangerous. You know, he's bringing tiki torches into our house. He's leaving pots on our stove and just forgetting about them.
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