Navigating the mentally ill away from jail

Navigating the mentally ill away from jail: As Billy Carruthers confidently walks through Savannah's Forsyth Park, the homeless residents do a double take. Most remember Carruthers as a mentally ill, homeless, drug addict who spent his day conning tourists to buy books, then using the money to feed his cocaine habit. Carruthers is bipolar and suffers from depression. It took many years of arrests and falling off his medication before he could kick his cocaine habit. "They look at me today, there's one thing, beyond a shadow of a doubt that they see. They see change. They see recovery," Carruthers said. "They say, 'Where you been? What happened to you?' That's what recovery is."

http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/21/navigating-the-mentally-ill-aw...