Fix What You Can

Schizophrenia and a Lawmaker’s Fight for Her Son

By: Mindy Greiling

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

In his early 20s, Mindy Greiling's son, Jim, was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder after experiencing delusions that demanded he kill his mother. At the time, and for more than a decade after, Greiling was a Minnesota state legislator who struggled, along with her husband, to navigate and improve the state's inadequate mental health system. Fix What You Can is an illuminating and frank account of caring for a person with a mental illness, told by a parent and advocate.

Greiling describes challenges shared by many families, ranging from the practical to the heartbreaking. Greiling confronts the reality that some people with serious mental illness may be dangerous and reminds us that medication works - if taken.

The book chronicles her efforts to pass legislation to address problems in the mental health system. It also recounts Greiling's painful memories of her grandmother, who was confined in an institution for 23 years - recollections that strengthen her determination that Jim's treatment be more humane. Written with her son's cooperation, Fix What You Can offers hard-won perspective, practical advice, and useful resources through a brave and personal story that takes the long view of what success means when coping with mental illness.

©2020 Mindy Greiling (P)2020 Tantor

A Must Read for Families

This amazing beautifully written book is the story of so many that have children with mental illness. Mindy depicts the ongoing grief the mothers go through watching their child suffer and the frustration with a mental health system that is overwhelmed and broken. Im grateful to Mindy for her great service in the legislature and for writing this astounding book. It will help so many as it did me.

Thank you for sharing your journey.

Jim should share his story with others who have SMI as it will save lives.

Informative and moving

I chose a five star rating of this book as it is the most informative analysis of the current mental health crisis in the USA that I have read. The author was a lawmaker for many years and stood by her son, who lives with schizophrenia, as he navigated the disastrous pitfalls of the mental healthcare cobweb. The book is worth reading for this personal story as much as for the advocacy one. It’s incredibly moving! An extra feature of the story is that the author’s son also struggles with addiction which interplays with his schizophrenia in a heart-wrenching way.

Masterful mother’s telling of how it is

Every legislator needs to listen to this book and vote to reclassify serious mental illness as a brain disorder in order to fund research for medication that works without side effects. Mindy’s son snipped off his nipples for crying sake! I see parallels in my own situation caregiving my schizophrenic daughter.

Great story but a little preachy at the end.

Great story but the writer gets a little preachy at the end. I would recommend.