There are crisis-response units at places like Cambridge Hospital that bring help directly to people's homes. Outpatient clinics and day hospitals, social clubs and an array of other programs, meanwhile, try to fill perpetually forming fractures in the system. That does not mean there are no gaps remaining in the safety net. The most visible are on the streets, where statewide there are an estimated 2,000 homeless people with severe and persistent mental illness. But she insists she doesn't need it because she is an heir to the Rockefeller fortune.
Prisons are another place the mentally ill turn up in disproportionate numbers.
One study suggests that at least 1,600 inmates at state and county facilities suffer from major depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, while others suggest there could be many more. The Department of Mental Health compiles its own lists of those it wants to help, but can't right now. Some on the residential waiting list are homeless. Others are in hospitals or other highly supervised settings, ready to leave but without a home to go to, which creates a backup for those waiting to be admitted to a state hospital, private psychiatric facility and at every other tier of this intertwined network. But Hall was ready to leave nine months ago, and there are no openings for her at either a group home or a government-subsidized apartment.