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Good
morning and welcome to the Earl Ingram Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
You can text us at that same number.
Good morning to you, Cardi.
How you doing, man?
Good morning to you, Earl, man.
I'm feeling great, man.
It's the last stand today, man.
Well, I'm not, you know, I just want to... This is the way I see it.
I'm going to do a regular show.
We've said our goodbyes on yesterday.
I want to go out doing a regular show, and that's what we're going to do.
Let's do it.
I've got a great guest lined up for you at nine o'clock.
But until then, our phone lines are open at 855-752.
4842, you know, there's so many different things that I want to talk about.
And it's amazing that I'm running out of time to do it.
But one of them is just, you know, the fact that we live in a nation that is so wealthy and yet people suffer and struggle in it.
My guess in the second hour is gonna be an attorney, Mr. Scott Harris.
He's going to join me in studio.
And this is a man who's accumulated a modicum of wealth.
And as he starts to enter into a different time of his life, he's decided to give most of it away.
And so, you know, if there was any guess I wanted to end my show with, it is a man who has accumulated some wealth, but he also understands that money is one part of life.
And, you know, instead of hoarding it, he's using it to make a difference.
in the lives of people.
So I'm so excited about having Attorney Scott Harris on at the nine o'clock hour.
But until then, parents are so desperate to get their children mental health care, they're giving up custody.
So I have a son, my oldest son is bipolar and schizophrenic.
And so I've told the story.
He was a 3.5 student at the university and out of the clear blue, he started showing signs of mental illness.
We had never seen any signs of that at all.
There was nothing that showed me that he had any proclivities to mental illness.
So at about the age of 20 years old.
Again, 3.5 student, he started, things started manifesting in him.
And so we went down this journey over the last, what 20, 20 years or so in watching him deteriorate to the degree that there was just not a whole lot of support and effort.
It wasn't because of a lack of effort.
We turned over every stone to try to find help for him.
But we live in a society that stress and pressure and other things are really driving and causing more mental illness than I think I've ever seen in my lifetime.
Or maybe, or maybe,
It's always been there and it's just being diagnosed more today than it ever was before.
But I was looking at this article and the title of it, parents are so desperate to get their children mental health care, they're giving up custody.
The severity of youth mental health needs intensified after COVID-19,
pandemic with more children exhibiting extreme behaviors.
You know, I noticed some of that in children in my 12 years that I spent in Milwaukee public schools.
You could see mental illness manifesting itself in children at very young ages.
And yet we have a society that can't deal with the mental illnesses.
that the population is suffering through and those numbers just keep increasing.
Let me read a couple paragraphs and then I'm gonna go to the phone lines.
Nina Richmond was desperate.
Over the summer, the 43-year-old mother had exhausted every avenue to find her teenage son and mental health care he badly needed as his behavior spiraled.
to an alarming and dangerous level.
The breaking point came as he began starting fires in the Des Moines home.
And Richmond couldn't help keep himself from smuggling in more materials to burn.
Faced with impossible choices, Richmond said she chose the best of bad options.
She gave up her custody of her son.
to the state.
It was incredibly hard to admit to myself that I was at the end of the road, that I could not do anymore as one parent trying to help him.
Richmond said I was just at the point where I could not do anymore.
There wasn't anything else to do there.
We just tried everything.
Richmond is among a rising number of parents and guardians who have relinquished custody of their children to the state in recent years as a last ditch way to seek out additional behavioral health services according to top officials at the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services.
Like Richmond, those families feel they had little choice.
Iowa's disjointed and underfunded system lacks a clear path to obtaining care for many troubled children.
This is without question one of those things that our nation is going to have to face either now or later.
The height of mental illness
The the fact that mental illness is pervasive in our nation the fact that there aren't enough psychologists and psychiatrists To deal with the mental illness This was right around Christmas in the city of Milwaukee.
There was a young man 24 years old who was trying to seek some mental help and
Of course, he's 24 years old.
He has no insurance.
There's no way that anyone, you know, that he can get help.
His family went to everybody they could to try to find help for this young man.
Couldn't find any.
The next day he's walking down the street with an automatic rifle.
and he's discharging it up in the air.
The police come and they tell him, put the weapon down.
Of course he's having this episode.
And so he fired at a police officer, struck one, and he wound up, you know, being killed.
24 years old, he went to get some help, military veteran.
He tried to get some help, but there was none available.
So what is our nation going to do?
You know, this is something that is pervasive throughout rural America, throughout every aspect of this nation and the world.
But our nation just doesn't seem to be able to handle it.
855-752-4842.
And everybody knows somebody who has mental illness, you know, and maybe, and maybe, you know, it hasn't been diagnosed yet, but it is pervasive in our society and something that has to be addressed.
Let's go to Jim from Brookfield.
Good morning to you, Jim.
You say what?
I say, here we are in 2025 and we are in the dark ages in regards to treating and recognizing mental illness.
It's a very serious issue that this country and society has just kind of ignored and tried to pinch a hole and just shovel off or ignore people that need help.
And I'm an older gentleman.
I have two daughters in my 20s, in their 20s rather.
And I'm hoping by the time they're my age or in decades to come that society will change and realize that we're all wired different.
Everybody is wired differently and has issues physically, but also mentally and mentally as much as physically.
And just as you said, Earl, we need more professional help.
Psychiatrists, you know, even drug therapy, whatever types of therapy, but.
Um, and it all starts with D. E. I recognizing that people are different.
So unfortunately we're going in the wrong direction, but I really hope by the time my girls are, you know, full full grown adults that society recognizes the issue and addresses it.
We've had Warren drugs, you know, we've had.
you know, gun control, whatever, but we need a war on mental health to really, you know, recognize and address
the issue.
You know, Jim, man, the thing about this that's that's so telling to me is they keep talking about people walking into schools and shooting up schools.
The person that walks into a school with a weapon and shoots up the school is mentally ill.
Hey.
Okay, a person that's not mentally ill doesn't do that, right?
So we've got all of this happening and yet at a time when we want to cut resources to mental health, right?
I mean, I don't, Jim, I'm not, you know, I'm only a lowly talk show host.
I don't get any of those things, man.
I really don't.
Hey, man, thank you very much.
Go ahead quickly, quickly.
Real quick, you know, instead of blaming the people for the gun, you know, the shooting, do something about it.
Address mental health rather than blame them.
Do something about it.
Hey, well said, Jim.
Thank you very much.
We'll be in touch soon.
855-752-4842.
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Your style, your smile, your peace mentality
All right, welcome back to The Earl Ingram Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842-855-75248-42.
Cardi is handling the music this morning.
So let me do this.
Let me read a couple of text messages and then we'll go back to the phone lines.
I'm talking about mental illness and mental health.
And as I stated, I've got a son who has been battling with
bipolar and schizophrenia for the better part of 23, 24 years, he's still here.
His life has been turned inside out and upside down and so has mine.
But I'm thankful that I was able to, you know, get him the help that he needed that at his lowest point, my son was walking in the street, walking into traffic.
And Jess was a horrific.
I had already prepared myself for, you know, his death because there just didn't appear to be any way that we were going to get out of that.
And I know I'm not alone.
So eight, five, five, seven, five, two, 48, 42.
So, so Tony says in our drive for efficiency, we have driven out empathy.
You know, and so, you know, when you, when you think about what people are going through, you never know.
And, and this is pervasive in our society and people need to start addressing it.
CJ man, you're up.
You say what?
Morning,
girl.
Uh, thanks
for taking my call.
Um, yeah, you know, that gentleman that you were talking about running around with the gun.
you know, faith-based organizations, Catholic social counseling.
So I think some of the increase in mental health has to do with the breakdown of the family and the lack of people looking to the church and touching with their faith.
I think the evidence, you know, for people
Certainly it's becoming more pervasive all the time, struggling with issues.
And right now, I don't know if you're aware, there's a Supreme Court, they're gonna hear a case today on kids and what they're facing in schools.
And so the lack of direction by parents in schools,
for these kids has been made cloudy by some of the stuff that we found out they were being taught during covid and
uh so so cj
it's a very important supreme court case today and it's for parents
so cj let me see jay let me say when you make a statement that that mental illness is is
predicated on what children are being taught.
It goes to show, man, that you really don't know what you're talking about.
Mental illness is not taught.
It doesn't come from anything that somebody teaches you.
I know I have a PhD and my son has been, and I've been grappling with it for over 24 years.
So, you know, clearly that statement, CJ, you know,
It has nothing to do with what somebody's taught.
You can't teach people to be mentally ill.
I
disagree.
Well, OK.
Have you ever heard of borderline personality
disorder?
ACJ, thank you very much for the call.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for the call.
Hey, Mary, how are you doing?
I mean, Earl, thanks for your address of this.
And, you know, family support is 105% of these people that are afflicted with mental illness.
It really has a biochemical basis.
I mean, you just,
you just heard him say it's from, it's
tall,
right?
Ignorance, but go ahead.
So I'm like you, I'm a family veteran dealing with lacking psychiatric treatment in our society.
And this news about releasing custody to the state of one's child.
It's, you know, I think it reflects the failure of the system to support families in accessing psych treatment.
You know, in my family experience after decades, I believe that the system supports a person's right to be ill rather than a right to treatment because it's a person to be danged.
dangerous to access psychiatric treatment.
In the medical world, if a person has a need, the hospital door is open, but not so with people with mental illness.
They have to be dangerous and not good.
Lynn, lastly, given, you know, your new chapter, I wish you the best going forward.
And thanks for all you've done for...
Hey, hey, Mary.
Hey, Mary, let me tell you.
One of the things that I'm going to do a podcast on is mental illness, because as you stated, people who don't know, right now, the only way a person can get help for being mentally ill by the system
is to exhibit that there are danger to themselves and others.
And to be able to have to prove that is almost impossible.
And so that way the society can wipe his hands, Mary, of the issue, right?
Yeah, it's really a family nightmare and we need some help.
We need things to change.
Thanks,
Mary.
Thank you very much.
I'm gonna do a podcast on it.
You can rest assured of that because there are people like CJ who don't understand.
They think they know.
You can't know everything, man.
You know nothing about mental illness.
855-752-4842 is the number you're tuned into the Earling Show.
We're gonna talk about this on the other side.
Hang on.
Let's go.
Maybe we can talk about revelations Three seven things Or maybe we can see a movie Or maybe we can see a play on Saturday Or maybe we can read and feel the breeze and listen to a symphony
Back to the Erel Ingram Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
855-752-4842.
You can text us at that same number.
Talking about mental health, mental illness, as Tony, as a community, we need to address these issues.
It's not something to pass off to churches because you don't want to fund it.
And again, if you're just joining us, I'm talking about mental illness that is pervasive inside.
this society and the ignorance and where people really don't understand.
And so unless you have had to deal with this, I think when people like CJ make statements that he knows nothing about, it's part of the reason why we are struggling.
in a society where mothers who are struggling, well, yeah, it starts in a family.
Yeah, everything starts in a family.
If a family could do better, there wouldn't be any mental illness.
Well, you know, that's not the case.
And so unless we, you know, get a grip on this,
You know, I don't care.
This is not Democrat or Republican, man.
This has nothing to do with either one of those.
There are people who claim to be Republicans who have mental illness pervasive in their families.
There are people who are Democrats who have mental illness pervasive in their families.
There are blacks.
There are whites.
There are Christians.
There are Muslims.
You know, they are rich.
They are poor.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter what nation you're from.
Let's go to Tom, Pamela.
Good morning to you, Tom.
You say what?
Good morning, Earl.
First, we the people ultimately are the government and we must get money completely out of politics.
I think the problem is in this country really have come to a point where it's profits over people.
Everyone kind of lives for the next quarter.
I think in terms of mental illness,
The whole country has some mental illness.
But I think also another part of mental illness is this billionaire class that seemed to have this hoarding issue.
It's almost like they think they're going to lose it or something.
And I don't understand that.
And that's something I'd be really interested with your guest coming up.
How did he come to the realization that maybe being a multimillionaire, he had enough.
But I think even the fact that people don't think they have enough when they have a billion dollars, that's a sign of mental illness as well.
And yeah, I just think that with corporations, they say the purpose of a corporation is to make a profit.
Wouldn't it be something that the purpose of a corporation was to help your employees to be the best that they can be?
And all of that and then profit would just be an end result of actually treating people right?
You talked about empathy, you know, a couple of weeks ago and how that's lacking.
I'm sure that anybody that's poor, anybody that was born into not the Lucky sperm club would love to switch places with other people, whether that's people that are mentally ill, whether that's people that have
I had the opportunity to have a successful life.
I'm sure they would love to switch places with you.
Just so lucky you got lucky, you got lucky.
Hey, Tom, thank you very much for the call.
Thank you very much for the information.
In Iowa, state officials are ramping up efforts to divert families from this drastic pathway.
But given the severity of some of the mental health conditions, they say they are struggling to meet these children's needs.
We are hard pressed right now to find concrete long term solutions.
And I don't think a state has it.
I think we're in a much better space than most states are.
But as a nation, we are really struggling with this particular issue, especially with youth, said Iowa HHS director Kelly Garcia.
It was not a decision I took lightly.
Richmond adopted her son and his older brother from foster care when they were two and three years old respectively.
She requested any identifying information about them remain anonymous.
Her youngest, who was later diagnosed with a reactive attachment disorder and an intellectual disability,
first began stealing and exhibiting other impulse behaviors in the third grade.
Here's a woman who took two children in, foster children, and so did a very commendable thing.
And, and for all of those years, and she can't get any help.
You know, I mean, it's just an untenable situation, unacceptable.
And I don't know if a society, such as ours, and especially where the society is now, is going to be able to fix this problem.
As those habits became more frequent, Richmond says, he took them to every type of therapy, including mental health, speech, and occupational therapists.
He had special education support at school since age three and has had multiple stays at crisis stabilization programs.
Really anything and everything that I could get access to, we tried it, Richmond said.
There are a fair number of services that just don't really exist, particularly speaking.
So I can't say we tried everything, but we tried everything that was available.
So.
So here's a part of this whole mental illness aspect that people don't know anything about You know as my son was grappling Five years ago or so four years ago at the age of 40 and stopped taking his medication and and began living in the street and walking in that so
So in the city of Milwaukee, at one point in time, they had over 2000 beds for people with mental illnesses at Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex.
They've since gotten rid of those beds and now, you know, in probably at best, there's 50 from 2000 to 50.
And so people with mental illness are moving around our community.
and with no support whatsoever.
And so, you know, eating out of garbage cans and walking in the streets with cups, stopping people who are driving down the street and down these roads with a cup in their hand.
That was my son.
And so I remember saying to Milwaukee County, listen, my son is in bad shape.
He stopped taking his medication and they said to me, well, you know what, Mr. Ingram?
Your son has a constitutional right to decide whether or not he wants to take medication.
He has a constitutional right to that.
This is what the Milwaukee County said to me.
And so I challenged them.
I said, let me see if I have this right.
My son, who was court ordered, medicated.
Early on when the diagnosis came through the court ordered him medicated And so for all those years he was his court ordered medicated, but then a decision was made at the at the court level That people who who had been court ordered medicated now all of a sudden have a constitutional right
Just say, I don't want to take the medication.
And it just so coincided, happened to coincide with them doing away with 2,000 beds.
Come on, man.
Who you talking to?
I'm just a high school, I got with a high school diploma, but I got a lot of common sense.
And so you're not going to tell me that now all of a sudden,
He doesn't have to take medication.
It's his choice.
When all those decades before the court had decided that people who were a danger had to be court ordered and medicated.
So I was able to push that narrative for my son.
Okay, and so
So my son is now in a safe place.
But I tried to fight that battle for everybody because it didn't make any sense to me.
But you know, some battles you just can't win.
8-5-5-7-5-2-40-8-42 is the number.
We're talking about mental illness and the fact that it's just become more pervasive.
And if this society does not address this,
at the right time.
I mean, now, you know, long after I'm gone, I don't know how they're going to be able to address this.
855-752-4842.
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you do all
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chores before you go
anywhere.
All right, welcome back to the Earl Ingram Show.
As always, you can join us at 855-752-4842.
855-752-4842, Texas at that same number.
Let's go to Brian.
Good morning to you, Brian.
You say what?
Good morning.
Yeah, I just want to, you know, let the listeners know out there as a patient.
you know, myself dealing with mental health issues my whole life.
You know, there's no shame in getting help and reaching out to family, friends, calling into a crisis hotline, going on medication.
I mean, I was even ashamed, you know, to go on medication myself.
And I was on and off medication for years.
And finally, it came to the point where it's like,
no,
I need the treatment, you know.
And it does make a difference.
There's people out there that are willing to listen to you and you are loved and, you know, as you stated with your son, you know, parents will do whatever they can to help their, you know, their child and the same applied with my parents, you know, I do something wasn't right at a young age.
I knew I wasn't feeling well and they got me the help and treatment I needed.
So yeah, I think we really need to take mental health quite seriously in this country.
And that's all I'm going to say.
Well, you know, you know, Brian, the problem is the problem is we're not taking it.
Yeah,
seriously.
Yeah, exactly.
OK.
And so and so that's what's at the root of it.
We're not taking it seriously.
And and I don't care who it is.
Right.
I remember the Kennedy family, former president.
John F Kennedy and Robert F Kennedy, uh, their sister spent her entire adult life in a mental institution in Wisconsin.
And these were the wealthy Kennedys.
And, and so, you know, this is, this is not new man.
Nobody escapes it.
And so.
our society has to take it more seriously.
I'm telling you straight up, man, they're spending a trillion dollars on the military budget every year and saying we can't afford, excuse me, things has to stop, right?
I mean, and the worst part about it is we as the citizens, we can't make it happen.
We can't stop it.
Hey, Brian, thank you very much for what it is.
Oh, go ahead.
Oh, no, you're fine.
Yeah.
And thank you, man, um, for being so courageous to speak the truth.
We need more of that.
I really appreciate it.
But that's what this is all about, man.
That's what it's all about.
And it's what I've always, you know, done with my platform on the airways.
is to talk about these kinds of issues because they're critically important, man, and not enough people are talking about these things.
We can talk about a whole plethora of other things, but the everyday issues that the American people face
We don't have enough conversations about them in the public and I'll say this last thing for this poor woman In her struggles However, the top state listening it is the top state health officials this is in in Iowa
have said publicly that the portion of those youth entering foster care solely because the parents are no longer equipped to take care of behavioral health needs at home has been on the rise.
And I'd also say many of the people who are in jail are mentally ill.
We lock up mentally ill people in jails.
There was a note in my earlier life.
We didn't lock them up in jails.
We separated people with mental illness From people who didn't have it But today in our society They we'd lock people up with mental illnesses.
I remember a time that my son was picked up on the street
And he didn't commit any serious crime.
He didn't rob anybody.
He didn't shoot anybody.
He didn't stab anybody.
He didn't break any windows.
They just said his behavior was, and my son is not a big guy.
He probably weighs about 140 pounds.
So I don't know who could have been afraid of him, but he wound up in jail.
And I wound up calling the jail and going there and saying, hey, my son takes medication.
And they say, well, we can't give him any medication in here.
And I'm saying, OK, so what happens?
He's on medication daily for psychosis.
Well, he's in jail.
We can't do anything about it.
I mean, these are the kinds of things.
And that's how
they
deal
with them.
They put him in
jail.
I know.
But see, that's
that's
that's what, no, they did not get any help.
And I said, instead of giving
them right, they jailed
them.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
So these are the kind of.
And that's why I'm going to do a podcast on it, right?
is one of the things that certainly the podcast is gonna afford me to spend some real time in addressing that issue.
So I'm, you know, excited.
And yes, PJ, you are absolutely right.
It was Ronald Reagan who chose to close all of the mental health hospitals.
Just the truth.
Don't have to take our word for it.
Check it out.
You know, up next, attorney Scott Harris and my good friend Doc Wee as we discuss a man who really gets it, who really understands it.
I'm excited about having him as my last guest on the Earl Ingram show.
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