Overview

In his early twenties, 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 twenty-three 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.

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Laural Merlington is an audiobook narrator with over two hundred titles to her credit and a winner of multiple Earphones Awards. An Audie Award nominee, she has also directed over one hundred audiobooks. She has performed and directed for thirty years in theaters throughout the country. In addition to her extensive theater and voice-over work, she teaches college in her home state of Michigan. Mindy Greiling was a legislator from 1993 to 2013. Before that, she was an elementary school teacher, then a stay-at-home mom and eventually worked as a cancer researcher at the University of Minnesota. She ran for office first as a school board member and then a legislator. In addition to her and her son Jim being the subject of many news articles, her op-eds were published in several newspapers throughout her legislative career. She served on the national and state boards of the National Alliance on Mental Illness and has been published in a NAMI magazine. Greiling appeared on TV and radio numerous times and received scores of awards, including the national Lilly Reintegration Award for Advocacy. After she left the legislature, Greiling was a political commentator for five years on Almanac, a public affairs program on Minnesota public television. She is currently the president of a county affiliate of NAMI-MN.

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