With his son in a recovery facility, a father is pushing for more long-term help

WORCESTER, Mass. — For Todd Miller, giving up on his son is not an option.

His son Nick has been diagnosed with five different mental health illnesses, including schizophrenia. He’s also been sectioned nearly a dozen times.

It’s help, Miller says, never lasts long enough and only comes when something terrible happens.

“He would either be evaluated for an hour and then released in an hour or they’d keep him for a few days and stabilize him. The problem with this two three-day evaluations is that it’s not long enough,” he explained.

He says he wants to prevent a tragedy from happening next because right now, he admits, he is afraid of what his son may do without the right medication.

Medication could take months to get right, but his son has never gotten the opportunity to try any given medication for an extended period of time.

“I hate to admit it, but yeah. For years, I thought that could never happen because he doesn’t have an ounce of that in him, but it’s not him most of the time anymore,” he said when asked if he was afraid of his son.

Miller says it wasn’t always like this.

“He had many friends, he played basketball, baseball, and football. He had girlfriends. He had plans,” he said.

But when he was about 19-years-old, a switch went off, and Nick started hearing voices.

“Things started to go really bad; he started calling us saying very strange things, his friends would call and say, ' Jeez, he’s acting very odd,” he added.

Miller says that was only the beginning of a very painful decade.

“My son doesn’t smile, he barely talks.”

“There is proof that he just can’t take care of himself, and many ppl like him can’t.”

While Miller can sift through hundreds of documents about his son Nick, a pile that paints a very real picture of what it’s like when someone you love suffers from a severe mental illness, by law his son can still refuse the medication and treatment he needs.

“My son knows what can happen depends on what he says, so I think he hides his symptoms.”

At 32-years-old, Nick can even block his proxy, who is his father, from stepping in.

“You can uninvoke the proxy even if you’re incompetent and incapacitated,” Miller said.

As inconceivable as it is to do, Miller can compare his son to Nick Reiner, who allegedly killed both of his parents, Rob and Michelle Reiner, in December of last year following a long battle of what’s believed to be similar mental health issues."

“It’s like the intersection, everybody knew it was going to be a problem, and then nothing happened until there was a death,” he said.

Miller says other countries are way further along in combating the mental health crisis, especially when it comes to the continuation of care.

“It starts with early intervention. Then there are less glitches. There are less bureaucratic roadblocks and excellent after care,” he said.

In Massachusetts specifically, he says it is even harder for families to take action on behalf of their loved ones.

“It is extremely frustrating, you start to learn that there is no end of the rope, it just gets longer,” he said.

That’s why he says he wants to see better aftercare become available so his son Nick can return to himself again.

“As a father, you get upset, you cry over things, then you regroup cuz you have to because it’s your family member.”

He says giving up now is not an option, and he will continue to fight for his son.

“In my mind, I think that’s why he’s still alive, you know, some people have given me this tough love advice, and I just can’t follow it.”

Miller says his son’s stay at the recovery center is up in August. He fears that if circumstances don’t change, his release could do more harm than good, and it won’t be long until he’s readmitted or even worse.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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