Fix What You Can, Mindy Greiling
Fix What You Can, Mindy Greiling
1 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Fix What You Can
Schizophrenia and a Lawmaker’s Fight for Her Son

Author: Mindy Greiling

Narrator: Laural Merlington

Unabridged: 9 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/24/2020


Synopsis

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.

About Mindy Greiling

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mindy on November 10, 2022

I learned from an author friend that it is kosher to rate one's own book. I also wanted to share a portion of the great book review in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune. "Jim Greiling’s illness and his family’s 20-year effort to help him are rivetingly chronicled in former Rep. Greiling’s new book, “F......more

Goodreads review by Kristin on January 24, 2021

An eye opening true story about a mother’s struggle with her son’s mental illness and her parallel fight to change mental health laws as a legislator in Minnesota. I felt both educated about mental illness and terrified for families who have to struggle. Writing a story like this is incredibly brave......more

Goodreads review by Deborah on September 21, 2020

One of the best books I have ever read by a parent of a child with mental health issues. I read a lot of books from this genre because I have been an addiction recovery counselor and a professor at a university program for addiction recovery. It’s compelling. It’s a page turner. I find myself wonderi......more

Goodreads review by MarySchwanke on September 22, 2020

Reviewed by Lawrence Schwanke. Fix What You Can is a very powerful exposure of the road blocks that our current “so-called” health care and judicial systems put in the way of a young man needing help for his debilitating schizophrenia. Even with the help of his politically savy and persistent mother......more

Goodreads review by Laura on September 23, 2021

saw this at work and recalled seeing it on my mom's library account, i started reading it and couldn't stop. Really really upsetting and heartbreaking. Made me question through some moral conundrums. Like I logically know all the parallels between the mental health system and the prison system and t......more