Across the country, thousands of families watch someone they love disappear into serious mental illness—often exacerbated by anosognosia, a biological brain disease that prevents a person from realizing they are ill.
As these individuals drift into systems that shut loved ones out, too many ultimately end up on the streets. Tragically, families are repeatedly told they cannot help. Frameworks like HIPAA are frequently weaponized to keep them at arm’s length, and mothers’ and women’s voices are routinely disregarded.
The Challenge: A System Built on Exclusion
This book directly challenges one of the most catastrophic, overlooked failures in modern mental health care: the systematic exclusion of families from treatment. Drawing on deep lived experience, high-level policy insight, and decades of grassroots advocacy, Jacqueline Janssen reveals a path forward. She demonstrates exactly how clinicians and families can bridge the gap—not by assigning blame, but by working collaboratively.
As decades of evidence show, family inclusion is a vital catalyst to:
- Prevent acute mental health crises.
- Drastically reduce individual and family suffering.
- Intervene before mental illness deteriorates into homelessness.
When families are included, outcomes change. Lives are saved.
A Grassroots Call to Action
This is a simple, powerful idea. It is not entirely unique, but it remains desperately unknown to far too many families and clinical providers. Right now, clinicians are fleeing the profession, families are suffering in isolation, and the homelessness crisis continues to surge.
Every Homeless Person Has a Mother is a rallying cry for mothers to find their collective voice, stand together, and bring unity to mental health recovery. True recovery cannot be achieved by treating individuals in total isolation; it requires a collaborative, grassroots effort built on the shared goal of bringing our loved ones home.
Who Is This Book For?
Mothers & Families
Practical tools for navigation, prevention, and long-term recovery.
Clinicians & Providers
Evidence and models for collaborative, family-centred care.
Policymakers & Advocates
Structural failures and actionable pathways for institutional reform.
Inside, you will find tactical tools for prevention, real-world strategies for recovery, and deeply moving stories of success, resilience, and inspiration.