Reginald, who declined to use his last name for fear of losing opportunities, spent years in a harmful cycle of missed appointments, spiraling and then dealing with the consequences.
Reginald is paranoid schizophrenic. He said having to go into a pharmacy to get his long-acting injections, which treat people with severe bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, created a number of barriers that caused him to miss appointments.
“I don’t really like being in public and I don’t like people looking at me,” he said. “So I would just skip it, which caused me to spiral out of control. And then I would end up in some type of trouble before getting the injection and starting the process all over again.”…