The Forensic Witness: Crisis, Care & the Right to Be Well — Rosa DeGout & Kerry Martin

"My son isn't choosing to be stubborn. He is living in a neurological blind spot." In this deeply moving second installment of the National Shattering Silence Coalition's (NSSC) In Justice series, Kerry Martin, MPP (NSSC Senior VP of Strategy & Impact and Bipolar I survivor) sits down for an intimate, unvarnished conversation with Rosa DeGout. Rosa is both a master-level mental health clinician and the mother of Sebastian, a young man who private security cameras captured spiraling through unmedicated Bipolar and Schizophrenia psychosis—a biological crisis that ultimately led to a tragic, life-altering assault on Rosa herself. Waking from a four-day medical coma with permanent vocal cord damage, Rosa's first words to the paramedics weren't about revenge; they were a frantic plea to ensure her son hadn't been shot by law enforcement during his break from reality. In this interview, Kerry and Rosa dismantle the dangerous cultural myth of patient autonomy during acute neurobiological emergencies. They discuss the reality of anosognosia—the literal physical circuit failure that leaves 57% to 98% of people experiencing psychosis biologically blind to their own illness. Together, they issue a heartbreaking, urgent call to stop defining humans by their diagnoses and to finally replace America's systemic Standard of Neglect with a true National Standard of Care. Claim Your Position: Join the SMI Peer Alliance We are entirely done letting bureaucratic committees, academic theorists, and detached decision-makers debate our lives. True systemic transformation cannot happen about us without us. If you have not survived a psychotic break, felt the lick of the fire, or navigated life with a severe neurobiological brain disease, do not tell us that state-sanctioned abandonment is a civil liberty. The politicians are not coming to save us. The power to shatter this system of neglect belongs to us. Please Note: The SMI Peer Alliance is an exclusive, safe sanctuary reserved strictly for individuals living with Severe Mental Illness (SMI). If you are a peer living with an SMI diagnosis and you are fed up with watching our community warehoused in jail cells and left under public sidewalks, claim your position with us today. Sign your name, bring your ground-truth to the table, and let’s build the unassailable collective power our 22 million invisible brothers and sisters deserve. ➡️ Join the SMI Peer Alliance: https://www.nationalshatteringsilence... ➡️ Learn more about NSSC's Advocacy: https://www.nationalshatteringsilence... 📝 Subscribe to the In Justice playlist for more raw ground-truth from the front lines of severe mental illness advocacy.