A would be patient

Safety should have been your priority, vintagemother.

We all do the best we can at any given time, and you were acting appropriately protective.

Had you been acting as a mental health professional in a different environment, your actions would have been different.

We can't save the world. We can only do the best we can at any given time.

The continued very best to you, vintagemother!

As someone who lived in the inner city years before becoming a psych nurse my experience with homeless people falls on both sides of the equation and I agree you set limits and protected yourself and your child.

My heart breaks for homeless people with mental illness and I am furious with our naive, politically correct delusional society that deemed state mental facilities inhumane however the truth is a psychotic person can be paranoid, impulsive and dangerous so you were correct to insist he step away from your vehicle.

Always put your and your family's safety first, and never feel bad for doing that. NEVER.

If you are ever concerned about someone you see in public and don't feel safe in approaching them, don't hesitate to call the police (it doesn't have to be 911 unless you feel the person is in imminent danger) and ask for the psych evaluation team to come to the area. If they don't have a psych team, they can send regular officers. They'll come to see the person and determine if the person meets criteria for a temporary hold.

It may be psychosis, it may be drug abuse, it may be both (sadly, this is the most common), or it may be that he's neither psychotic nor impaired. The psych eval team can start the process for him to get psych help if he needs it.