Colorado family struggles to find a solution for daughter who’s in and out of court, jail and hospitals

By Alan Gionet

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    COLORADO (KCNC) — In a rapid and simple hearing Monday, a judge in Jefferson County moved to order 24-year-old Olivia Schack to remain at the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo for six more weeks despite having served her time for assault charges against her. It may sound like Schack was wronged, but her family believes it was the right move.

It was not a period, but a comma in her story after she wandered her way through courts, jails and hospitals on a winding path her family hopes will lead to proper care for her mental health crisis. With a six-week pause, they now hope to find another route for her to take.

“It’s definitely not the right process,” her mother Kendra Anderson said of the past year and a half.

Her family has found hard turns everywhere as they have tried to seek help. In her late teen years, Schack’s different behavior experienced delusions at times. She said there were voices in her mind that would not quit. There were times, her father says, that it sounded like there was an exorcism going on in the basement.

She would not stay at home, but leave and come back with unknown people. She would later disappear for weeks and months at a time. Phone calls would come in from hospitals and police departments. She was living life on the streets and using drugs to self-medicate.

“We can’t force her to stay. She’s an adult,” said Anderson. “I can’t lock her up.”

Anderson and her ex-husband Travis Schack are divorced but cooperate when it comes to their kids. Both have re-married. They are heartbroken about their daughter, as are their spouses.

All four have met at times to try to figure out what to do about Olivia Schack’s problems. She’s been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and depression. She’s bright and pretty and sweet but troubled.

“Essentially she wants to make the rules. And the rules are you can’t have drugs in the house,” said her mother. “You, we’re going to try and help you, but she doesn’t really want the help, she wants to do the drugs, she wants to do the self-medicating.”

Unable to live by those rules, she leaves her mother’s or her father’s house. Trying to find solutions, they were told to get her into the criminal justice system.

It started with an assault on her father. They filed charges. Then in jail, she attacked a jail deputy. That meant an additional charge. For six months she was in the jail in Jefferson County awaiting a bed at the state’s mental health facility. When one opened at Pueblo about a year ago she was transferred there.

At Pueblo, the job is to restore competency for people to stand trial. Olivia Schack would attend group sessions where she would earn credits for grasping concepts. She had a social worker who told her family she would not be released given her mental health.

But then that social worker left.

Then there was another who told the family that wasn’t the case and there was a possibility Olivia Schack would be released if charges could not be pressed. Then that social worker left. There’s now a third.

“I have yet to hear from them,” said Anderson.

In four evaluations, Olivia Schack was deemed incompetent to stand trial at each. The Jefferson County District Attorney moved to let the cases go. She’s been in jail or the state’s mental health lock-up for nearly a year and a half. That time served is enough.

But Olivia Schack is taking medications at Pueblo, which they can make her do. That was not the case in jail. She’s getting treatment for a non-malignant brain tumor, but the state has little right to continue to hold her.

It took a judge’s move to say that, even with the charges dropped, she needed to stay.

“Somebody that doesn’t want to take medication, they’re not going to take it. They’re not going to take it outside the hospital,” said her mother.

But there are little to no options for someone like Olivia Schack. She won’t voluntarily enter treatment and her family has been told commitment is next to impossible. So they hoped there would be a move by the criminal justice system to commit her. But now they have six weeks to push for something different, lest she go back to the streets where she’s been attacked. They have talked to an attorney to attempt to pursue guardianship. But it’s difficult, slow and expensive. In the case of Olivia Schack, there is a family there that cares and is willing. And that’s rare.

“I’m not trying to take her rights or take her life away. I’m trying to give her some sort of a life that’s not going to be on the streets,” said Kendra Anderson.

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