My mom passed away on Oct. 29, 2010. She managed to live to 85 years old, in spite of smoking for 60 of them.

My mom didn’t have an uncommon life, though she did work in the kitchen camps during the Alaska highway construction. Together with my dad, she had six children on a homestead in northern Alberta. All through her life, my mom made sure there was always food on the table and clean clothes on our backs.

But it was always difficult to feel close to my mom.

As I grew up, I began to realize my mom struggled with mental illness. There were periods when she was in the hospital for extended periods of time, receiving shock treatment to alleviate the symptoms.

For nearly all her adult life, she was on medications to control her schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

In her later years, my mom occasionally went off her medications. That’s when I realized just how ill she was.

In the end, she was under a mental health warrant. I’m thankful for that, because she likely would have refused all help and ended up as many others do — on the street, delusional and angry.

Mental illness strikes so many along the way.

Homeless shelters often become the last resort before people hide under the bridges to avoid all reality and contact with the outside world. If they aren’t violent and refuse to take medication, there is little that can be done.

There is a lot of controversy surrounding forced medication, but I do know my mother was much happier and lived a much better life because she took her meds and was even forced to go under the mental health warrant.

That’s why I think there is a place for mandatory — even forced — medication for some individuals. That’s because for many of them, life can be restored to some dignified level.

Yes, I know there can be abuse, but we must do our best to protect people.

We often have the perception that no matter the circumstance, people can judge right from wrong for themselves and can be trusted to make their own choices.

Life isn’t always like that. For a lot of people, their right to choose has been distorted.

Those that become harmful to themselves or others and are forced to take medication often are thankful someone intervened.

At Siloam Mission, there are many individuals that find themselves in that situation.

Many of them don’t take care of themselves until it’s too late.

Even at a point of crisis, often times people will accommodate enough to get themselves out of the hospital only to return again and again because they refuse to properly address their health issues.

At one point or another, all of us need someone removed from our situation to objectively evaluate it and say, “You know what? That’s a bad situation. You need help.”

Too many people suffer under the guise of free choice. I see many of them every day.

You probably do, too.

— Floyd Perras is executive director of Siloam Mission.

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