Meet the health care workers and patients on the front lines of another national crisis
"Bedlam" tackles the systemic failures and cultural taboos of treating mental health conditions. It airs on PBS tonight at 10 p.m. EDT. (PBS Independent Lens/)By her count, Johanna has been admitted to the hospital for bipolar disorder 10 times in the past year. In most of those cases, she walked into the ER herself. And in every case, she landed back at her father’s house, feeding butterflies in the backyard, weaning off medications, and starting the process again. Monte is trapped in a cycle, too. After skipping his medications, he experienced a psychotic break that got him arrested. He went through several more fits in jail, and at one point, was tear gassed by guards in his cell.Over the course of five years, psychiatrist and filmmaker Kenneth Rosenberg shadowed Johanna, Monte, and a handful of other patients, nurses, and doctors through the morass of Los Angeles’s psych wards. Some look...