It was a little more than a year ago that January Schofield, at age 6, began to drift from reality. Suicidal, violent and plagued by hallucinations of rats and cats who conversed and played with her, she began the first of seven psychiatric hospitalizations.
As of today, Jani, 7, has been out of the hospital for 56 days, the longest period in 15 months. Together with her parents, Michael and Susan, and brother, Bodhi, 2, Jani is living a fragile existence -- haunted by delusions that sometimes tell her to hurt herself or others, even the people she loves.
But despite the family's dire financial and emotional circumstances, that existence is not completely devoid of hope.
The child's story was first described June 29 in the Los Angeles Times article, "Jani is at the mercy of her mind." At the time, the family was struggling with the new diagnosis of child-onset schizophrenia and searching for a way to care for their child on a long-term basis. Shortly after the story was published, Jani was hospitalized for the fifth time.
She's now living at home and attends school an hour each day for one-on-one tutoring. Her father is no longer employed as an English instructor at Cal State Northridge; he'll soon receive a small advance to write a book about his daughter's illness.
For now, the family scrapes by on his unemployment, forced by Jani's illness to rent two small apartments, rather than one for the entire family. There, in a complex in Santa Clarita, one parent stays with Jani and the other with Bodhi. The arrangement is the only way to keep Jani at home and protect Bodhi from her unpredictable behavior.
"The two apartments have worked," said Michael, 33. "Bodhi isn't growing up scared of her. Our biggest problems are the normal financial problems that come when you have a mentally ill child such that you can't work."
Jani's prognosis is unclear, but she shows some signs of progress. She takes a combination of the antipsychotic drugs Clozaril and Thorazine and the mood stabilizer lithium. She is less violent, less depressed and behaves well when engaged in something she enjoys, such as visits to the animal shelter or pet store.
Activity tends to hush the intruders in Jani's brain. Because the stimulation needs to be constant, the family leaves the small apartments early each day in a search for free diversions.
