His face breaks my heart, though I realize most people will not react that way to Cody Balmer’s mug shots and arrest footage. Cody attacked our state’s official residence, leaving charred furniture and forcing the governor’s family to flee in the night — on Pesach no less, forcing them to flee just as their ancestors had done on the same night.

But this wasn’t really about Judaism, nor even about Palestine and antisemitism (as the firebomber claimed). Christie Balmer, his mother, told PennLive that his erratic behavior made her try to get him into a hospital for his delusional disorder, and he disappeared, only to resurface in custody.

When I see Cody’s gaunt, hollow face, I see illness. My son’s face looked much like this when his schizophrenia prompted him to take my mother’s life in 2013. He, too, hated hospitals. In his arrest footage, he looks confused, and I see the same look on Cody Balmer’s face.

And I see more. I see a man who didn’t believe he was ill and didn’t ask for help, so Dauphin County followed Pennsylvania’s traditional mental health law and let him make that choice many times in the past. It doesn’t have to be this way.

In 2018, Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law a different option for Pennsylvania counties, but until at least one county starts using it, it’s powerless. This option allows for “assisted outpatient treatment,” which uses civil (not criminal) court order to make the county’s service providers go the extra mile to help a man like Cody.

I know that Dauphin County has been seeking to opt into the AOT law. Last fall, I interviewed their mental health administrator, Andrea Kepler, about her positive experiences using AOT services in New York (video is at my YouTube channel, @AOTforAlleghenyCounty-b2r). She explained that AOT can be a lifesaving exit plan from a hospitalization, instead of just a revolving door putting them back out to the streets and their desperate families. AOT providers meet with the individual frequently, using personal persuasion and other help to get them to comply.

Cody Balmer and my son hated hospitalizations, and it’s the same for most sufferers of paranoid schizophrenia. But AOT is a non-hospital, outpatient program, in addition to using non-criminal, civil law.

“But AOT would cost so much!” How much did Cody’s wrong turn cost the state? Security services to evacuate the governor, repairs to the mansion, Cody’s incarceration and the uncountable cost to the family, whose loving hopes are destroyed: I’d say this neglect was not cheap.

Allegheny County: Don’t wait. Opt into the AOT law. Stop letting these very sick men and women fall through the cracks. Please visit aotforalleghenycounty.com for more information.

Ruth Johnston of Gibsonia is founder of AOT for Allegheny County (aotforalleghenycounty.com/).