Valdez: State can curb bloodshed: Help the mentally ill
February 6, 2012
Arizona Republic columnist Linda Valdez attended the symposium, "Mental Illness and Public Safety in Arizona," last month. The event was hosted by Morrison Institute for Public Policy and Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy at Arizona State University, featuring police officers, mental-health experts and others who deal with crisis intervention for disturbed individuals.
Valdez wrote in her Jan. 29 column:
Arizona's collective response to last year's massacre near Tucson needs to be about more than civility. There needs to be an equally high-profile effort to raise public awareness about mental illness. The goal should be to teach people to feel as justified seeking mental-health treatment for themselves or a family member as they would in seeking medical care for a broken leg.
Untreated mental illness can lead to intense personal anguish, broken families, wasted lives and -- in some extreme cases -- very public tragedies. This is a good time to talk about that. Arizona needs a big-deal, long-term effort to raise awareness of the importance of treating mental illness.
Read the full column: State can curb bloodshed: Provide help to mentally ill
