Resources, votes help those struggling with mental illnesses
Fifty years ago Northern State Hospital located in Sedro-Woolley closed leaving patients discharged to their communities. Easy to say, hard to do, since there were few if any means to do that.
On a weekend where we are encouraged to wear orange as a support for common sense gun controls, we have failed to successfully address our ongoing crisis in mental health. Sharon and I were there at the beginning of this unsuccessful 50-year cycle working there in 1965. We loved the experience and our work there … and also fell in love with each other to travel together on a journey and 56-plus years of marriage.
Sadly, Sharon died of Parkinson’s Disease in March, a burden many families face with this disease.
Mental health is also a heavy burden for families. Fear of gun violence in public spaces has accelerated the need to face this public health crises.
To those who say access to guns is not the cause of mass shootings, but rather mental health, then our tax dollars need to be allocated appropriately to address our mental health crisis. Effectively, this means casting your vote for representation only for those are willing to put their policies where their mouths are.
To keep the guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, effective gun controls are required. And to treat mental illness, more resources are required. You can support both by wearing orange in June and voting blue in November.
Roger Briggs
Sequim
Perspective on mental health language
Regarding Bertha Cooper’s column “Think About It: Good intentions need communities” (Sequim Gazette, May 31, page A-9):
Long ago we made the decision, based upon our ignorance of these illnesses, not to treat those we told ourselves were mental with the same respect we trained ourselves to treat the illnesses we knew as real. We have altered our thinking little from that day.
We fought to understand TB, polio, pneumonia, AIDS, researched each until we either stumbled upon answers, or through thorough inquiry found them.
Each iteration of “the” mentally ill is a reminder of how we have abstracted the issue. “The” cancerous, “the” heart-diseased, those abstractions, never found their way into our rhetoric. We have, to dare a pun, fashioned our prejudice into a practice.
Harold A. Maio, retired mental health editor
Fort Myers, Fla.
Bertha Cooper: I am glad Mr. Maio took the time to write to the Gazette. He makes a relevant point and increases our awareness of biases evident in our language if not our thoughts. There is always something to learn to move us ahead in solving difficult problems.
