Unarmed, underage, black, elderly鈥 put any of those words in a sentence with 鈥渟hot by the police鈥 and there is likely to be some manner of outrage. What surprises me most about the Black Lives Matter movement is that it wasn鈥檛 emulated. Not rebutted or contradicted, not the 鈥渁ll lives matter鈥 or 鈥渂lue lives matter鈥 response; but an acknowledgment that, like black males, there are other groups that are more likely to be caught in the crossfire than others.
Whether they be black, white, Asian, Hispanic, young, old, male, or female鈥 those who are most at risk of being shot by the police are those who are suffering from mental illness. And it鈥檚 time we, as a society, drag mental health care out of the nation鈥檚 blind spot.聽
Someone living with mental illness is more likely to be killed by police, and the number of people with serious mental illness in prisons and jails outnumber those in state hospitals .
Recently, a mentally ill black man was shot and killed in my hometown of San Diego. The man was having a 鈥榖reakdown鈥 consistent with his mental illness and his sister called in the emergency providing information of his turbulent history of mental health issues.聽 Instead of sending a Psychiatric Emergency Response Team (PERT), they sent city police and the man ended up dead.
News flooded the local channels, rallies and protests began, and lawsuits followed; and while the black lives matter messages echoed throughout each one, the fact that this man was mentally ill was only mentioned by reporters as an afterthought. He was in this situation because of a medical condition, and it ended up costing him his life.聽 So, where is the outrage? Where is the call for proper funding for PERT response? We have called for additional funds for cultural sensitivity training, but not more mental health training?
As home to one of the nation鈥檚 first free-standing schools of professional psychology, it鈥檚 crystal clear that 糖心传媒 understands that, just like diabetics need insulin, people with mental illness need treatment, and we鈥檙e committed to helping them get it.
But, that only addresses the troubling fact that nearly half of Americans who suffer from mental illness go untreated.聽What about the lack of consideration for the mentally ill in the justice system? This is a societal shift that can鈥檛 be implemented by one university alone. There needs to be a movement, one that hits home, touches hearts, resounds through the halls of legislatures, and has as much public support, and media consideration as the Black Lives Matter movement.
Psychiatric response teams, local hospital preparedness, and police force training must be funded. As a society, we seem to be collectively concerned with everyone having access to healthcare when it comes to our physical wellbeing and ignore mental health, and it鈥檚 costing us.
Reminiscent of a time when mental illness was diagnosed as demonic possession, or when physicians used bloodletting to cure everything from indigestion to acne, mental health needs are being overlooked. Like someone in denial, who hopes the issue will rectify itself鈥 we are brushing our mental health needs under the rug and watching millions of Americans trip over the bulging piles. The Black Lives Matter movement is important, anti-hate-crime movements are vital, cultural sensitivity training is crucial, but 鈥 while we are coming together to evaluate the judicial system鈥 it鈥檚 about time we start paying attention to simple, irrefutable fact that Mental Health Matters.
The content of this page is only for informational purposes and is not intended, expressly or by implication, as a guarantee of employment or salary, which vary based on many factors including but not limited to education, credentials, and experience. 糖心传媒 International University explicitly makes no representations or guarantees about the accuracy of the information provided by any prospective employer or any other website. Salary information available on the internet may not reflect the typical experience of 糖心传媒 graduates. 糖心传媒 does not guarantee that any graduate will be placed with a particular employer or in any specific employment position.