Much too often, our society is reactive instead of proactive. When it comes to actions that could save lives by simply improving quality of life, we always seem to be a day late and a dollar short.

The country mourned the loss of life after Arizona shootings and most assumed that those with mental illnesses are psychotic and violent by nature when this is simply not the case. The action of this individual is not condoned and mental illness alone cannot be used as an excuse.

The issue is that mental illness is a forgotten issue until someone is hurt. If the individuals who committed these unfortunate acts had simply been diagnosed properly, the illness treated properly, and those in the family educated about the diagnosis, the events in Arizona could well have been avoided.

Unfortunately, government sees mental illness as a “don’t ask, don’t tell” issue. Don’t ask us for funding, and we won’t tell where you can go with that request.

Mental illness is best treated proactively. Removing medications to treat mental illnesses from Medicaid, cutting funding for mental health programs, and ignoring the problem of mental illness as a whole is a mistake that does no good for our community.

At what point do we stop cutting funding for mental health and hoping nothing goes wrong?

Tonya Tate

Executive Director, NAMI-MS