Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Town Hall meeting could decide fate for mentally ill

By James K. Waghorne

The National Alliance for the Mentally ILL, Southern Bible Institute and North Texas Behavioral Health are sponsoring a Town Hall meeting to discuss crisis mental health services for the NorthStar region which Dallas is a part of.

The reason I believe this meeting is important to our entire community, is that the southern sector of Dallas has been left out in the cold until just recently when it came to having a voice and a impact in the Mental Health system in Dallas. A system that has been overwhelmed and underfunded for the last decade. Those who have most been ignored and suffered because of failed public policy and the lack of leadership in the realm of advocacy, has been primarily the African American community.

Many read the horrifying articles in the DMN recently about the conditions of Boarding Homes where many mentally ill individuals suffer from maltreatment and disregard. Most in our community now understand that those individuals living in the worst form of depredation in America, (Homelessness) are untreated citizens with mental illness and subsequently substance abuse. And when one looks at the data and statistics, one also realizes that a majority of these suffering unjustly are African Americans.

What people might not know is that the highest mortality rate for the mentally ill, are African Americans living on the streets in Dallas. An average of 50 individuals are found dead on the streets every year and upwards to another 100 die in our hospitals. The average life expectancy for an African American with mental illness living without a home in Dallas, is 42 years old. 35 years shorter than the norm.

Advocacy groups have constantly fought for monies and programs which have not targeted this disgrace and instead looked away while their pet-peeve programs and advocacy have left the most vulnerable and untreated population off to the side to suffer and die needlessly.

It is less than candid to hear from the leadership of these advocacy groups or Authorities only when a story appears in the news. They have long known the problems and they have also fought against monies which would serve this population and save lives. Their leadership is even doing so to this day.

If South Dallas is to move ahead and have an opportunity to improve mental health care, representatives of that community need to have the courage to confront the NTBHA, Mental Health Association, Advocacy Inc. and any group proclaiming themselves as advocates, reject the excuses and demand change.

An advocate is only as good as how the least in the population they are advocating for is being treated.

African Americans from the Southern Sector with mental illness have never receieved adequate advocacy and the results show on our streets, jails, hospitals, and in the death toll.

James is the president of the Dallas Homeless Neighborhood Association

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