policy

By Paul Gionfriddo, MHA President and CEO

The mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton are yet another chilling reminder of the changed nation in which we all live.

When the Columbine shootings occurred twenty years ago, we understood it to be an uncommon tragedy. We sought information about the shooters, and naively believed that we might not live through more of these, and that we could move beyond them quickly.

Mental Health America (MHA) knows people are busy so we created the Back Home Campaign Advocacy Update to summarize federal and state mental health news and activities. If you’d like to learn about happenings in particular that are not addressed, please let us know by emailing MHA’s Caren Howard at choward@mentalhealthamerica.net.

Advocacy Programming

By Paul Gionfriddo, MHA President and CEO

Jeremy Richman, a Connecticut neuroscientist and co-founder of the Avielle Foundation, died last week after a long battle with trauma. His death followed the death of Sydney Aiello, who fought an equally courageous 13-month battle with trauma, as well as another current Parkland student just days later.

By Joseph Gervasi, Board Member of MHA of Essex and Morris County

By Paul Gionfriddo, MHA President and CEO

Last week, we tweeted that we should vote as if our mental health depended on it. In the aftermath of this election, it is clear that we did.

Today, the major take-home lesson of yesterday’s election is this: it was mostly about healthcare after all.