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The BDN editorial board’s last sentence in the recent editorial about the Lewiston commission report, especially the last three words, is the most important: “… individual failures were enabled by systematic failures that demand action.” Yes! But the commission’s scope has a specific mission. So, let’s demand broader more comprehensive action from our federal and state officials!
Maine, and frankly America, needs a combined approach to “gun control” and more effective federal and state laws promoting better health care as a powerful combination. Our nation fails to draw these interconnections. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said health care was our greatest injustice. Maine leaders must save lives with federal and state legislation that promotes treatment before tragedy rather than expressions of regrets and trips to the funeral later. Maine’s motto is to lead!
Our Maine congressional delegation hasn’t sponsored or co-sponsored federal legislation to end the institution for mental diseases exclusion law created in 1965! Why? It may have contributed in part to many of the mass murders. People who have brain disorders like schizophrenia are 16 times more likely to be shot by the police even though they are often the victims rather than the perpetrators of gun violence. People who commit suicide most often do it by gun.
This cruel federal and state inaction contributes to the pain and death of people, many with serious brain disorders. At the state level, Gov. Janet Mills has no waiver program for “mental illness” only substance abuse which are often co-occurring disorders.
I think this is inconsistent and discriminatory! Why? Please read the testimony my wife and I provided about our beloved late son Christopher and LD 2214, the proposed supplemental budget. The Maine Legislature has been heroically trying to include approximately $1.3 million in state funds into the state budget in order to get more than $10 million in federal funds for more comprehensive services through the IMD Waiver Program. It is still in process. My opinion is that the reason for society’s cruel inaction is simple: word, term and label discrimination. How society defines the illness is how it funds it in services and research. Devaluing people with these serious brain disorders has been the acceptable standard for our society and world for several thousand years. Let’s end it now!
Joe H. Pickering
Bangor