Political Quotes

“Madam President, this month is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the goal of Mental Health Awareness Month is to recognize the importance for personal well-being, the need for research and education, dispelling the stigmas associated with mental illness, and to improve mental healthcare to ensure that care is available to ensure that the first episode of mental illness is the last. A goal with Mental Health Awareness Month is the awareness that is necessary for the programs to be implemented so that that young person with their first episode is returned to wholeness, and, again, as I said earlier, the first episode is the last. It recognizes that mental health is a societal issue associated with homelessness, crime, suicide, physical health, and public health issues. Now, when you speak of mental health, it is a little bit almost like: Oh, my gosh, this is going to be a futile issue. It is so difficult for someone who has serious mental illness to return them to wholeness. It is so difficult that sometimes the individual, their family, and society throws up their hands and says: There is nothing to do, so why try. You see manifestations of that with the homeless people walking around this city and every city in the United States, many of whom are mentally ill; yet there can be hope. I called a person back home from Baton Rouge, LA, and asked her for a story, if you will, of how someone with mental illness issues can be returned to wholeness, so let me tell you about Mary.…”