Mental Health Awareness and Gun Violence

We’re back!!! The month of May was Mental Health Awareness month and we had to do an episode that highlighted the importance of mental health. Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. Although the general perception of mental illness has improved over the past decades, studies show that stigma against mental illness is still powerful, largely due to media stereotypes and lack of education, and that people tend to attach negative stigmas to mental health conditions at a far higher rate than to other diseases. We have a mental health crisis in America. Every time we experience a tragedy involving guns, people with mental illness are drawn into the conversation. Sure, not all gun violence is directly linked to mental health but like the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, shows how it does play a major role in the heinous acts carried out. We need to have an honest and productive national conversation about all the factors that play into this type of violence and what we can do to prevent these tragedies. Only then can we find meaningful solutions to protecting our children and communities.

FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION