Patrick Kennedy

You know, we love to compartmentalize.

It's education here.

It's healthcare over here.

It's criminal justice over here.

It's the workplace over here.

The bottom line is, it's everybody.

You're not seeing these illnesses confined to any demographic group, professional group, socioeconomic class, anywhere.

So we have to

have a general increase in our literacy.

But yes, when it comes to specific areas, first responders should be probably on the top of our list of people that we start training because they are the ones who interact.

As a result of our neglect of people with these illnesses, they end up becoming criminal justice issues as opposed to healthcare issues.

So they definitely need to be careful.

Huge biases within the health care system against people with mental illness and addiction.

They are not treated with dignity and respect in many instances.

And yet, of course, a lot of that's compounded by there's no resources for them to access, which really makes those who are in the medical system feel like they're in a rut because there's nowhere they can turn.

It's a lot, but it's not complicated.

We need to include the family.

They're going to all be impacted by any one of their family members who is ill.

That's going to spill over in any number of costs that society incurs.

This is something that we often think of individual way, and these illnesses manifest in a community and a family.