Rachel Streiff

Through our efforts at our state capitol, by showing up, by our testimony, we succeeded in passing several laws.

Among them was John's Law, named after Joshua's dad, John Fox, who I knew from a parent support group that I was in.

That really just exploded our movement.

You know, there was news coverage over those laws being passed.

There was news coverage highlighting some of the tragic stories.

We had stories read by a state senator on the Senate floor.

We just started sharing the truth about serious mental illness and not sugarcoating it.

And our movement

In Arizona, that started out with about a dozen moms at that point.

In two years' time, we're now about 550 families.

And that's not a success statement.

That's a tragedy.

Because what we are finding is families and these very sick individuals are being failed by the system.

I'm also learning that while there's a lot of similar problems in every state, there's a lot of differences from state to state in what the problems are.

For example, California has money.

Their programs are funded, but they don't have great laws and they don't have great policies.

Arizona, we have reasonable laws.

We have reasonable policies.

We have good relationships with

our Medicaid office, for example, and the local clinics, but our programs are woefully underfunded.