Sandy Hook: Seizing the moment for mental health—nine steps to take now

"Mom," lamented my twenty-something daughter the morning after the news about Sandy Hook began to sink in. "This is so awful. Something's got to be done about gun control!" "Gun control absolutely," I replied. "But what about mental illness? That's the deeper issue."

Not to diminish the long-overdue opportunity to deal with gun control head-on, but as someone who works daily with nonprofits to engage individuals in their communities about their real work, I repeat what I said to my daughter: "What about mental illness?"

It sure seems like this is the seize-able moment, if ever there were one, to shine the light on the mental health issue. Whether your organization's primary focus is on children's mental health, domestic violence, substance abuse, or adult behavioral health, the Sandy Hook shootings are now top of mind for many in your community who may have avoided anything to do with mental health in the past. How can you and your staff make a concerted effort to seize the moment, whether in your media, your social media, or good old fashioned word-of-mouth?

1. First, tell them in a nutshell (or remind them) what your organization does, how long you've been there, and why you do the work you do.
    
2. Next, if you haven't already done so, smarten yourself up on the statistics about mental illness and assault weapons in your community. Prepare a cheat sheet for your staff with these statistics and how they overlap with your client population. Make the connection responsibly and powerfully between your organization's work and what happened at Sandy Hook. If you work with children and families, talk about the incidence of family violence that exists in your community. If you run a group home for teens with mental illness or a shelter for street youth, share trends or stories about the dangers of mixing mental illness and weapons. How many children, adults, or families do you serve daily, weekly, or monthly, who have been victims of violence or are capable of committing heinous acts of violence? Don't sugar-coat the facts.
    
3. Share statistics and stories that illuminate them about the positive impact of treatment. Let people know that treatment works. If necessary, for confidentiality purposes, alter facts and/or piece together a composite story from multiple clients served by your organization. Paint the picture with details. Give the person a fictitious name and age but stick to the truth of the story as much as possible.
   
   Include at least three specific things your organization did to alter the course of life for this client or family. Stress the skilled training needed to deal with such situations. Avoid any jargon or vague references to the "treatment" your staff provided or terms like "dual diagnosis." Instead, give specifics like: we provided counseling to get him to let out his rage at his mother, medication to help him manage his anger, art therapy where she drew pictures of the guns in her father's closet.
    
4. If the story did not have a positive outcome, speak honestly about the reasons and what more would have been needed to make that difference. Give specifics. For example: the funding ran out after six sessions, the laws here no longer allow us to institutionalize potentially dangerous people until we have more evidence, we needed more witnesses to that crime before we could have him committed. Pull back the curtain and let people into your world.
    
5. Talk about the professional training required to serve your clients. Do you have psychiatrists on the payroll? What about psychiatric nurses? Psychologists? Social workers? Other trained professionals? Talk about the years of training you went through, internships, as well as the priceless on-the-job training of your loyal staff, who are doing their "life's work."
    
6. Share your dream of a community where every individual with a mental illness has access to treatment. Let them know how many more people would need to be served and what it would take to mount the political will to accomplish that task.
    
7. Convey a sense of urgency, not complacency or resignation. Share your commitment to seize the public attention post-Sandy Hook for behavioral healthcare.
    
8. Tell them how they can help. Do you need them to go to the legislature, write letters, or host educational presentations in their offices, homes, or churches about mental illness? Do you need them to get out there and tell their own stories—everyone has one, you know?
    
9. Finally, be authentic. Let people know that, although you and your staff deal with this daily, it still upsets you deeply every time you hear a tragic story. Let them know you care.