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George DelGrosso, Executive Director Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council; Jeanne M. Rohner, President and CEO Mental Health America of Colorado; Lacey Berumen, Executive Director National Alliance for Mental Illness; Amy Smith, Director WE CAN! of Colorado and Karen Wojdyla, Executive Director Colorado Psychological Association writes:

This week’s incident involving a man with mental illness and a freshman at the University of Colorado demonstrates the complexity of mental health issues in our communities. We applaud your efforts to balance those issues in your coverage.
Most importantly, the hearts of everyone involved with Coloradoís mental health community go out to those who have been impacted by this event. We hope for a speedy recovery for Mr. Knorps, Mr. Astin, and those who witnessed the tragic episode.
We urge our neighbors to take this opportunity to learn more about mental health for themselves and others. Greater awareness and understanding can lead to a stronger community support system, which will benefit all of us in many ways.
Mental illness impacts about one out of every four families at any given time and it impacts almost half of us during our lifetimes. It is more common than cancer and many other major diseases combined. The good news is that research has shown that community treatment, including employment, is the most effective road to recovery. These programs are extremely safe and extremely positive for everyone.
We hope that this weekís incident will not cause anyone with a mental illness to lose a job or to experience discrimination in any way. Such acts would be extreme and unjust.
We hope that the University of Colorado and other employers across the state will work with the mental health community to strengthen the system and create even more opportunities for recovery. These employers are truly heroes who are working miracles in the communities across our state.
The community mental health system works very well, but it requires community involvement to realize its full potential. We urge all stakeholders to join us in our constant quest to strengthen the community mental health system across the state and nation.

This letter has not been edited.

READER COMMENTS

Let this be a reminder that your "Progressive" friends are indeed mentally ill and need the system to be there for them.

The average foaming at the mouth liberal needs medication and understanding. We must support the mental health system so these troubled souls have a place to heal.

Gods knows they wont pay for it because they believe in the "right" to be cared for by the government, so we all need to pitch in and give our sick lefty friends the help they need so badly.

Open your heart. Then open your wallet.

Truthy, re-read the line about almost half of us needing mental health treatment. Please!

Hi Sharon,

For myself, after some 45+ years shrinking heads, I've come to the conclusion that for there to be "mental health" there first has to be a "mentality"; something notably conspicious by its absence in the 12:37 PM posting.

Hi Old Grouch. People still think they can be mentally healthy on their own. Kind of a will power thing. Their bodies can get sick or malfunction, that is just bad luck, but a mental problem is a sign of weakness.

Poor people that feel that way. I call some of them the $2.00 a day people. The OCD ones and others that can be helped with that small amount of money a day for meds.

And heaven help the baby or child with a mental illness, that must be the parents, doctors or pharmaceutical industries fault.

Let's address how mental health is handled by the health insurance companies. My mother is bi-polar, and came to live with us. I went looking to get health insurance for her, and discovered that bi-polar is an automatic decliner for 14 of 15 companies licensed here in CO. The only company that will cover it starts at $600 a month. This makes no sense. She takes one cheap medication a month, and is as "normal" as anyone else, and yet is declined in the same categories as cost-intensive conditions like leukemia etc.

fiesty, it is this kind of problem that makes so many people get meds from their family practitioner. They just label the problems differently.

One example: Xanax (sp) for anxiety, also reduces the muscle cramps of Crohn's disease and muscle tension. Docs don`t have to list the mental problem only the physical.

We need to stop this dancing around and deal with this area as adults.

However, 5 or 6 comments on this while Jesus as capitalist gets hundreds. What does that say about our society.?

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