Violence and mental health care

Mental health care reform is crucial to minority communities in Iowa.

Governor Branstad recently rejected plan to reopen the state's mental hospital at Mount Pleasant and vetoed measures to restore mental health care facilities at Clarinda. Today both of these facilities have effectively been shut down.

This battle has been an ongoing problem that is not limited to these to facilities but stretches all across Iowa - even into my hometown of Cedar Rapids, where the attention is needed the most. The Abbe Center, a long-standing residential mental health care facility was recently forced to close its inpatient program due to lack of funding.

The consequences to these events are critical. Lack of mental health services affects everyone, though the impact hits harder in low income and minority communities.

By addressing mental health care reform and promoting wellness education, we can single-handedly address multiple challenges in our community which have mental health as the underlying issue.

Minorities and low-income families experience a shocking amount of exposure to violence and trauma. Rarely is that experience addressed as an issue affecting mental health or wellness.

We are reminded, for an example of the tragic incident of Aaron K. Richardson, 15, of Cedar Rapids who was killed by another youth, 14 years old, in September. Or the tragic incident in Ferguson in which Mike Brown, an unarmed teenager, was killed, or in Florida where Trayvon Martin, another unarmed youth, was killed. The ripple of outcry of the community, of sadness, loss and rage remains today.

Whether the violence comes from within the community or from outsiders, it exists like a poison and we are all affected. Still, efforts to treat it as such are undermined or neglected. These incidents, ranging from local everyday violence to national issues and events, have traumatized the black community - yet there is no call for healing or health care to deal with the trauma.

The facts point to an even more alarming correlation that shows how violence dismantles the black family and personal relationships. By some estimates, 47 percent of black people, compared with 18 percent of white people, know someone who has been a victim of gun violence. Nineteen percent of black people have a family member who has died because of gun violence.

Gun violence dismantles the family structure. Individuals have experienced great loss, yet it remains an untreated open wound. That is why wellness, self-care, mental health screenings and education need to be integrated into our education systems and mental health care institutions need to be funded.

Many confuse mental health issues for criminal justice issues, arresting broken people for petty crimes and minor drug abuse rather than helping them get help. We can be proactive in building stronger communities and individuals, using tools of self-care and mental health awareness to handle crisis and violence to build families back together.

' Danielle Holliday, a graduate of University of Iowa, is a freelance writer and community organizer. Comments: dhollida122@gmail.com