No parent who is mentally stable throws their child off a bridge.             John Jonchuck threw his five-year old daughter, Phoebe, off the Dick Misener Bridge in St. Petersburg, Florida, into the Tampa Bay earlier this month. Her body was recovered about a mile from the bridge about two hours later. An autopsy report […]

CONGRESS…Please Don’t Play Politics with Mental Health Reform Elliot Rodger, the 22-year old former student at the University of California Santa Barbara campus, had a history of mental illness. His recent stabbing and shooting binge left six people dead and 13 injured, before he took his own life. A month before this terrible tragedy, a […]

We have yet another mass shooting by an individual suffering from mental illness – this one at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. Specialist Ivan Lopez killed three people and wounded 13 others before committing suicide. Again, we hear the same discussion that follows each shooting – why can’t something be done to prevent these tragedies. […]

            In December, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) introduced the “Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act of 2013,” H.R. 3717. This proposed legislation includes major mental health reforms that would eliminate barriers to treatment and substantially improve care for individuals with the most severe mental illnesses. The majority of people with mental illness are not […]

At age 27, my son’s life changed forever. He was transformed into a different person. He became psychotic, completely out-of-control. He drove his car at high rates of speed with no regard for the safety of others. He was obsessed with neurotic religious beliefs, wired, required little to no sleep. He believed he was in […]