"This is a disease, just like cancer," Colorado family member Candie Dalton tells reporter Liz Szabo. "It's just as devastating. But you don't get the support. You don't get people saying, 'Oh, your child is in the hospital. Can I come over with a casserole?'"
"We have replaced the hospital bed with the jail cell, the homeless shelter and the coffin," Rep. Tim Murphy, author of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, tells Szabo. "How is that compassionate?"
Coverage like this in the third most widely circulated newspaper in America will significantly raise awareness of the need to reform mental health policies and remove obstacles to treatment – and provide an easy way for you to familiarize your community and elected leaders with the consequences of non-treatment.
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