The sad part of society, according to Judge Nelson Wolff, is that we make things worse for people with mental illness.
Wolff was one of the featured speakers during a One in Five Minds press conference in recognition of National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week. The press conference was held in Alamo Plaza May 6, 2015.
On a positive note, Wolff shared some of the initiatives that have started in San Antonio and Bexar County in the past few years, including more treatment and less incarceration.
Wolff talked about Bexar County’s first Mental Health Court and the city’s early intervention program, “where policeman can decide to take someone to a treatment center instead of to jail.”
“A lot of effort is being made,” he said, “but the real problem is [lack of] early intervention.”
Wolff mentioned changes in Child Protective Services and how new effort is being made to “hold families together; to make them well; and to make the place a good place for the child to grow up.”
“I doubt there is a family here today, or anywhere in the United States, who doesn’t have some relative who struggles with mental health,” Wolff said. “We’re there to help them and hold the family unit together.”
Please watch the entire One in Five Minds press conference online.
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