On the eve of a forum designed to identify our city’s mayoral candidate’s stance on mental health, our community was assaulted once more by a random act of violence. This time its victims were unsuspecting and the setting one might consider sacred ground – a bus stop.
The senseless shooting death of Tyree Smith while he and his classmates waited for the schoolbus struck yet another blow to our community’s psyche.
Damon Cobble, president of the Minority Mental Health Project is on a mission. He is in pursuit of bringing the subject of mental health to the forefront of this city and yesterday’s event, the Mayoral Candidate Forum on Mental Health was created to better understand the role this topic plays in the minds and intentions of our city’s next leader.“
Mental health disorders are nonpartisan. Regardless of where we stand politically, mental health disorders and mental health policies affect us all.’
Cobble adds:“ We as an organization and community want to ensure that our candidates have a clear agenda to address mental health and support the many organizations in the trenches doing the work that enables us to stay in our communities and contribute to society which should be a nonpartisan issue.”
Questions posed during the forum were composed by the MMHP board and community stakeholders and topics covered ranged from:“ What mental health policies do you support?” to “discuss the need for a black mental health agenda.”
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