Texas Governor, Greg Abbott thinks mental illness is mind control. He was swayed by arguments from a group founded by the Church of Scientology.
I want to be very clear. Mentalhealthjustice.net is a non-partisan site where EVERYONE IS WELCOME. That means conservative, moderate, independent and liberal folks. As someone who worked for twenty five years as a lobbyist for a teachers' union, I know how partisanship can tarnish an important issue. So, whether you're from Los Angeles, Dallas, Wichita, Jacksonville, Milwaukee or Bangor–mentalhealthjustice.net is a place where you and your mental health stories and opinions are welcome.
However, as we all know, sometimes politicians can say some ridiculous thing. Then to boot they take ridiculous actions based on those irrational beliefs. In those cases, we need to hold politicians accountable regardless of their party affiliation. Such is the case of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Last week, Abbott vetoed a mental health bill because he was convinced by a fringe group that there in no such thing as mental illness and psychiatry is "mind control."
Really!
The bill was pretty straight forward. It gave emergency room doctors the ability to hold patients, experiencing a severe mental health crisis, for up top four hours. The time would be used so mental health professional could evaluate the patients' risk factors. That would significantly reduce suicides and other violent acts committed during a mental health crisis.
That just makes sense. But apparently not to Governor Greg Abbott. So, for his ridiculous proposition that mental illness is not real, mentalhealthjustice.net nominates Abbott for the Knucklehead of the Year Award.
Congratulations Governor the nomination is well deserved!