Washington Tour for H.R.3717 Supporters

WASHINGTON TOUR FOR FAMILIES OF MENTALLY CHALLENGED AMERICANS IN FAVOR OF H.R.3717 "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act". Although the bill has good support in Congress, it needs advocacy by the stakeholders. Many people are impacted by severe mental illness in themselves or close family members, and a Washington tour is being planned for them and others who wish to support justice for the mentally ill. As we have seen in numerous avoidable tragedies, mental illness affects us all, whether or not a relative has that condition.

We will reserve D.C. hotel rooms and buses to leave from CA, GA, MO, NY, and a couple of other states soon. We will begin accepting down payments on YOUR TRIP after we get some pricing information (proposals are requested from bus companies and travel agencies). This is Going To Happen, People. We will take this fight to D.C. before election day 2014 - likely in September! Only support candidates who support human rights. No more long-term #solitaryconfinement #policebrutality or #prison deaths for mentally ill Americans. We demand psychiatric treatment and human rights!

If Congress won't listen to us rather than prison investors, we will take this fight to the United Nations. Volunteer by commenting below if you are willing to be an organizer for the Washington tour in your region, or email MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com . Congressman Tim Murphy (PA-18, a psychologist) has a bill before Congress that will answer many of our concerns. We REFUSE to be ignored.

If you care about people with Autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, dementia, depression, PTSD, or any other serious mental disorder, please support this Washington tour for families of people with brain disorders who are brutalized, imprisoned, homeless, or those who are at greater risk for those occurrences than mentally healthy Americans.  Support this Washington tour if you want safer communities and a lower prison budget (currently over $80 billion annually). H.R.3717 provides for four essential changes:

• Resumption of Medicaid insurance for psychiatric inpatients in certain facilities;
• Assisted outpatient programs (AOT) that allow involuntary psychiatric treatment and give subsistence assistance (food, housing);
• Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for police officers and prison guards who need specialized training to make safer lunacy arrests and to avoid injuries to mentally ill detainees;
• Relaxed HIPPA rules, which will allow families of mentally ill people to know about their relative's condition and treatment.

We also demand better accountability when mentally ill people are mistreated or killed by law enforcement and corrections officers. 

Please indicate your interest in going on the Washington Tour for H.R.3717 or your willingness to help sponsor a family on this trip. Call Mary Neal, director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill, at 678.531.0262 or use the email address above.

We tire of Americans with mental handicaps being imprisoned to enrich prison profiteers, brutalized by police or neighborhood thugs, and killed behind bars or before they reach jails because they have common, treatable health conditions. We have in H.R.3717 a congressional bill that can significantly reduce those occurrences and restore people with serious mental illness to wholesome lives. It is time for families and advocates to do everything in our power. More information will be added to this article as details about the Washington tour emerge. The warehousing of 1.25 million mentally ill Americans in prisons and jails has continued long enough. It is time for real Change.

It is always the right time to do what is right. ~ Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please read H.R.3717. Its language, status and co-sponsors are at
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/3717 . See also H.R.401 "Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Act of 2013," introduced by Rep. Richard Nugent (R-FL).

JAIL IS THE LAST THING MENTAL PATIENTS NEED ... AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our quest to decriminalize mental illness in America. No one should be punished for having a disability. Please contact your congressional representative today and demand that hospitalization and outpatient treatment replace incarceration for the mentally ill people in your state. Support H.R.3717 by emailing your reps today at http://www.house.gov/writerep

Please assist us by sharing this invitation and/or the url to our radio broadcasts with mentally ill people and their families as well as prisoner activists, mental health organizations, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, lawyers, congresspersons, students, law enforcement officers and administrators, and others who may have input or an interest in mental health law in the USA. Thank you for helping to give ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL.

Mary Neal, director
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI)
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com
678.531.0262

Seeking Dog Justice for America's Mentally Ill People