The 988 system, launched July 16, builds on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, an existing network of over 200 crisis centers countrywide
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — On a few occasions, Sitaniel Wimbley’s mother grew manic in her front yard. When neighbors were met with screaming and cursing on their street in Natchez, Mississippi, they would dial 911.
An officer would arrive to collect Wimbley’s mother, who battled chronic bipolar schizophrenia. Her first stop was jail. Then she would be brought to a place she still can’t bring herself to drive near decades later: the Mississippi State Hospital in Whitfield. Once there, she would be detained with what she said was little explanation. No one told her how long she would be held for treatment; they just told her she couldn’t leave.
Stories like these reverberate through generations, stoking mistrust of the mental health system, especially within Black communities.
As director of the Mississippi chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Wimbley, who is Black, is on the front lines of a local effort with national implications. She is working to strengthen connections between mental health programs and people skeptical of their services. The work takes on a renewed urgency after the federal government today!
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