Mental illnesses in Kentucky could be better treated if patients had more peer support, motivational counseling to stay on their medications, and if there were additional drop-in centers scattered across the state.
Those suggestions are from a man who spent more than 30 years counseling patients at two psychiatric hospitals in Kentucky. Reggie Gentry testified in Frankfort on Wednesday (September 18) before the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare.
Gentry says those who suffer from mental illnesses continue to be stigmatized. The only time you hear about them, says Gentry, is when there’s a tragedy, like the shootings at the U-S Naval Shipyard on Monday (September 16).
"People of mental illnesses make the headlines when they do harm, as we noticed yesterday, but people of mental illnesses are no more harmful than the rest of us." --Reggie Gentry
Gentry also believes it would help if patients were given more options for their treatment. He says many people resent the fact that it has been imposed on them by court order.