Society’s wait-and-see inactivity—until something horrible happens—in effect criminalizes mental illness, says Austin Mardon
Austin Mardon is an academic, author, and community leader who has participated in community based volunteerism and is an advocate for the disabled. He has also struggled with schizophrenia for much of his adult life. In 2006, Austin became the first Canadian with schizophrenia to be awarded the Order of Canada. In a full commentary published on June 14, 2014 in the Edmonton Journal, Austin argues that mental illness should be treated as aggressively as cancer. “Our inactivity as a society until something horrible happens,” he writes, “in effect criminalizes mental illness, which is first and foremost an illness and a medical issue.” Austin believes that tragedies such as the murders of three Moncton, New Brunswick RCMP officers on June 4, will continue to happen until we learn to diagnose and treat mental illnesses quickly and aggressively.
We speak with Austin Mardon.
MORE |The final days of Zlatko Sego: After beating his father to death, mentally ill man killed himself in jail (Toronto Star, June 15, 2014) | Stand Down: All too often, the victims of police shootings are people with mental illness (The Walrus, July/August 2014) |
Image from the National Catholic Reporter
more about Austin Mardon
Austin Mardon’s website | Austin Mardon at Wikipedia | Health Ethics Centre bio | Books by Austin Mardon at Amazon.ca |
