How we can help the Mentally Ill in our Community

(By. Jonathon Bartleson)

October 25, 2015

Jonathon Bartleson
6800 Vista Del Norte Dr. NE 87113
(505) 501-3005
Jbartleson@Unm.edu

Dear City Counsel of Albuquerque,

My Name is Jonathon Bartleson and I am a sophomore at the University of New Mexico,
I have come across a serious problem that is occurring in the city of Albuquerque and need your
help with fixing the problem. The problem is the neglecting and abuse of the mentally ill in
Albuqurque New Mexico. Weather it is young teens who pick on and torture the mentally ill who
are homeless or the police using aggressive force and sometimes even killing the mentally ill,
when they are called upon to help. The mentally ill are normal people who have everyday
struggles and I am willing to take time out of my busy school schedule to give them a voice that
they do not have and stick up for them. In this proposal I will be going over evidence that
supports the problem that is affecting people who have the burden of a mental illness, a solution
to try to bring attention and inform people across the city as well as potentially solve a major
problem. Overall I think that with the city resources we can help the mentally ill around the city
as well as do a good civic deed for those who are less fortunate.
Growing up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I had grandparents who took care of the mentally
ill for a living. They had their house in the front and another part connected to it where they had
mentally ill patients living there. The patients had the right to roam around and my grandparents
treated them so well and taught me that they were the same as me. Their jobs was to make sure
that they have a shelter for their patients as well as feed them and give them their pills. Growing
up around people with a mental illness taught me that they are just normal people and all you
have to do is deescalate situations. I have met so many different type of people with a mental
illness coming and leaving from my grandparents house and they are all nice and really do enjoy
being treated fairly and just like if they were normal humans. Going to my grandparents as a
child I used to look forward to playing board game with the patients not even knowing that there
was a major difference between me and them. I think that if people were more educated about
the mentally ill they would be less scared and a lot less problems would happen. I would also
like to thank the board for their time on going through this proposal, I hope you guys consider
the solution so that we can help out those who are in need.

Analysis of the problem

I first noticed the problem in March of 2014 when the tragedy death of James Boyd
occurred in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, when the police shot and killed James Boyd
who had schizophrenia, a mental illness. Then recently in March of 2015 when a group of minors
in Albuquerque grouped up against two homeless people who had post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD) and beat up and killed those two war veterans. To say that this is not a problem in
Albuqurque is ridiculous because no minority including the mentally ill should be treated
different from anyone else in the city. According to the local paper The New Mexican violent
rates against the homeless have gone up by 7 percent in the past year (2014). It is our job to be
ethical and help out those who cannot stick up for themselves because it is physically impossible
for them to do so. Driving around the city is sad and is a bad look on Albuquerque when people
see people who are homeless due to the fact that they cannot hold a job or have any support
because they are sick and cannot do anything about it. In the online Scholarly Journal Quality of
Life and Subthreshold Affective Symptom (2005) top neuro doctors from the University of Siena
in Italy found a linear correlation between the mentally ill and them not being happy with their
life leading to depression. Being depressed is not okay for anyone but having a link to being
depressed from having a mental illness is just more of a weight for those who have already have
a struggle. This gives us more of a cause to help out normal people who have had a struggle
because life handed them a stigma that makes their life way more difficult then it has to be.

Michael Winerip from the New York Times says 77 percent of the seriously injured
inmates had received a mental illness diagnosis (2014) that is a huge percentage to say that it is
a coincidence. People are being cruel to the mentally ill all across society from the streets to the
prison system. Lawrence Gostin a lawyer from George Town University wrote a scholarly article
on how people view the mentally ill and he says mental illness is well understood, with the deep
stigma and underdressed discrimination, the deplorable living conditions, and the physical and
social barriers preventing their integration (2008). The community of Albuquerque needs to
come together and make a change on how people view the mentally ill and maybe even start a
social movement across the whole country. The city of Albuqurque needs to solve this problem
before it gets even more out of hand and more people die. Being around Albuquerque my whole
life, it is a second community to me and I feel that with the help of the City Council I will be
able to help the problem with my solution as well as give back to a community that has done so
much for me.

Statement of Need
The mentally Ill in our community cannot afford a place to live or the expense of the
medication that they need because they do not have anyone that cares for them and helps them
out. So being out on the streets with no medication is a danger for the citizens around our
community as well as the mentally ill, if they do not know how to calm down a situation and not
provoke the mentally ill to act out. My solution is that we create a place that is like a home for
the mentally ill in downtown Albuquerque because that is the center of our city. This large home
is a warehouse that we can turn into a friendly environment that provides medication to the
mentally ill as well as the love and support they need. We can start out with one massive house
for the mentally ill that gives them the freedom of their own place until we can get more funding
through donations or if the state legislative sees the progression of our community and applies
state funding to create more of these massive houses across the city. Another part of my solution
is setting up night classes in our community high schools teaching the citizens about the mentally
ill and how to handle a situation if they ever get into one. We would go about spreading the
information through small broachers in the mail with facts about our cause as well as some
information on the mentally ill that could possible help them out if they ever find themselves in a
bad situation. The government in South America was able to spread the word and educated
people like this in the 1970s during their age of structuralism which is why I think this will help.
The last part of my solution is to pump funding into our police institutions form the city jail to
the city police so that they can learn how to properly handle the mentally ill without hurting them
and the civilians around them. This is what the LAPD did after the riots occurred during the civil
rights movement and have been successful in changing their policys since then. These solutions
will help keep the mentally ill off the streets and give them a place to call home as well as help
the mentally ill people who decide that they want to stay on the streets, by informing the citizens
around them as well as the police institutions on how to handle the mentally ill if another
situation breaks out, without anyone being hurt.

Goals
To achieve a safe nonviolent environment for the mentally ill in
Albuquerque New Mexico.
To provide a safe place for the mentally ill to live so that they are not on the
streets, as well as a medical clinic for their needs.
To inform citizens across the city about the problem and raise awareness to
help the mentally ill.
To educate citizens across the city on the mentally ill so that they can handle
any situation in a nonviolent way.
To educate the policing institutions across the state on the mentally ill, more
so in deescalating situations instead of using violent force.

 Overall to create an easier environment for those who have mentally ill
struggles so that they can enjoy everyday life without being harassed and not
live in poverty on the streets.
Budget
I am asking the city of Albuquerque to start off with an initial budget of 1.6 million to get
the programs started from within the city. After everything is started I feel that we would have
already raised enough awareness that we could get the funding through donations to keep the
downtown warehouse open and maybe even expand more warehouses across the city. Everyone
will obtain the education literature through mail about the mentally ill and the people who want
to go to the free education classes will go and spread the word around. We would pump funding
into the policing institutions from the city jail to the city police on the proper training of the
mentally ill. The cost for the first warehouse is $850,000 plus an initial $150,000 to reconstruct it
to benefit us, as well as the cost of the supplies and labor to go with the first mentally ill care
center would be another $500,000. The printable literature and classes for the citizens of
Albuquerque would cost $20,000 plus another $20,000 for the police institutions training. Then
an additional $60,000 just in case something else needs more funding if not the money will be
returned to the city for other important uses, as well as the receipts of the bills.

Budg
et
Total

1.6
Million
Downtown
Warehouse

$850,000.0
0

Reconstruction of
Warehouse

$150,000.0
0

Jobs

$350,000.0
0

Medical Supplies

$150,000.0
0

Literature to
inform Citizens

$10,000.00

New Police
Training

$20,000.00

Classes for
Citizens

$10,000.00

Conclusion
The city of Albuquerque is only going to get worse if we do not do anything about the
problem of the mentally ill on the streets and the violence behind it. There will be more mentally
ill people on the streets who cannot take care of themselves leading to more violence around the
city as well as the unnecessary use of violence on the mentally ill if the city keeps putting off the
problem that needs solving. My solution will get most of the mentally ill people who are having
the struggle on the streets off of the streets into a place they can call home. Where they can get
medicated and not have to worry about the problem of being on the streets as well as lower the
violence in the city. My solution will also educate the citizens of Albuquerque on the mentally ill
creating a closer community that cares for the people who are in need of assistance. My solution
will start a social movement in the state of New Mexico on how the police institutions treat the
mentally ill and can maybe even spread across the country. This is our time as citizens to put
away our smaller problems and help out the people who have major problems and do a good
civic deed for our local community.

References
Goracc, Ariann, Mirko, Martinucc, and Umberto, Scalcion. Quality of Life and
Subthreshold Affective Symptom 14.3 (Apr.2005): 905-09. JSTOR. Springer. Web. 1 Mar. 2015.
Gostin, L. O. (2008). Old and new institutions for persons with mental illness:
Treatment, punishment or preventive confinement? Public Health, 122(9), 906-913.
doi:10.1016/j.puhe.2007.11.003.
Martinez, J. (2014, July 7). Violence against the Homeless. New Mexican.
WINERIP, M., SCHWIRTZ, M., & Beachy, S. C. (2014). Where Mental Illness Meets
Brutality in Jail. New York Times.