Judy de Cesare ( Phillips),  I have worked with  mental health consumers for the last 18 years. I've tried to get them on pills and do talk therapy.  Being bi-polar myself I know how important these two        are in combination.  I will be doing both the rest of my life.   The rest of my life I will also work to eliminate the fear and prejudice  again people with mental health disease.  This my passion.

Good for you, Judy.

Keep up the good work, Judy.

Thank you for your dedication this work. Being a very ornery chronic depressive, it's taken a long time to acknowledge that there are medications that can help, though finding the right ones can be an ordeal in its own way, and the talk therapy is indeed crucial.

I wholeheartedly agree that more needs to be done to raise awareness and reduce the cultural phobia about mental illness in all its forms. It's all the disasters, the homcides based on delusions, the rages of PTSD, that make the news.Rarely so the success stories. So many feel constrained from talking to co-workers or social contacts.

Tom Harrell, LAHS '63, is a World Class and highly regarded Jazz muscian who has coped with very profound schizophrenia since his early twenties.The acceptance and support he receives due to his brillance should be extended to everyone dealing with problems that are essentially neurochemical imbalances and not expressions of moral failure or inherent evil.