To the editor:

My heart goes out to Kathy Mitchell on the tragic death of her mentally ill daughter to suicide.

I was the chairperson for the Douglas County Chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) from 1986 to 1992. I was also active on the state level with the newsletter. I attended several of the meetings of Gov. Mike Hayden’s Task Force for Mental Health Reform. The resulting House bill designated phasing out Topeka State Hospital to channel funds into the communities.

We still need a secure, short-term psychiatric unit, which LMH closed out. I pray this incident will be a wake-up call for an active task force to set up the unit again. Osawatomie State Hospital has a helicopter landing pad. With road conditions being bad, why wasn’t this used to transport Brianna Mitchell? If she had been critically injured in an auto accident, you can bet she would have been life-flighted out to somewhere like KU Med. It is almost impossible for a family to take charge of a loved one with severe and persistent mental illness in crisis, any more than if that person had been in a severe auto accident.

LMH, Bert Nash, consumers and doctors, now is the time for action and not excuses. Let’s do it right!

Judy Arentson,

Lawrence