Mental health is our civic duty

The recent column by

Murray Mandryk (“Province must get serious about commitment to mental health supports,” Jan. 23) is a timely reminder for each and every one of us.

It’s certainly a very pressing issue, each and every day, in every part of this province, and for sure, goes beyond the drawn-with-a-ruler-andpencil boundaries on the map carved into the prairie grass landscape for a good number of years now.

We as common citizens have, in concert with our elected officials, the serious obligation to study up as much as we can on pertinent issues arising from the everyday concerns, which include the mounting anguish brought about when mental illness is not adequately paid attention to.

Mandryk draws your and my concern to some people in the present government who seem unconvinced and patently unmotivated to pay the attention that human dignity and public health and good order require.

Comprehensively legislated compassion on behalf of the mentally ill — if truly argued for, worked for and put into action — could have such a profoundly positive impact on the lives of individuals, families and communities.

We have a statue of our first premier, Walter Scott (who suffered from depression), which graces our Legislative Gardens.

So many psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists, counsellors, psychologists, general practitioners, social workers, community workers, chaplains, community volunteers and many others have put so much of their lives into trying to bring to fruition forms of community service.

It’s staggering.

Yet, to this day, there is so little in our contemporary culture that gives some indication the majority of our civically elected leaders are willing to take the required stand.

This isn’t about professional sport, media popularity, or financial status.

It’s about dignity, and it’s about time!

Karenanne Joy Krofchek, Regina