A Day on the Hill

Recently, I joined a group of Vail Communities members in order to attend the annual NAMI-sponsored Day on the Hill event at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul. Vail, which now has three clubhouses in Minneapolis, Hopkins, and St. Paul, serves mentally ill adults. I joined four other members from the Uptown Vail to ride in a small van to the State Capitol. We arrived shortly after ten a.m. at a large office building near the Capitol where they had a program featuring about a dozen health care professionals and legislators who spoke on the subject of mental health legislation. I was both surprised and heartened by the large turnout. There must have been more than a hundred people in that room. We were all given a handful of papers that included a map of the State Capitol, the names of Minnesota House and Senate legislators, a list of bills relating to mental health legislation, and directions on how to meet with our legislators.

There I heard about a dozen speakers, the majority of whom were young women, talk about the various bills relating to mental health services that are slated to be voted on this year. They included crisis management, adult and children's mental health services, housing, employment, homelessness, juvenile detention, adult incarceration, and education. Many of the speakers expressed their excitement at the huge response to this event. One of them was Sue Abderholden, executive director of NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness), who has done so much on behalf of mental health advocacy and legislation. There were about a dozen others who emphasized the urgent need to get legislation passed on behalf of mental health services. I was very impressed not only by the speakers' commitment, but also by the fact that they kept their speeches short. We were done in just over an hour.

After this program, about twenty-five of us Vail members had lunch at a nearby church where we were served free sandwiches, bottled water, chips, and granola bars. There I met a woman who handed me a sign to hold during the subsequent rally. The sign said: "Clubhouse improved my life." From the church, we headed for the Capitol rotunda where I stood in the balcony proudly displaying my sign. I again listened to a wide array of speakers including several Minnesota House and Senate legislators. Some people, who had experienced mental illness first-hand, spoke eloquently about their efforts to get help. Others were parents of children with a mental illness, as well as several mental health providers. Because I wasn't able to hear much of what was said in the balcony, I headed downstairs to the rotunda where I could hear the speakers better. Unfortunately, I ended up sitting next to a man with a loud booming voice who kept interrupting the speeches by shouting: "Free speech is dead! Free speech is dead!" Fortunately, the speakers weren't intimidated by his constant heckling. They just ignored his outbursts. I couldn't help but think that this is what can happen because we have free speech in our country.

I'm really glad I had a chance to participate in this exciting event and to do my part in advocating on behalf of mental health. I also found out that this year there was a record number of folks from the three clubhouses of the Vail Communities.