Professionals are Pleased with President's Gun Violence Plan

WSIL -- Experts in southern Illinois say they're pleased that the President's plan to curb gun violence puts an emphasis on mental health. President Obama's gun violence plan has a variety of elements including weapon restrictions and universal background checks for all gun sales.

Also mentioned, improving mental health services. The President wants to improve mental health awareness among school staff and private insurance providers and medicaid should cover mental health services. But those projects would need funding from congress.

Officials from the H Group are pleased with the president's plan. The organization provides mental and behavioral services across southern Illinois. H Group CEO John Markley says the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary was a landmark event that shows the need to have access to mental health services from a young age.

"I think it will perhaps work against the stigma of a mental illness," says Markley. "There are many impressions people have of people with mental illness and most of them tend to be wrong."

He says mental illness should be treated like any other disease, that's why he was happy to hear the president speak about putting more psychologists and counselors in schools. The H group does preventative work with schools in four counties in southern Illinois.

"I think it'll make a difference in the long term and it is an investment in the community that will pay off," says Markley.

But after cuts to state funding, the group's presence is shrinking. Markley says when mental health issues go unidentified, a person could end up hurting themselves or others. In severe cases, it leads to a poor quality of life.

"They don't get the primary care help that they need, so they live in terms of life expectancy, 25 years less than you or I," says Markley. "Not because of their mental illness but because they don't seek the primary care help that they need. It's part of the illness."

Source: http://www.wsiltv.com/news/local/Professionals-are-Pleased-with-Presidents-Gun-Violence-Plan-187392771.html

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