PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Tamara Miguel, Independent Advocate for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities
5:30:01
·
146 sec
Tamara Miguel, an independent advocate for individuals with mental health crises and developmental disabilities, provided testimony on the importance of addressing mental health and developmental disabilities in the system. She emphasized the need for proper training and services, as well as changing the language and perception surrounding mental health.
- Highlighted the "preschool to prison pipeline" and the lack of appropriate services for individuals with mental health needs
- Stressed the importance of explicitly including children and adults with developmental disabilities in laws and training
- Pointed out the misconception of correlating mental health with violence, citing statistics from NAMI
Tamara Miguel
5:30:01
My name is Tamara Miguel, and I am an independent advocate for people of all ages who experience mental health crises and or developmental disabilities.
5:30:13
I started out in the education system and watched the preschool to prison pipeline, the preschool to prison pipeline myself, as my clients could not receive the care that they needed because the services were not there or were not instituted appropriately.
5:30:38
I also I also testify as a person with mental health cons who has had mental health crises and as a mother who is raising a child with mental health crises and developmental disabilities.
5:30:55
We must express itly right into the system, into every law that we publish children and adults with developmental disabilities, and training for the individuals who who deal with those crises.
5:31:11
It is imperative that we not if we don't write them in, that they don't that training does not occur, and they don't get added in.
5:31:21
It Not only that, it is imperative that we there is a pipeline we talk about the prison the preschool to prison pipeline.
5:31:35
There the number of individuals with mental health disorders that are in our gels is three times more than the average population, not only that, but it is proven in the NAMI In one of the nami series from this past January, that incidence of mental health is is miscorrelated with violence.
5:32:09
Is miscorrelated with violence.
5:32:10
It's higher for individuals who are drinking and individuals who have been abused and individuals with access to guns three times higher.
5:32:20
We need to change our language and treat mental health as health care, not anything else.
