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EDITORIAL: Mayor issues plea for mental-health initiatives

Fayetteville Observer (NC) - 11/27/2014

Nov. 27--Spring Lake Mayor Chris Rey never received the package that his old friend Myron May mailed from Tallahassee, Florida. It was intercepted after May went to the Florida State University library and opened fire, shooting three people before police killed him. Authorities think May was mentally ill.

While they were both law school students, Rey and May served on the National Black Law Students Association board. They kept in touch more recently through social media. Looking back now, Rey says there were signs of mental illness in May's comments online.

The situation is tragic, but Rey has taken the opportunity to call for changes in public policy that might have helped his friend. That includes increased funding for mental-health research, providing more mental-health resources, improving access to care and educating the public about the need to treat mental illness.

Rey's timely message also includes an emphasis on overcoming misperceptions within communities, especially minorities, where receiving treatment for mental health has an unfair stigma.

Would such efforts have changed things for Myron May? We can't be certain. But changing nothing dims hope for better outcomes for other troubled people.

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