Lt. Gov. Calley Leads Mental-Health Conversation in Michigan

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Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley began his journey as an advocate for mental health issues in Michigan while he was a lawmaker in the state House. Now with the Snyder administration he has continued to lead the conversation about mental health in the state. Calley helped push for health coverage for autism treatment in Michigan, a subject he understands well as his young daughter has the condition. But sometimes it seems Calley is the only politician in Lansing truly talking about mental health issues in a substantive way. How much difference can one man make on such an expansive and multi-faceted problem? A recent state-by-state ranking for mental health in the United States put Michigan near the bottom of the list. Detroit Today host Stephen Henderson talks with Lt. Governor Brian Calley about Michigan’s mental health issues.

• Education: Lt. Governor Calley says the reason mental health resources have fallen short is because of a lack of education on how to deal with people with mental health issues.“The place where we as society failed was we never really properly equipped our communities to deal with [mental illness],” Calley says.
• Courts: Lt. Governor Calley says, “What I’d like to see is our entire court system…were changed to being ‘problem-solving’ courts,” focusing on working on the issue that caused the legal system to become involved.
• Changes: Calley opposed the “Institutionalization” model of mental health treatment, and strives to make the system better for all of Michigan’s citizens. “We have to have a community that supports people,” Calley says.

To hear more of their conversation, click the link above.