Page 43 - ACTL_Sum23

We need to do more. You talk about it, nor- malize it. I’ve hugged more kids who have tried to kill themselves or have been hospitalized after a suicide attempt than I never knew existed. Did you know that every ninety minutes in the United States, every single day, including this day, some brave American veteran, he or she takes their own life. We lose twenty veter- ans a day to suicide in the United States. Are we okay with that? Do you realize that last year and for many years before last year, more police officers and first responders die by suicide than every other cause in the line of duty combined. One in five adults, one in five young people will have a mental health problem in their lifetime. Nothing to be ashamed of. It’s a health problem, not a character flaw, it’s not a choice. Evidence-based treatment works. And sometimes all people need is someone to talk to, someone to share a hug with them. I know that. Mental health is an issue in the profession of law. It’s an issue everywhere. It’s an is- sue in law schools. It’s an issue with judg- es. When are we finally going to be willing to say, publicly and without shame, my mother, my father, my cousin, my brother, myself – that’s when change will come, but not before then. Not before then. I need your help. I would love it if the American College, the best group of trial lawyers in the world, said we should be doing more. We should be talking about that more. If you do that, you will save and change lives. Trust me when I say that. You’re all high achieving people and I respect you immensely. Your voices matter in this country. If it’s important to you, it’s important in your com- munity. I’m asking people to be impatient for change. We don’t have a mental health system in the United States. We never have and we never will, until we insist on it. This generation will do it. Trust me, I love these kids, but they don’t have power now. Most of them can’t even vote. But we have clout, we have power, we have votes. We can rally the public. We need to do it. I need your help to change the culture around mental illness. That seems like a heavy lift, probably, but we need to do it. Baby Boomer generation did some great things, but not on mental health, we didn’t. We just looked the other way. We kicked the can down the road. That’s not the answer here. We should learn the five basic signs of mental illness and how to react to them. What are the signs? Not feeling like yourself. We know what that is. I don’t mean for a day, we all have bad days – on a persistent basis where someone you know and love is not acting like themselves. Easily agitated. I don’t mean upset for a day. I mean on a persistent basis, different than you recall, either in yourself or someone you know. Are you withdrawing? I don’t mean are you shy? I mean are you withdraw- ing from the world around you? The fourth sign is hygienic. Are you not caring for yourself? Used to be pret- ty well organized and put together, but now you or your friend, they don’t seem quite the same. Something’s happened. Do you feel hopeless? We all have those days. Believe me, we do. I know that. I was a trial lawyer. I used to feel hopeless waiting for the jury, but that’s not the kind of hopeless I’m talking about. I’m talking hopeless with no exit. I encourage you to learn these signs. I’ve given out 500,000 of these cards all over New England. I’d like one on every refrigerator door, every office, every classroom. If you help me, if this organization decides to help, we could really change and save lives. We owe it to ourselves, but more importantly, we especially owe it to kids. They are depending on us to change it. Robert B. Fiske, Jr. New York, NY EDITOR’S NOTE: Hard to read Judge Broderick’s story without wanting to do some- thing to help him, help his cause. And as he says, we owe it to kids, but we also owe it to ourselves. One small way to help him and yourself at the same time might be to buy his book, Backroads and Highways, that deals in far more detail with all of this – the proceeds from which go to the cause. Just ordered it myself; you can find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, wherever. SUMMER 2023 JOURNAL 42