Out of the Shadows Summit Sheds Light on Mental Health Awareness in Oxford

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"Mental illness is something that every jail in the state of Alabama deals with," Calhoun County Sheriff Matthew Wade tells the Calhoun Journal.

"Resources are not there to properly take care of people in the state of Alabama for this.Jails become a de facto mental health hospital, there's just not enough resources for mental health officials to help, they just don't have enough.

These people end up in a county jail, and that's not right for them or us.

Unlike other diseases, such as cancer, it doesn't change their behavior....

People that are homeless, are mentally ill, there are resources out there that will help them find a home, get them help, groceries, pay their house, they just don't have the faculties to do all of that and so they end up homeless because of their illness."

That's why Wade and state Sen.

Keith Kelly are working to get more funding for mental health services in Alabama.

"Just like cancer, nobody wants cancer," Kelly tells the Journal.

"Nobody can keep themselves from getting mental illnesses the same way.

Nobody asked for it.

It's not shameful."



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