Ellen Betts Clemmer: Supporting mentally ill

Regarding the Sept. 29 Barry Saunders column “I know tasteless, and this qualifies”: A bloody psycho ward Halloween costume is deplorable.

I worked at Dorothea Dix Hospital in the early 1990s as a social worker. Some of my patients had been there for more than 20 years. Dix was their home, a place of refuge and of healing.

In fact I lived in a little brick house on the Dix grounds as a child when my father, Dr. Wilmer C. Betts, was a psychiatrist on the medical staff.

Saunders’ compassion for those who struggle with mental illness is admirable. People with mental illness are no more violent than the general population. Many are frightened and have nowhere to turn to obtain the help they so desperately need and deserve.

Our system of care is fractured, underfunded, politically hamstrung and almost impossible to navigate these days. Dorothea Dix Hospital used to be an integral part of the mental health system. The mentally ill deserve compassion and treatment, not demonization, as was so eloquently shown in Saunders’ column.

Thanks for standing up for people who are unable to advocate for themselves!

This story was originally published October 1, 2015 at 4:29 PM with the headline "Ellen Betts Clemmer: Supporting mentally ill."