First APEX Awards Go to Politicians, Actors
Abstract
Raising awareness about overrepresentation of people with mental illness in America’s jails is highlighted by a new set of awards presented to a diverse set of advocates.
The Stepping Up Summit on reducing the number of people with mental illnesses in jails also featured an innovative step for APA: the presentation of the American Psychiatric Excellence (APEX) Awards to seven people for their mental health advocacy efforts in that cause.
Stars of the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” pose for photos after receiving one of the first-ever American Psychiatric Association Excellence (APEX) Awards. From left are Natasha Lyonne, Dascha Polanco, and Matt McGorry.
Honorees included House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.); Florida State Sen. Miguel Díaz de la Portilla (R-Miami-Dade); and ABC and NPR news commentator Cokie Roberts. Three actors from the hit Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black” were recognized: Natasha Lyonne, Dascha Polanco, and Matt McGorry.
“It’s terrific that this night is happening,” Roberts told Psychiatric News. “The combination of politicians, actors, doctors, and activists here will shine a spotlight on the issue and will energize the people here to take it forward.”
No family is immune from mental health issues, she said. “The fact that so much of our mental health care in this country takes place in prisons is shocking. Beyond the moral issues involved, as a taxpayer, I’m outraged.”
Franken alluded to the replacement of one form of institutionalization with another.
Sen. Al Franken was honored for his leadership in seeking solutions to the nation’s mental health crisis and its link to the criminal justice system. With him are APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., and APA President Renée Binder, M.D.
“Our society’s dirty little secret is that we are using our prisons as a substitute for a fully functional mental health system,” said Franken, a cosponsor of the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act with Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), at a summit session the next morning. “We need to focus more upstream, to be sure people can access preventive and treatment care.”
De la Portilla was recognized for his bill, titled Mental Health Services in the Criminal Justice System, which was passed unanimously by both houses of the Florida state legislature in March.
The actors, who play the roles of inmates and a guard in a women’s prison, added their perspectives at the evening event.
“I’m honored to be a part of the first-ever APEX Awards,” said Lyonne. “The high rate of incarceration of people with mental illness has been a silent crisis for too long. The problems in our prison system are easy to miss, but just like the show has opened a window, the APEX Awards have shown why criminalizing mental illness is wrong and how we can do better.”
McGorry recounted his personal understanding of mental health care.
“I’ve been in therapy since I was 14,” he said in an interview. “It’s great to have an objective person to help you understand yourself better, and I’m grateful that I’ve been able to afford that throughout my life. It’s a real privilege, but it’s something that should be accessible to everyone.”
Award-winning journalist Cokie Roberts emceed the APEX event.
The lack of mental health treatment in the criminal justice system is yet another critical issue, he said.
“We’re locking people up instead of putting them in places where they can get treatment, and it compounds the problems,” he said. “We really have to restructure our priorities in how we deal with mental health care and drug rehabilitation.”
Roberts called on attendees to continue to advocate for mental health reform. Sadly, Congress gets interested after a mass shooting only because the anti-gun control lobby talks about mental illness as a cause, she said.
“You need to call them out on that,” she urged her audience. “Both parties talk about criminal justice reform, but Congress doesn’t [take action] just because it’s the right thing to do. You have to pull something to the top of the pile.” ■
More information on the campaign to end the incarceration of people with mental illness can be read in the Psychiatric News article “Senators Urged to Break Cycle of Jailing People With Mental Illness”.
