Once again our community has been touched by the death of someone whose life was affected by mental illness.

It is time that we as a community unite to say enough is enough. Too many lives are lost to suicide; too many families are devastated by struggles with mental illness. The personal and economic costs are staggering.

I serve on the foundation board for the Center for Mental Health (CMH) and we opened the Care House a year and a half ago to provide crisis stabilization for individuals who are in a mental health crisis and want help. In the last 19 months the Care House has helped hundreds of individuals and it is clear that we need more space than the six-bed house can provide. As we started planning for expansion, the City of Helena, the Montana Business Assistance Connection, the Rocky Mountain Development Council (RMDC) and others have helped us. In the next year, the Center for Mental Health hopes to undertake the building or rehabilitation of a larger, more adequate facility and we will turn to the Helena community for support through a capital campaign.

But the greater Helena area has a much greater need than just a new crisis stabilization facility. We need to create a system of mental health care that serves our entire community. We need prevention and awareness education, we need a crisis hotline that is staffed by trained volunteers or professionals, we need recovery and support programs that support individuals who are trying to live with mental illness. We need adequate housing and medical services for people with mental illness.

Recently there has been a lot of news coverage and attention given to veterans returning from the Iraq war who need mental health services and because of the efforts of many in the Helena community and our congressional leaders, the Veteran’s Administration is working to improve services.

In the past three years, thanks to the efforts of the NAMI, the CMH and a grant from the state, 22 Helena law enforcement officers have received Crisis Intervention Training. We have the largest number of trained officers in the state of Montana. We have one of the first and one of the largest Program’s for Active Community Treatment (PACT) in the state of Montana. This “hospital without walls” program allows individuals with a serious mental illness to live in our community. RMDC, the CMH, St. Peter’s Hospital, Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Jefferson counties have worked together to provide a team of mental health professionals who provide 24-hour, seven-days-a-week crisis response services. That partnership also helped the CMH open the Care House.

Mental illness is a life threatening illness. As with many other illnesses, treatment works and people do recover. But to do so, the community must provide the facilities and services to see that all people have access to timely and appropriate services.

As a community we have taken on the needs of people with cancer, diabetes, survivors of domestic violence, individuals who lack food and shelter. Now it is time we say the one in five people whose lives are touched by mental illness need our attention.

Mignon Waterman of Helena is a former state senator and a Center for Mental Health Foundation Board member.