For the fourth year in a row, the Hanley Center Foundation on Tuesday hosted a drug addiction and mental health summit at the Max Planck Florida Institute.
NewsChannel 5’s Michael Williams moderated three of the panel discussion focused on overcoming the stigma the two have and what area partners are doing to address the issue.
Experts in the field say for far too long our society has neglected these problems.
“It’s time to get it out of the closet. It’s time to have the conversation with everybody we know. If I personally struggled with a mental illness, I need to share that with my neighbor, my family, because someone out there is struggling and doesn’t know this information,” said Jan Cairnes with the Hanley Center Foundation.
Prominent members of the healthcare and law enforcement communities, scientists, elected officials and educators were involved in the event.
"We can't arrest ourselves out of community problems." Michael Gauger, @PBCountySheriff says about mental issues pic.twitter.com/yfEfCJ4rbG
— Andrew Ruiz (@AndrewNRuiz) December 1, 2015
Addiction & Mental Health summit tackling issues in our community. @MWilliamsWPTV5 moderating @WPTV pic.twitter.com/8936EpZwEW
— Andrew Ruiz (@AndrewNRuiz) December 1, 2015
