Letters: On Mental Health Awareness Month, school choice, kidney disease treatments
Urge officials to do more for mental health
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. As a volunteer and advocate with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, this month I am asking everyone to join us and demand #MoreForMentalHealth.
I am doing more by calling on my legislators at the federal and state levels to support legislation that will fund the implementation of 988 and the suicide and mental health crisis system across our nation, particularly for those in underserved communities.
Currently, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available at 800-273-8255 and de-escalates the crises of tens of thousands of callers each day. On July 16, those in distress and those that support them will be able to reach the Lifeline through a simple 3-digit number: 988. By making the Lifeline more accessible through this shorter number, calls, texts and chats to the Lifeline's network of crisis call centers are expected to increase. It is vital that the federal government work with states to ensure callers in distress will have: Someone to call, someone to come help and somewhere safe to go.
Join me in urging our federal and state public officials to do #MoreForMentalHealth. You can start by visiting moreformentalhealth.org.
Together, we can help #StopSuicide.
— Lisa Jourden, Oklahoma City
Better kidney disease treatment requires funding
As a kidney transplant recipient, I often wonder why dialysis and transplant have been the only options for kidney disease for the last 50 years. I fear the answer is funding.
I’m glad Congress recently passed the 2022 Federal Budget, which increases funding to kidney disease detection and research. This budget doesn’t “fix” kidney disease, which affects over 37 million adults in the U.S. (800,000 of them are in kidney failure), but it’s a step in the right direction.
Medicare spends more than $150 billion annually — 24% of its budget — on treating patients with kidney disease. Studies estimate that over a million patients will be in kidney failure by 2030. We also could face a tidal wave of new kidney patients due to COVID-19 infections.
We can’t continue to focus tax dollars on treating end-stage kidney failure with 50-year-old treatment options. Prevention, awareness, research, innovation and early interventions are needed, as well as more options.
I’m calling on our federal lawmakers to prioritize funding to address kidney health in the coming fiscal year. The science and ability are there, we just need the will and financial support to do it!
— James York, Ada
We must fund students, not systems
It’s time for Oklahoma to recognize the importance of empowering parents by passing legislation that will enable them to choose the educational path that best fits their children's needs. The Legislature dropped the ball by not passing Senate Bill 1647 this session, which would have done that.
My son, Lorenzo, is an intellectually gifted third-grader that is not being challenged in his public school. He was admitted into his district’s Gifted & Talented Program and has received two worksheets of "gifted" education since September 2021. To my knowledge, there are no teachers that have been trained in Gifted & Talented education in our district, and a Gifted & Talented pull-out program is non-existent. This is not a district families are transferring out of; it is, in fact, a sought-after district with rapidly growing enrollment.
If Senate Bill 1647 had passed, it would have granted my children the opportunity to pursue a more individualized education in a school that would be tailored to their needs.
I know critics of the bill claimed it would have posed a budgeting risk for public schools. However, Oklahoma is ranked 43rd in education in the U.S. I believe that when there are multiple options for families to choose from, each school will have a greater incentive to improve its performance.
I am a single mother of two wonderful children. It is my duty to provide them with the best education and opportunities. We need to prioritize and fully invest in our children’s future.
— Maria Garcia, Edmond
General election should include school board races
Our school boards make many significant decisions that affect our children’s education, from the curriculum that is used to field trips. These school leaders also have a big impact on the success of our school districts and our communities. However, it’s one of the elections with the lowest voter turnout, usually with less than 5% of registered voters. This is largely because school board elections are not on dates consistent with other elections, so parents don’t know when they are happening. Additionally, voters have to take this additional day off work or from other commitments to vote. When there is lower voter participation, then school board members don’t reflect the values of that community.
I support Senate Bill 962, which would shift school board elections to the general election date in November, would make it easier for parents to vote and to actively select the leadership who will shape their child’s education. It would also raise awareness of the elections, providing parents and the community with a greater opportunity to run for school board positions.
— Leslie Gilbert, Shawnee
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Letters: On abortion, Mental Health Awareness Month, school choice
