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1/ In talking to mental health professionals who work in the publicly funded mental health system, it's interesting to hear them talk about there not being enough beds.
We as journalists should be mindful of how we phrase that idea in our stories and unpack it for readers.
We as journalists should be mindful of how we phrase that idea in our stories and unpack it for readers.
2/ A more accurate description is that our government is not funding the mental health system to meet demand. So, when we just include a quote of "There aren't enough beds," we aren't getting to the heart of the problem -- that elected officials are not choosing to meet demand.
3/ In fairness, we include elected officials talking about their reasoning, but we shouldn't let them get off easy. For decades, we as a country have failed to fund this system. So it's not that people w/ serious mental illnesses who depend on the public system can't be well.
4/ It's that these folks get care from a system that continues to be financed in arguably arbitrary ways. 20 beds over here. 18 beds over there. Few get them.
And this disproportionately harms people of color, who more often than white people, depend on this public system.
And this disproportionately harms people of color, who more often than white people, depend on this public system.
5/ I know we journalists all face challenges with available space in print, and available air time on TV and radio, but think on how you explain these ideas to your audience and try not to fall into the same old patterns that don't fully hold folks accountable. 
