Susan R. Agrillo, lead attorney for the Pima County Attorney Civil Division’s Mental Health Unit, will be honored by the State Bar with the Award of Special Merit, given to individuals who have “provided outstanding service to the Bar by furthering public understanding of the legal system.”
Although she didn’t consciously set out to be in the mental health field, she does feel that events in her life prepared her for this field, and fate led her to it. “I think everything happens for a reason, however, you don’t always see it at the time,” Ms. Agrillo says.
Her mother, diagnosed with severe mental illness, committed suicide in 1972. Her sister, also diagnosed with severe mental illness, was slain in 1980 in Chicago. People with mental illness often put themselves in harm’s way, she says. Her personal experience aids her tremendously in helping residents of Pima County deal with mental illness.
“I really didn’t know where to look for help when it happened to me. I figured if I wasn’t willing to step up to the plate and speak candidly about it, then I wouldn’t be very good at what I do,” Ms. Agrillo says. “It is very traumatic to have a family committed. We help people during this time; we help connect families with community resources.”
Focus is on involuntary commitment process
Her work as an attorney focuses solely on mental illness and the involuntary commitment process, issues that are widely ignored and misunderstood by the general public. She believes that education is the key to helping people recognize mental illness and the resources available for treatment.
“I speak a lot in the community to let people know what to do if someone they know is exhibiting behavior that may need help,” Ms. Agrillo says. “I train professionals who may need to admit someone. The involuntary commitment process is challenging and confusing to someone who doesn’t understand it.”
Lack of public awareness coupled with Arizona’s high rate of suicide helped fuel her desire to educate the community. She focuses her efforts on under-addressed issues like gun safety and mental illness, in the belief that education replaces fear.
She is a member of “The Long Rangers,” a group whose membership is a mix of people with and without diagnosed mental illness. Their aim is to combat the powerful stigma associated with mental illness. “A woman told me she would rather have cancer than mental illness,” Ms. Agrillo says.
She is organizing a NAMI Walk in Tucson in 2007. The walk, sponsored by the National Association of Mental Illness, is to help raise awareness of the importance of mental health.
Her opportunity in the mental health field presented itself nine years ago. She started in the Pima County Attorney’s Office in child support enforcement. From there, she went to work as a magistrate in Oro Valley for four years, until her contract was not renewed. Finding herself without a job, she looked back to the Pima County Attorney’s Office, where she was hired for her current position.
Originally from Chicago, she came to Arizona in 1971 to attend the University of Arizona. She almost got an MBA, but law school seemed more challenging, and she was drawn to the mix of psychiatry and law. She graduated from the UofA with a law degree in 1977. She is divorced and has a son, Chris, 19, attending the UofA and studying computers.