A Republican state senator from Mesa's personal experience with mental illness and homelessness derailed a bid by another GOP lawmaker, this one a former cop, to make sleeping on a sidewalk a state crime. Sen. David Farnsworth's extended comments about his struggles led the chairman of a Senate committee to pull Republican Fountain Hills Sen. John Kavanagh's proposal from consideration during a hearing this past week.

Located in downtown Tucson, Café 54 serves as an employment training program for people with mental health conditions or developmental disabilities. In Arizona, more than 1 million adults have some sort of mental health condition – but about one-third do not get needed health care, often because of cost.

Our ability to ensure access to quality mental health services is as important as our efforts to provide high quality medical care to all who enter our doors At Valleywise Health, we are dedicated to allocating the resources and attention that mental health deserves.

Arizonans cannot afford to wait to act on the epidemic of gun violence in our state. Contact your legislators today and ask them to introduce a firearm licensing bill.

In training materials recently obtained by the ACLU of Arizona, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) refers to the people it prosecutes using the slur “crazy” and paints people with psychiatric disabilities as liars and obstacles to winning a conviction – not as human beings worthy of respect.

The time has long passed for this relic of Sheriff Arpaio’s regime to be closed down. Sheriff Penzone has shown he is willing to reform the jail to bring it in line with sound correctional practices, and to enhance public safety. The next step on this path is to shutter the SMU.

Arizona has an historic public health opportunity to use 93 acres of state-owned, deed-restricted land in the heart of Phoenix to create a 21st century psychiatric center of excellence. As always, the devil is in the details.

Treatment services are severely lacking for people who are diagnosed with mental illness and substance use disorders, and what some criticize as an outdated approach throws up obstacles in times of need.

Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law legislation allowing private companies to lease space on the hospital grounds to provide emergency and long-term psychiatric and behavioral health services.

Though it is too often ignored in the criminal justice reform dialogue, treating the mentally ill and drug addicted as patients instead of criminals should be a focal point for reform.