KUTV: Huge crowd rallies at capitol for support of mental illness and addiction treatment

Published by Evan Done at March 3, 2016

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(KUTV) A huge crowd filled the Utah State Capitol rotunda on Tuesday afternoon. Many in the crowd were people in addiction rehab or treatment. Many were people with mental illness.

All were there to send a message to lawmakers that providing more options for treatment will keep hundreds – possibly thousands of Utahns from dying every year.

Jacquelyn Poasa, a recovering addict, was there with three of her seven children. Seeing other recovering addicts around her made her feel validated, she said.

“I’m grateful to see so many people support this,” she said, noting that she wasn’t sure whether she should go to the rally thinking she might feel alone.

Poasa recently was reunited with her children. She lost them, while she was lost in addiction that started with pain pills and eventually turned into an addiction to meth.

She said she waited for months to get into treatment. That was the worst time.

“I could have died,” she said.

Advocates say addicts need to be able to get into treatment quickly before they overdose and die. Many who do survive end up in jail or prison because they can’t get into treatment fast enough.

Jamie Justice, director of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Utah, said the same kind of help is needed by people who are mentally ill too. Many end up committing suicide or like addicts, end up in jail because they can’t get treatment.

Lawmakers are considering several bills that enhance a law passed in 2014 which makes Naloxone, an overdose antidote, available to the family members of addicts. They include:

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