"Rights not only to life, but also to liberty and the pursuit of happiness..."

In a blog previewing an upcoming interview with TAC executive director Kurt Entsminger (stay tuned…) Robin Cunningham of Schizophrenia Connections writes of the constitutional rights to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. Certainly the constitution didn’t intend those rights for everyone except those with severe mental illnesses.

At a time in our nation's history when there was little or no hope of recovery from serious brain diseases, the nation, spurred on by the demands of Dorthea Dix, ensured what it could for those suffering from these illnesses. It ensured life by providing subsistence levels of service. Liberty and the pursuit of happiness seemed unobtainable and were compromised.

In my next blog, I will present portions of an interview with Kurt Entsminger who is the newly named Executive Director of the Treatment Advocacy Center. His organization is at the center of the debate concerning how to guarantee to those of us living with schizophrenia our constitutional rights to not only life, but also liberty and the pursuit of happiness.