We are beyond grateful for this exclusive interview with Allié Merrick McGuire of AwareNow Media. In the conversation, Executive Director Ann Corcoran RN, MSN addresses the criminalization of mental illness happening across the country and the urgent need to treat no-fault brain diseases as the medical conditions they are. We hope this interview helps deepen public understanding and reinforces a simple truth: people living with severe mental illness deserve compassion, dignity, and care—not discrimination, neglect, or punishment.
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Here are the direct links to the interview:
https://www.awarenowmedia.com/story-feed/shattering-silence
Article: https://go.awarenowmedia.com/article/shattering-silence
Video: https://go.awarenowmedia.com/video/shattering-silence
Podcast: https://go.awarenowmedia.com/podcast/shattering-silence

#ShatteringSilence #FromSilenceToSolutions #SavingLives #DrivingChange

Published August 13, 2025

NSSC Executive Director Ann Corcoran and member Laura Craciun are interviewed by HealthWell Foundation in this article. The article spotlights the work NSSC has been actively pursuing since its founding in 2017, and its founder Jeanne Gore's passing in 2023.

Follow this link to read the article.

To read the full article by NSSC Policy Director of North Carolina, Beth Wallace, follow this link.

From the article:
"We don’t need more screening. We need systems that work. We need laws that allow earlier intervention. We need continuous care. We need to stop blaming the people our system has abandoned.
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Mental illness isn’t a character flaw—it’s a medical condition. And until we treat it like one, tragedies will keep happening while the public keeps asking the wrong questions."

Member Cindee Murphy continues to advocate in Florida to improve outcomes for those living with Severe Mental Illness/Serious Brain Disorders. We applaud Senator Jennifer Bradley for filing The Tristin Murphy Act and hope that her leadership on this issue will start a movement. We are grateful for Jim DeFede and his continued news coverage of these critical issues. Here is the link to the full segment on CBS News Miami.

Tristin's son Cody said it best, "As a 17-year-old, I have to wonder what kind of world I am growing up in that would treat someone so broken so badly."

Mental illness is not a crime; as a civilized society, we should not be treating our most vulnerable this way.

NSSC member and Policy Action Committee co-chair Laura Craciun is interviewed by Just a Mom Podcast as they explore untreated cannabis-induced psychosis and anosognosia. Listen to the episode here.

NSSC member and mental health advocate Cohen Miles-Rath shares his story with AwareNow Magazine in the article found in the Justice Edition here. Miles-Rath bravely tells his story of psychosis and how it affected his life and family before getting treatment. Today he is a published author and social worker who is actively working to help others with serious mental illness.