I am an Independent Voice for New Orleans
Janet is a free and independent thinker with a clear vision and real-world experience to plow through ineffective policy barriers that prevent people from getting the help they need to avoid incarceration.
People should not have to commit crimes to gain access to the type of help and resources that can change lives and make our city safer. Reform of our current flawed system is critical to both the safety of our city as well the serving those who need a compassionate voice.
I am a Fighter. I have fought against police brutality, racism and oppression, environmental injustice, big money in politics, wage inequality and to end discrimination against people with untreated and under-treated serious mental illnesses.
I am a Do-er. I get around bureaucracy in order to reach people with the help that matters. Where there’s help there is hope.
I built Healing Minds NOLA, a nonprofit organization now nationally recognized, to bring light to the sea of darkness on the complexities of serious mental illness.
I Have Vision. I envisioned turning Charity Hospital into a 'One Stop Shop' mental health care and research center of excellence. People now say I was right.
I am Uniquely Experienced. Where others are only beginning to study problems, I am already implementing programs. We don’t need more studies that miss the mark, we need to fix problems.
I am Independent. I have never taken money from organizations or agendas with strings attached.
I Care. Some people think that caring is enabling behavior that keeps people trapped in their mental and physical jails. When we do nothing to intervene to help people who are in capable of helping themselves, we are only facilitating the slow road to death. We need to intervene to facilitate the road to life.
Janet will not swap safety and quality of life for political agendas. A vote for Janet Hays is the sensible choice for positive change!
We currently have a disconnected system that doesn’t recognize who the same people are who are flowing through criminal justice, behavioral health social services and family care. Janet Hays will commission a study to collect data about the cost of not caring for people living with serious mental illnesses who flow through various systems of crisis care.
It is a fact that people living with serious mental illnesses are not getting the specialized help they need but let’s point the finger of blame where it belongs. The blame belongs with Federal and State policies that shift funding away from serious mental illness, not the police. It's time to reform the sytem.
What is needed is a full continuum of coordinated psychiatric treatment and care to provide people who have brain diseases with science-based outcome driven programs, services and facilities that truly meet them where they are right now and through time. Psychiatric crisis response is the only part of the fragmented system that is not broken in New Orleans. Don’t waste tax dollars to break what works. Instead, fix what is broken.
Are you hoping for someone with the wisdom, knowledge and will who knows where to pinpoint and fix problems within systems that funnel people into the jail? Someone that will make better real estate of the title to champion and advocate for change? If you are, a vote for me is a vote for change!
Time and time again, Janet has provided much-needed information and guidance to us as we help our mentally ill family member. Day and night she has responded with reassurance and resources in our struggle.
Having your family member in hospital care (and thank you, doctors and nurses) is frequently distressing and confusing, and on release lead to no solutions. It's so complicated!
Janet has made remedies for our situation clear and simple.
NOLA needs a sheriff with experience in the successful treatment of people who are mentally ill.
Janet has a plan for managing the problems of our most vulnerable in NOLA from trouble on the streets to programs for recovery.
A vote for Janet Hays will bring more sanity to NOLA and make life in our city better for us all.
-Adelaide Krasucki
We are writing this letter to endorse Janet Hays for New Orleans sheriff. Janet and I first became acquainted during the NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) national convention in New Orleans. It soon became apparent that we were kindred spirits from our love of dogs to our commitment to improve the lives of those affected by serious mental illness.
As physicians, my wife Ann Mandel, MD and I have made optimal treatment are primary focus. That said, Janet impressed upon me that without engagement and community treatment could not even be considered. Her focus of decriminalizing serious mental illness and directing them into treatment has been critical in starting the road to recovery.
We need to stop punishing serious mental illness and start optimal treatment. Over a decade ago Ann and I started our charity, Team Daniel Running For Recovery From Mental Illness. Since that time we have worked at finding allies. Janet Hays is one of our most valuable voices advocating for change that really matters. For this reason the entire Team Daniel nation, Ann and I wholeheartedly endorse Janet for New Orleans sheriff.
-Robert Laitman, MD