Glendale therapist: Prop 409 will fund much-needed behavioral health hospital

Independent Newsmedia

As a licensed therapist in Maricopa County, I know all too well how overstretched and underfunded our mental and behavioral health system is. Even with training, experience and the best intentions, I often felt overwhelmed and unable to give patients the care they truly needed.

The resources simply weren’t there, and it made practicing in this field nearly impossible.

I support voting yes on Prop 409 because investments like these are essential if we want providers like me to actually be able to serve our patients. Real, lasting support for people struggling with mental health challenges depends on strong infrastructure and facilities that make care possible.

In my earlier work as a social worker providing psychosocial support to cancer patients, I saw just how outdated and overcrowded the behavioral health hospital was.

Patients struggled to access care because the system lacked the space and tools to serve them. At the time, I wasn’t yet licensed to provide therapy myself, so I had no choice but to depend on a system that simply wasn’t meeting people’s needs.

Voting yes on Proposition 409 will change that. It will allow Valleywise Health to build a new behavioral health hospital with double the beds and modern, compassionate facilities designed for recovery. These are the resources our community deserves.

I’m voting yes on Prop 409 this November, and I hope you will, too.

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