MAY 2023 - The Sozosei Foundation launched in the months before the pandemic hit. I took my seat as the inaugural Executive Director in the pandemic’s early days – June 2020. Our focus then, as it is now, is on the decriminalization of mental illness. To us, this focus has evolved into a clear goal: to increase access to mental health care in communities so as to eliminate the inappropriate use of jails and prisons for the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
The mental health impacts of COVID have validated the importance of our goal, and, as many of you know, we are spending much of this year asking ourselves how and if our work is getting us any closer to the decriminalization of mental illness. With this newsletter, I am happy to share a bit of what we are learning so far, including: the challenge of measuring impact, the importance of staying focused while working on a complex issue, the role of convenings in meeting our goal, and the power of collaboration. I’ll take these in order.
MARCH 2023 - March and February call upon us to remember Women's History and Black History. History is important. It allows us to find inspiration, discover new ideas, and deepen our understanding of the world in which we live. It also gives us a framework to consider the future.
The history of the criminalization of mental illness is one we consider with care at the Foundation. Our consideration began in 2020 with an online convening, A Brief History of the Criminalization of Mental Illness, followed by a panel discussion on the history of emergency response at the 2021 Sozosei Summit to Decriminalize Mental Illness (Knowledge is Power: Using the History of 911, Legacies of Racism and Discrimination, and Lived Experience to Design for a Better Tomorrow)...
FEBRUARY 2023 - Here at the Foundation, we view the winter months as a time to reflect and recharge. With a focus on our core values of creativity and curiosity, we began the year asking ourselves: how might we measure the Foundation’s impact since the launch of our decriminalization of mental illness portfolio in the summer of 2020?
The Foundation recently kicked off a series of Global Solution Labs to surface more knowledge and perspectives about how to create a future where mental illness is not treated as a crime. Over 50 multidisciplinary “Solutionists” gathered on May 7, 2021, to take on the ambitious task of identifying the top solutions to move the needle on the decriminalization of mental illness.
In the spirit of collaboration, we recently hosted a Virtual Book Club featuring authors and renowned psychiatrist Dr. James Knoll and renowned psychologist Dr. Joel Dvoskin. Led by Sozosei Board Member, Mary Chi Michael, Dr. Knoll and Dr. Dvoskin discussed their contribution to the recently released book, “Decriminalizing Mental Illness” with more than 100 attendees.