National Mental Health Advocacy Organization Denounces Ableist Slurs About Vice President Harris

The remarks, which have no basis in truth, are dehumanizing and divisive, an NCMHR spokesperson said.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, October 2, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery (NCMHR), a nonprofit organization that represents more than 57 million adults who have mental health conditions (based on estimates by the National Institutes of Health), strongly condemns the recent characterization of Vice President Kamala Harris as “mentally impaired” and “mentally disabled.”

These ableist remarks were made at a rally in Wisconsin on September 28 and at a rally in Pennsylvania on September 29.

“Not only were these terms used without any evidence,” said NCMHR vice president and co-founder Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD, “but, in an overarching sense, they denigrate everyone who has a mental health disability.”

Dr. Fisher includes himself among those who were disparaged by these phrases. “I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalized in my twenties,” he said. “Now, I am a board-certified psychiatrist, as well as having earned a PhD in biochemistry before my diagnosis.”

NCMHR president Braunwynn Franklin agreed that “having a disability should not disqualify a person from a political office.” Ms. Franklin, who also has a psychiatric diagnosis, cited the Americans with Disabilities Act, which states that “persons with disabilities ought to be judged on the basis of their abilities; they should not be judged nor discriminated against based on unfounded fear, prejudice, ignorance or mythologies.”

In fact, according to a Duke University study, reported by bp Magazine, “[n]early half of U.S. presidents studied have battled some form of mental illness, including bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression.” These presidents include Abraham Lincoln, whom researchers believe “suffered from ‘major depressive disorder, recurrent, with psychotic features.’”

“As a 501(c)(3) organization, NCMHR is prohibited from endorsing political candidates, or the opposite,” Dr. Fisher said. “However, we can clearly state that prejudice toward persons with disabilities is dehumanizing and divisive, and there is no place for it in the political arena, or anywhere else.”

Daniel Fisher
National Coalition for Mental Health Recovery
+1 202-642-4480
info@ncmhr.org
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