The Spotlight article on mental illness and the lack of treatment in Massachusetts was compelling (“The desperate and the dead’’). I have a daughter who was hospitalized for postpartum depression, and a son who was hospitalized briefly for depression and anxiety, so I have personally experienced the difficulty in getting someone needed treatment.

I strongly object, however, to the pictures and headline of the June 26 front-page story. It was clearly designed for shock value. Not until the third page of the article was it stated that “people with a serious mental illness are no more prone to violence than anyone else.’’

Part of the reason that mental health care receives less money and attention than necessary is the stigmatizing of people who suffer from mental illnesses. The front-page presentation of the Spotlight article only increases the stigma, by portraying those suffering from mental illness as depraved and dangerous.

Marka O’Connell

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