Connor-Backed Legislation Updating Mental Health Instruction, Promoting Human Dignity Now Law

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – State Rep. John Connor, D-Lockport, is promoting better attitudes towards mental health with his backing of a new law requiring mental health education programs focus on students’ understanding of behaviors that promote mental well being.

“People struggling with mental health issues deserve to have a supportive community that is well-educated about what they’re going through,” Connor said. “This legislation will address shortcomings in our mental health instruction policies and help ensure that we approach these problems from an informed perspective.  As the old saying goes, never judge someone before you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.  This helps people walk in the shoes of someone struggling with mental illness, and discover that it’s not something that you can just ‘snap out of’or ‘power through’ all alone, without treatment assistance.  There is a lot of misinformation and superstition surrounding mental illness, even in our modern society.”

Building on his long history of working for a better mental health support system in Illinois, Connor supported Senate Bill 459, which requires instruction in Illinois mental health courses to include information on the relationship between mental and physical health. The goal of this change is to foster greater understanding of how mental health problems occur and can be managed. This legislation received strong bipartisan support and is now law.

“I am committed to building a stronger Illinois; an Illinois where no one is limited by the trying diseases they face, whether mental or physical,” Connor said. “This law will ensure that people with mental health problems have an understanding community to support them in trying times.”