By Susan K. Livio / The Star-Ledger
TRENTON — Continuing his work helping people with mental illness, Sen. Richard Codey (D-Essex) and his wife, Mary Jo, announced today they have created a private foundation to support programs benefitting families, homeless people and profoundly ill patients committed in psychiatric hospitals.
The former governor said the Codey Fund for Mental Health already has raised $200,000 in private donations. He expects there will be many willing contributors because mental illness affects so many people.
“Our aim is to end — probably not in my lifetime but in my children’s lifetime — the stigma associated with mental illness,” Codey said at a Statehouse news conference. “Today, nearly 25 percent of all Americans experience a mental health disorder. That’s more people than have cancer and heart disease. Yet, let’s be honest about it — it’s very socially acceptable to raise money for cancer and heart disease but we can’t say that about mental illness.”
Bracketed by her sons, Chris, 25, and Kevin, 29, Mary Jo Codey, a 58-year-old breast cancer survivor, recounted her ordeal suffering from bouts of postpartum depression and how medication, hospitalization and shock treatments saved her.
“I remember being at the hospital getting chemotherapy for my breast cancer treatments,” she said. “People would say, ‘You will get through this, so many women do.’ I remember when I was getting shock therapy at the hospital, I was being prepped for the procedure, and there wasn’t any, ‘You’ll get through this,’ although many people do.
“I was on my own, praying, hardly coping and alone,” Mary Jo Codey said, “I was pregnant and ashamed, and knew others would treat me harshly for getting the shock therapy I so desperately needed.”
With the attention the Codeys brought to the issue, New Jersey was the first state to require the screening of new moms for postpartum depression. As governor, Codey created a mental health task force that identified the needs of the state’s mental health system and dedicated money to expand outpatient treatment centers. Last year, he went undercover as a homeless person to expose the conditions at a shelter. Two bills he sponsored improving access to shelters for mentally ill people passed the Senate on Monday.
The charity will fund programs that raise awareness of mental illness and services that reach children, homeless people, mothers and people with severe psychiatric conditions, Codey said.
“The time has come to stand up, speak out and get help,” he said.