Advocates for the mentally ill say its time to bring an end to the 'psycho asylum' stereotype, the idea that many people have that the mentally ill are more prone to aggressive violence than the normal person, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports
.Mark Stoeltje, who heads the Clubhouse, Bexar County's leading advocacy center for mental illness, says the mentally ill are far more likely to be victims of crime than be the perpetrators.
"Three percent of people with mental illness are prone to violence, three percent of the general population is prone to violence, so the correlation is just not there," he said.
Stoeltje says the vast majority of people with mental illness are capable of holding down productive jobs and becoming solid citizens, but too often they are held back by the 'Freddy Krueger' stereotype, the idea that if somebody has a mental illness, they are 'crazy' and violent.
He says it is also time for all of us to stop thinking about the mentally ill as 'other people.
'"One in five people will deal with a mental illness at some point in the next year," he said. "That means 370,000 people in Bexar County, 5 1/2 million in Texas," he said.
Stoeltje says the issue of removing the stereotype will be top of mind for all mental health advocates this month, which is Mental Health Awareness month.
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