Maria shares her journey advocating for mental healthcare, from working in a medical facility helping patients navigate services to struggling with the complex systems while trying to help her brother with severe mental illness. Her powerful story reveals critical gaps in our mental health and legal systems that prevent timely intervention for those most in need.

• Experience as a healthcare advocate navigating insurance barriers and provider shortages
• Personal history with anxiety and OCD providing firsthand understanding of mental health challenges
• Brother's delusional disorder progression from normal complaints to severe paranoia
• Attempts to get help through police and crisis responders repeatedly blocked by bureaucratic barriers
• Brother's eventual criminal behavior, jail time, and homelessness due to untreated mental illness
• Finding support through MOMI (Mothers of the Mentally Ill) while continuing to search for solutions
• Importance of maintaining hope and humanizing those with severe mental illness
• Awareness as the first step toward creating positive change in mental health systems

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