“Marty Parrish shook with anger with each antagonistic question and inflammatory remark this month at the community meeting about a proposed 100-bed mental health hospital in Clive. Parrish has resisted talking about his own struggles with mental illness… But the march of resistant speakers at the meeting compelled him to be candid about a history that has been largely private for decades. "I was always afraid of being judged because of the stigma against people with mental health," he said in a recent interview. "But after that very hostile meeting in Clive, I had to tell my story. I had to talk."
As an Iowa community discussed the construction of a new inpatient mental health hospital in 2018, Marty Parrish responded to their stigmatizing remarks by sharing his personal story with mental health and addiction issues and the importance of inpatient treatment for his recovery. Click the “Source” link to access the full article by the Des Moines Register.