Mississippi Today
State Rep. Kevin Felsher wins national award for mental health work
Mississippi Rep. Kevin Felsher is one of five state lawmakers nationwide to win a Mental Health America award for championing policies to reform the state's troubled mental health and substance abuse care systems.
Felsher, a Republican from Biloxi, was cited for sponsoring legislation to implement Mississippi's 988 suicide prevention hotline, and for advocating for the state's first mental health diversion center and mental health diversion court.
“Mental Health America heartily congratulates and humbly thanks these dedicated legislators from both sides of the aisle who, through their actions, deeds and words, have increased awareness and access to mental health and substance use services and supports in their states,” said Debbie Plotnick, executive vice president for the national nonprofit.
Felsher, working with the state Department of Mental Health, local mental health providers, law enforcement, courts and local government, is helping establish a mental health diversion center in Harrison County. The center will serve as a “single point of entry” for local law enforcement to deliver people dealing with mental health issues. It will help determine the level of care each needs, from a short stay in a “living room” setting for evaluation to more acute care beds. Its goal is to prevent people with mental health problems being jailed or receiving improper care.
Mississippi's system often strands people with mental health issues in jail with long delays in treatment and has been under scrutiny from federal authorities for years.
READ MORE: Jailed for their own safety, 14 Mississippians died awaiting mental health treatment
Felsher said the Harrison County center can serve as a pilot or model for the rest of the state.
Felsher, working with Reps. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, and Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia, also worked on successful legislation to provide mental health training to state law enforcement, expand a court liaison program helping families deal with the court system and create a diversion system for circuit courts to try to provide people with mental health issues help instead of incarceration.
Felsher also unsuccessfully pushed legislation to help counties to pay for housing indigent people with mental illness in private institutions instead of jails.
“I just don't believe that because you're poor and have mental illness you should wind up in jail,” Felsher said.
Felsher said the state has made some substantial gains in mental health care and policies, but still has a long way to go, and that he and others are committed to making improvements.
“I think we are trending in the right direction,” Felsher said, “although government always moves slowly.”
READ MORE: Mississippi remains an outlier in jailing people with serious mental illness without charges
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
On this day in 1896
MAY 18, 1896
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-1 in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation on railroads or similar public places was constitutional, forging the “separate but equal” doctrine that remained in place until 1954.
In his dissent that would foreshadow the ruling six decades later in Brown v. Board of Education, Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote that “separate but equal” rail cars were aimed at discriminating against Black Americans.
“In the view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens,” he wrote. “Our Constitution in color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law … takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
Renada Stovall, chemist and entrepreneur
Renada Stovall sat on the back deck of her rural Arkansas home one evening, contemplating life when she had a life-altering epiphany…
“I gotta get out of these woods.”
She heard it as clear as lips to her ear and as deep as the trees surrounding her property. Stovall's job as a chemist had taken her all over the country. In addition to Arkansas, there were stints in Atlanta, Dallas and Reno. But she was missing home, her parents and friends. She also knew, she needed something else to do.
“I thought, what kind of business can I start for myself,” said Stovall, as she watered herbs growing in a garden behind her south Jackson home. Some of those herbs are used in her all-natural products. “I know when I lived in Reno, Nevada, where it's very hot and very dry, there really weren't products available that worked for me, my hair, and my skin suffered. I've got a chemistry degree from Spelman College. I took the plunge and decided to create products for myself.”
In 2018, Stovall's venture led to the creation of shea butter moisturizers and natural soaps. But she didn't stop there, and in December 2022, she moved home to Mississippi and got to work, expanding her product line to include body balms and butters, and shampoos infused with avocado and palm, mango butter, coconut and olive oils.
Nadabutter, which incorporates Renada's name, came to fruition.
Stovall sells her balms and moisturizers at what she calls, “pop-up markets,” across the state during the summer. She's available via social media and also creates products depending on what of her ingredients a customer chooses. “My turmeric and honey is really popular,” Stovall added.
“The all-natural ingredients I use are great for conditioning the skin and hair. All of my products make you feel soft and luscious. The shea butter I use comes from West Africa. It's my way of networking and supporting other women. And it's my wish that other women can be inspired to be self-sufficient in starting their own businesses.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1954
MAY 17, 1954
In Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equal treatment under the law.
The historic decision brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, ruling in the case of student Linda Brown, who was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.
In Mississippi, segregationist leaders called the day “Black Monday” and took up the charge of the just-created white Citizens' Council to preserve racial segregation at all costs.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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