SHATTERING SILENCE

SHATTERING SILENCE
Decriminalizing Serious Mental Illness & Restoring Dignity to Care
Exclusive Interview with Ann Corcoran
Featured in 'Innerviews'
Hosted by Allié McGuire

​Ann Corcoran has spent more than three decades standing at the intersection of care and crisis, witnessing firsthand what happens when illness is met with compassion and when it is met with silence. A nurse by training and an advocate by calling, her work with the National Shattering Silence Coalition is driven by a simple but radical belief: serious mental illness should be treated as a health issue, not a crime. In this conversation, Ann invites us to look beyond policy and into the human lives at the heart of decriminalizing mental illness.

ALLIÉ: Before we talk about advocacy or policy, I want to start with you.

After more than 30 years in nursing, what experiences there shaped the woman you are today, and how did they perhaps quietly prepare you for the work that you're doing right now?

ANN: So I think I’ve always been, I mean, to go into a profession like nursing, you have to have that compassion, right? We’re not going into it because we’re going to get rich. We have compassion for other people and we want to help them.

​So in my former life, I was an oncology nurse, and you know, it can be a very difficult thing to help patients get through. But for me, it was very rewarding to help them get to the other side. Even when patients were losing their lives, just helping them to die with dignity and helping the families get through that was always very rewarding to me.

I think that compassion and wanting to help people has really shaped me for this role. Now, I left nursing when my son was five years old. And once both my kids were out of the house and in college, I thought, what am I going to do with my life? Where’s my purpose? And then, you know, no one asked to become part of this club, but unfortunately, we find ourselves here. And I think my nursing background really prepared me for where I am today, leading the National Shattering Silence Coalition.

​ALLIÉ: Well, to go a bit deeper, no one asked me to be invited to this club. For those who don’t know ‘the club’…

ANN: To have a loved one or family member with serious mental illness. And unfortunately, throughout the country, when we look at people with serious mental illness, they’re probably the group that’s most discriminated against. And we accept neglect for that group, which is the most vulnerable population.

ALLIÉ: You’ve spoken out about your deep frustration with how people living with serious mental illness are failed by our systems. Can you take us back to the moment when that frustration turned into resolve, when you knew you could no longer just witness the injustice but confront it?

ANN: For me, it was just watching the news over and over again, my local news stations, and seeing these tragedies happen. Young kids in their 20s being shot by police during a mental health crisis, or ending up incarcerated because they committed a crime while in psychosis. And for me, there was a turning point where I said, this is just not right.

Having family members with serious mental illness, I said that could very easily be one of my family members. That’s kind of how I found the National Shattering Silence Coalition, when Jean Gore was running it. Jean, who unfortunately lost her life back in 2022. I just felt like I needed to do something. At that point, I also reached out to the Treatment Advocacy Center because I was googling, there has to be something. What can we do to change this? And I found out about AOT, Assisted Outpatient Treatment. I thought, oh my God, how can it be that at the time, Massachusetts was one of only three states that didn’t have that?

So I reached out to the Treatment Advocacy Center and met with Michael Gray, who at the time was a legislative policy person. He said, changing the system is all about policy. And I didn’t really understand that. It’s politics, right? And I learned very quickly that to get any change, it’s all about the politics.

​ALLIÉ: Let’s talk more about the National Shattering Silence Coalition and its mission of decriminalizing serious mental illness. For those who may not realize how intertwined mental illness and the criminal justice system have become, how do you explain what decriminalization truly means and why it is, at its heart, a human rights issue?

ANN: Right now, what we see happening across the country is that so many laws are barriers to getting treatment. People need to meet dangerousness criteria to actually get help. Even though family members, law enforcement, and medical professionals can all see someone deteriorating, and they know a crisis is coming, there’s often nothing you can do until that crisis actually happens.

So what we see is horrific crimes happening. Sometimes they’re not horrific crimes. Sometimes they’re low level offenses like breaking and entering or theft. But a lot of the families we work with have loved ones who committed crimes and are now facing life in prison because they took someone’s life. What I’ve come to realize after talking to all these families is that their loved ones were never dangerous people.

Even Matt Stick, who shared his story for Beyond Stigma, talked about taking his mother’s life. He loved her. He said, I never wanted to hurt her. He was never a violent person. They were watching TV together that night. His psychosis led him to believe that his mother was possessed by demons and that he had to kill her to save her. That’s psychosis. Those false fixed beliefs. He had lost touch with reality. I think most of the general public doesn’t understand that. When tragedies like this happen, people immediately ask, why didn’t the family get help sooner? Or they label the person as bad.

That brings me to the Rob and Michelle Reiner tragedy. Where was the education? In California, like much of the country, it’s very difficult to get someone help until they become a danger. Where was the safety plan for that family? They likely didn’t understand psychosis or how dangerous it could become. Reports suggest their son had prior violent outbursts. Families need to understand what psychosis is and how it can escalate when there are barriers to care. It’s so sad that it takes something so public, involving a celebrity, to get people talking again.

​ALLIÉ: And we have to keep talking about it until we see the change that’s needed.

ANN: Exactly. Even before that tragedy, the National Shattering Silence Coalition launched two small campaigns with simple green and white graphics. One said, mental illness is not a crime, understanding solutions for psychosis. The other was from crisis to care, understanding psychosis.

Those graphics brought in over 50 new members and helped drive a very successful year end appeal.

Our growth since 2022 has been incredible. Our donations increased by 400 percent. Our membership doubled from about 400 to over 800 members.

At our policy action committee meeting on Monday, we had 46 people on the call. Two years ago, there were maybe four of us.

One member told us she found us through those social media posts. She brought them to her legislators, and now they’re listening.

We’re doing work that seems like common sense, but no one else seems to be doing it. Where is the education on psychosis and anosognosia, which are major barriers to treatment?

ALLIÉ: What you just shared speaks to the power of a single post. When awareness and education increase, the movement grows stronger and louder. Thank you for the work you’ve done and continue to do.

Through NSSC, you bring families, caregivers, peers, and professionals together to advocate for compassionate, evidence based care. When those voices are amplified, what shifts do you see in how responsibility, dignity, and care are understood?

ANN: Having caregivers, peers, and professionals all at the table adds incredible value. It’s not coming from one perspective. When we educate district attorneys, prosecutors, judges, and even clinicians, we see a deeper understanding of what people with serious mental illness actually need.

We had a case in Ohio where a mother reached out to us after her son was arrested for a low level offense. Darryl Herrmann, our policy director in Ohio, who has lived with schizophrenia for over 40 years, gave her his guide to psychosis from a peer perspective.

She brought it to the prosecutor. He read it, dropped all charges, and got her son into treatment. That speaks volumes about the impact of this work.

ALLIÉ: Goosebumps hearing that.

It reinforces that awareness and understanding are everything. You can’t fix what you don’t understand.

​ANN: Exactly. After the tragedy happened, we asked ourselves, where are the guides for families in crisis? So now we’re developing a guide for psychiatric emergencies.

Katie Dale, a peer leader, is leading that work, and it’s coming together beautifully.

We’re a small, volunteer led organization, but we’re ready to roll up our sleeves and deliver what families truly need. That’s reflected in our growth and in the response we hear from new members who say, where have you been? I finally feel understood.

ALLIÉ: Community is everything. We can’t do this alone.

If the vision NSSC is fighting for becomes reality, if serious mental illness is treated as a health issue rather than a criminal one, what would change in daily life for those living with SMI? And what gives you hope that this future is possible?

ANN: We would see more people living lives of recovery. We know the longer psychosis goes untreated, the more brain damage occurs and the less likely recovery becomes.

Without treatment, many can’t hold jobs and end up relying on systems. People want purpose and belonging, and we need to give them that opportunity.

What gives me hope is that families are coming forward and speaking out. The silence and shame are lifting. That’s what shattering the silence means.

Our peer community is growing too. Peers with lived experience understand the consequences of being untreated and advocate for the same changes we do. That gives me hope. ∎

Learn more about the National Shattering Silence Coalition:
​www.nationalshatteringsilencecoalition.org