Tragedy reminds us of ongoing need

I read in the Nov. 16 paper the story, "Insanity and the Law." Unfortunately for the McNally family and the Masino family, there is no way to prevent mental illness nor cure it.

In 1947 The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) was established by President Harry Truman to find a cure for mental illness. Here we are 61 years later with no cure. Until recently NIMH spent many of those 61 years on foolish research such "Preschool Children's Understanding of Love" while such tragedies as the Nov. 16 story were happening all around us. Now groundbreaking research is taking place in the mental health field. We must make sure that the money is available to finance research and that there is oversight to assure that it is going to serious research on mental illness so such tragedies that happened to the McNally family and Masino family will not continue.

Mary Lou Lowry

executive director, NAMI DuPage

Wheaton