It is with great sadness that today we say goodbye to a personal friend and powerful advocate for people living with serious mental illnesses. DJ Jaffe was unique in his fearlessness to confront the mental health industry, and government, anywhere and everywhere there was an abdication of responsibility to care for those unable to care for themselves.
DJ was never one to say what people wanted to hear, he said what people needed to hear. He bypassed political correctness in favor of compassion – to lay out cold hard truths that some would prefer not to think about.
He fought abuse, neglect and discrimination at every turn. He freely shared his institutional knowledge, expertise and resources with anyone and everyone who fought the same fight: the mission to implement a full streamlined continuum of psychiatric treatment and care for people with untreated and under-treated serious mental illnesses.
He was instrumental in shaping my advocacy. What I/we do is largely a creation of his work. He will never be forgotten, his legacy will be preserved and his work will continue in and through those of us who were fortunate enough to be his students.
I was deeply honored that before he passed, he asked me and Carolyn Gorman to fill his shoes on the board of Mental Illness Policy Org to which we both humbly accepted. Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, founder of the Treatment Advocacy Center, close friend and confidante to DJ has graciously endowed a new advocacy position at the Treatment Advocacy Center to celebrate DJ’s work and to cement his legacy.
In an effort to honor DJ, Barbara and E. Fuller Torrey are endowing a new advocacy position at TAC specifically named after DJ. Just as colleges have named professorships, so TAC will have a named advocate position.
Today we mourn but, as DJ would have wanted, we continue to work to fight for a world in which no person living with a serious mental illness, and no devoted and caring family, must suffer the tragic and Insane Consequences of a failed mental health system. In honor of DJ, if you do nothing else today, do one small thing to advocate for the things DJ advocated for.
We are addressing many of those core topics in our zoom cast 2020 series with a focus on serious mental illness. Unfortunately, at launch, DJ was already too sick to participate though he sincerely wanted to. At one point, from his hospital bed, he volunteered to step in at the last minute when we thought we might need a substitute, but his voice was weak and he needed to rest.
We honored his end of life needs and the privacy of his loved ones to spend every precious last moment they had with him. Moments that had been stolen from them given his pure and devoted public service. He always gave it his all. No one will ever fill DJ shoes but we will surely give it the best shot we’ve got!
RIP dear DJ. Here’s to a life well lived!
Janet Hays
Such a devastating loss. DJ has been a touchstone for family advocates everywhere. Here’s to redoubling our efforts and continuing the work in his memory!