AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Former first lady Rosalynn Carter will always be remembered as a great advocate for mental health both before and after her husband, Jimmy Carter, served as president.

And those in the mental health community will be feeling the void left by her death Sunday.

Throughout her husband’s political career, she chose mental health and problems of the elderly as her signature policy emphasis.

When the news media didn’t cover those efforts as much as she believed was warranted, she criticized reporters for writing only about “sexy subjects.”

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As honorary chairwoman of the President’s Commission on Mental Health, she once testified before a Senate subcommittee, becoming the first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to address a congressional panel.

She was back in Washington in 2007 to push Congress for improved mental health coverage, saying, “We’ve been working on this for so long, it finally seems to be in reach.”

She said she developed her interest in mental health during her husband’s campaigns for Georgia governor.

“I used to come home and say to Jimmy, ‘Why are people telling me their problems?’ And he said, ‘Because you may be the only person they’ll ever see who may be close to someone who can help them,’” she explained.

Even before the White House, she was a member of the Governor’s Commission to Improve Services to the Mentally and Emotionally Handicapped when her husband was governor of Georgia.

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• Audrey Dickherber is talking with mental health advocates about the lasting legacy of Rosalynn Carter. Watch for updates here on WRDW.com and on News 12.

And once they were in Washington, she helped bring about the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980.

In 1985, she launched the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy at the Carter Center to bring together representatives of mental health organizations nationwide to focus and coordinate their efforts on key issues.

In 1996, she created an annual Georgia Mental Health Forum to focus on helping Georgia build a healthier mental health care system.

The Carter Center Mental Health Task Force, which she chaired, identifies policy initiatives for the Carter Center Mental Health Program and annual symposia.

Through the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, she addressed the concerns of those who take care of people suffering from mental illnesses and other chronic illnesses and long-term disabilities.

As an author, whe wrote “Helping Someone with Mental Illness: A Compassionate Guide for Family, Friends, and Caregivers” and “Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis.”

She received many honors and awards for her support of mental health causes, including the 2018 Bill Foege Global Health Award, Volunteer of the Decade Award from the National Mental Health Association, the Dorothea Dix Award from the Mental Illness Foundation, the Nathan S. Kline Medal of Merit from the International Committee Against Mental Illness, the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health from the Institute of Medicine, the United States Surgeon General’s Medallion, induction in the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor. She was an honorary fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. 

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