Personally Speaking: My son finally has a chance to get his life back after nine years
By Anthony Hernandez
My son, Aaron Hernandez, violently attacked his mother, Cynthia, and me early in the morning while suffering a psychotic breakdown in September 2014. Prior to the attack, Aaron had been hospitalized eight times in two years.
Aaron was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attack on his mother and me and has been committed to a state hospital in California for the past seven years.
It has been a long seven years, but now, finally, Aaron will be released to an outpatient facility. This outpatient facility will give Aaron his life back—he can come home, get a job, go to school, and rebuild the relationships that suffered while he was being denied treatment. He can start being a productive, contributing, redirected 26-year-old man.
It took a potentially tragic act to get our son the treatment that he desperately needed. He had to commit a crime, get sent to jail, and be sentenced to a state hospital, but now, the son that I raised is back. The treatment that he was finally able to receive after years of cycling through the dysfunctional mental health care system. His mind is sound and his thoughts are clear.
While we struggled to get help and to advocate for our son, we searched for someone to talk to about what we were experiencing, one who understood what we were going through. We reached out to Joe Bruce, a longtime Treatment Advocacy Center supporter, whose family was also impacted by their son’s lack of treatment, and his advice put us in the right state of mind to persevere forward.
No matter how busy my wife and I are, we make time to be there for other families going through what we went through with Aaron. Having someone to confide in and get hope from helped us get through our family’s tragedy and we want to be that resource for others.
My family and I found our calling to help others by sharing our story and advocating for change. This journey through the mental health care system has taken me from a desperate parent trying to get my son treatment and being uncertain for his future, to learning how to be an effective advocate and fight for change in our legal and mental health system in this nation.
I’ve worked with people in Congress to help pass the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, HR 2646, and spoke at the “Families of the 4%” event that was hosted by the Treatment Advocacy Center in Washington, D.C. This was the first gathering of families who had experienced personal tragedy due to a loved one having a severe mental illness and not being provided the help so desperately needed. My hope is that by raising my voice along with theirs, other families will be able to help their loved ones in the way that I couldn’t help Aaron.
We remain committed to making sure that what happened to our family doesn’t ever happen to other families and will not stop until everyone with severe mental illness gets the treatment that they need.
Anthony Hernandez is the founder of www.TransformingTreatableTragedies.org, a nonprofit organization made up of over 5,500 people from around the country who come together to advocate for legal reform for people with severe mental illness.
