A city council member is proposing comprehensive changes to San Jose’s mental health services to address gun violence and care for those impacted by trauma in the wake of multiple violent tragedies, most recently the VTA mass shooting earlier this year.
Council member Raul Peralez, who is running for in the 2022 San Jose mayoral race, revealed the proposal to the public during a press briefing on Wednesday.
The initiative is not only a response to the horrifying events in May, where a gunman killed nine people and himself at a VTA light rail yard, but also to the 2019 mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival which killed three people and injured 17.
Peralez’s three-part plan first calls on the city to conduct an "organization-wide workplace cultural and climate evaluation" across all of its departments, and actively promote existing mental health services and consult with other agencies to "explore ways towards improving the City’s wellness and mental health assistance programs."
"We must work together to destigmatize mental wellness and ensure that we get help to our colleagues and community members who most need it so that they remain safe to themselves and others,"" Peralez said during the briefing according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Secondly, the initiative asks the city to partner with Santa Clara County in its development of a new Trauma Recovery Center, to help families, friends, co-workers and other community members dealing with the aftermath of catastrophic events like mass shootings or public health crises. The county unanimously approved a temporary center late last month, and are expected to make it permanent.
Finally, the proposal requests multiple evaluations of recent gun violence in the city and wants to "commence a conversation around how addressing various social and psychological factors could play a larger role in firearm violence prevention."
"What we have in front of us is the opportunity to look into our workplace and to say ‘Is there someone we can help? Are there people we can help? Are there programs that we can put in place so that this never ever happens again?," he said. "And that’s the important thing here."
"We can’t change what happened in the past - it was senseless - but what we can do is make sure that this or a tragedy like this never happens again," he added.
Peralez was friends with one of the victims of the VTA shooting, 40-year-old Michael Rudometkin, and his widow, Gloria, spoke during the press conference about the tremendous grief she’s been forced to deal with after the tragic shooting.
She said Peralez’s plan was a "step in the right direction for reducing violence in our community" and to "ensure future victims’ families are treated with empathy, compassion and respect."
While the city did enact stricter gun measures following the shooting, it hasn’t enacted anything specific to address mental health.
The VTA has faced heavy criticism for how its supported the mental health of its employees following the shooting.
Last month, a veteran VTA employee, who was on-site during the tragedy, committed suicide, which prompted the Amalgamated Transit Union to blast the agency’s response to its traumatized workers.
VTA CEO and general manager Carolyn Gonot has refuted those claims, saying last month they have "used every resource that’s been made available" to them.
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