As the 2020 campaign ramped up this fall, Republican state Sen. Jerry Relph reflected on his time in office during an interview, highlighting his efforts to help spur development of affordable housing and to aid businesses.
But one topic held special importance: his advocacy for people with mental illness. Relph in 2020 was named a legislator of the year by the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), in large part for his work to update laws that guide when and how people can be involuntarily committed for psychiatric help.
“That’s probably, I would say, the single-best honor that I’ve received,” Relph said during the late September interview, conducted outside of a coffee shop in his St. Cloud District. “I’ve received a lot of, I think, very good accolades. But this one is one of the most important to me.”
Relph died Friday, reportedly because of complications from COVID-19. The 76-year-old Vietnam veteran and attorney had been elected in 2016 and served one term before losing by 315 votes to Democrat Aric Putnam this fall. Relph tested positive for COVID-19 after coming in close contact with someone who had the disease at the Senate, a Senate spokeswoman said in mid-November. MPR News also reported Relph was one several Republican senators who tested positive after they attended a post-election party.
Sue Abderholden, executive director of NAMI Minnesota, said on Sunday that Relph “really did care about people who are struggling with mental illness and other kinds of disability.”
Relph said he sponsored more than 20 bills this year related to mental health, including a mammoth piece of legislation to update rules for people who are legally committed to psychiatric help.
Abderholden said one measure in the roughly 60-page bill, approved by the Legislature, allows counties to intervene earlier to help people struggling with significant mental health problems.
The government can’t step in and order involuntary treatment unless a person is ruled a danger to themselves or others. But Abderholden said many families say they can tell when a relative is experiencing problems, may be off medication, and needs help soon to prevent bigger issues down the road. The new law says counties can send in people like social workers over a 90-day period to try to get someone to voluntarily enter treatment.
Abderholden said the civil commitment bill helps ensure people with an existing order for involuntary psychiatric treatment continue to get medication if in jail. She said Relph also sponsored legislation that kept open many residential psychiatric facilities for children. The Legislature sent state money to help after the centers lost federal Medicaid money, when many were at risk of closing.
At the Capitol, Relph served as vice chairman of the Senate’s Family Care and Aging Committee, where he also worked on legislation aimed at protecting the elderly.
Relph always took time to listen to NAMI’s point of view and was quick to carry legislation aimed at helping vulnerable people, Abderholden said. When given the legislator of the year award, NAMI Minnesota’s board president said Relph sponsored a bill to ensure mental health providers had money to deal with the pandemic. “I can’t remember him ever saying no to us,” Abderholden said.
Relph said many of the mental health measures he sponsored were adopted this year. “I’m pretty proud of that,” he said.
How sad that an advocate for better health care is himself victimized by a failure to observe public health guidelines during this awful pandemic.
Sounds like a good guy and he deserves to be remembered for that, but are we just going to gloss over how he died?
Maybe we would be doing a better job fighting Covid if we acknowledged the consequences of not taking it seriously. This man died because he went to a party with his Republican colleagues – people who have consistently tried to undermine Covid restrictions. That attitude and carelessness, that disregard for science, has resulted in the death of one of their own.
AND the GOP is planning another extended gathering in South Dakota in January. They are doing their retreat in South Dakota since we have responsible public health limitations here in Minnesota.
Thanks for that info.
Gazelka’s response to losing a member due to his carelessness is to move his retreat to the region of the third highest death rate in the world.
Apparently taking advice from Minnesota GOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan:
“On her Twitter page back in October, Minnesota GOP Chair Jennifer Carnahan said, “There’s a reason (South Dakota Governor) Kristi Noem is loved by many.
She’s authentic, genuine, kind, caring, smart, and an exceptional Gov. I learned a lot from her over the past two days. Our state should aspire for better leadership & Governor Tim Walz would be wise to learn from peers like her!””
Good lord. What is wrong with people?
My parents in their 80s are spending Christmas at home alone this year so that none of their kids or grandkids will get them sick. It sucks but its not hard to do or understand why its happening.
GOP Senator Relph is a great example of how Republicans can work for the public good, and for something as important as mental health care. Please do a data search to determine for yourself the percentage of people who experience significant mental health crises every year. The figure is between 20% and 30% of the U.S. population. We have a little over 360 million people residing in this nation. Recognition for mental health conditions should not be routinely subjected to horrifying speculation or stories of the very worst cases in our history. MinnPost writer Andy Steiner routinely does a stand-out job of reporting on mental health in Minnesota. I hope to write a book about being a patient of psychiatry, a political activist, and a world traveler.
Naivete and lack of enlightenment caused me to be beaten at University of Minnesota in 1988-1989. The late Hennepin County Judge Sean Rice, who also had bipolar disorder (formerly, “manic-depression”) was the judge who offered an order for restraint against the individual who was most significant in those beatings. He did so after Captain Fran Gernhandt, in a telephone call, said “Barry, you’re mentally ill. You bring on your own problems. Therefore, UMPD will neither investigate nor arrest anyone on your behalf.” I will never forget those words. Former Minnesota Commissioner of Human Rights officially opined that UMPD had not violated my human rights, despite their use of the statement I have relayed — and which I have relayed to many people.
I believe the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Human Rights violated my civil and human rights, but I have been unable to locate an attorney who is willing to take the case. A settlement for multiple millions of dollars may be likely, as a police officer in another state, who is gay, received a settlement for well over $10 million for being fired from his job for being gay. He was later re-hired. The production of cortisol, which wreaks havoc on a brain and on behavior and productivity, was rampant during those two years. It is due to stress and has a role in a person gaining weight. I graduated with a 2.43 from University of Minnesota despite performing over a 3.5 level in Costa Rica and through the University of South Florida, and also in Norway during boarding school, during which I was never beaten or harassed. The late Martin Luther King, Jr., experienced depression and graduated from Morehouse College with also a C average but later went on to seminary and to receive his PhD from University of Boston. After his grandmother’s death, he twice attempted to commit suicide, but has had a lasting and positive effect on our global consciousness and the desire of many to be civil to people who are unlike ourselves in appearance, station in society, and philosophy
University of Minnesota’s General Counsel, Douglas R. Peterson, has offered that he would still consider my case were I to find an attorney. Mr. Peterson has received many emails and few calls from me during my periods of anger and confusion over this mater. His manner has been entirely professional and considerate. As the son of an attorney who practiced in corporate, business, and real estate law, not in human rights or civil rights law, I am aware of the constraints and limitations which the University of Minnesota Office of the General Counsel has on them. My dad has always had a “hands off” policy when it comes to my siblings and myself fighting our battles. Yet he, Douglas J. Peterson, former president of the Anoka County Bar Association, has been an excellent role model and has taught the lesson of being humble and not jealous of other people. Where I have lacked in financial and professional indulgences, I have gained in many other areas of my life, and I do not fault my dad, but could really use a good legal team to assist me. I support three families in Ghana, West Africa with personal, family, education, health, and business needs — both financially, intellectually, and spiritually, on my monthly income of $1243.00 from SSDI and earned income. I do not have a non-profit or a trust fund.
My dream was to become an attorney, businessman, diplomat, and philanthropist. I was on the A and B honor roll at De La Salle High School, where my benefactor, Judge Sean Rice also attended and was the valedictorian of his class, despite having bipolar disorder, as I have experienced. I studied at Macalester College, like Sue Abderholden (who I have known since before Captain Gernhandt’s statement to me), NAMI-MN’s longtime director. I studied in Norway, Denmark, and again, in Costa Rica. I met and later corresponded with 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and was inspired by his laughter and good humor, which was an asset in his talks and relationship with White leaders in South Africa as he worked to put an end to apartheid
The work of the late GOP Senator Relph is never complete. If anyone would like to assist in my effort to gain justice, as I am now in poverty due to ongoing fears about being in public for prolonged and routine periods of time, please write to me on Facebook. I am Barry N. Peterson. My photo is front and center, and there is a background photo of Porto Fino, Italy, with sailboats in the port, with many homes on the hillside adjacent the port.
Should be “Boston University,” not “University of Boston. For a list of famous people and celebrities with mental illnesses, please view:
https://healthguidenet.com/conditions/famous-people-with-mental-illness/#:~:text=%2026%20Famous%20People%20With%20Mental%20Illness%20%28Demi,4%204%20Lili%20Reinhart%20%28depression%29.%20You%E2%80%99r…%20More
There are many other people. Oprah Winfrey, who went from poverty to being a billionaire, also experienced a mental illness, as did both U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and his spouse, Mary Todd Lincoln. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was one of the highest paid journalists in England, had bipolar disorder and many dark and extremely out of control days, affecting sailors who lost their lives due to his aggressive actions in the area of Greece. However, he was also a peacemaker.
With the advent of great medications over the past forty years, once extremely difficult-to-control brain disorders are now much easier to control. The big problem for many of us are the very negative and suspicious, and hostile, attitudes which some people have toward people known to have mental illnesses.
MN Senator Jerry Relph and MN Representative Mindy Greiling (who was recently profiled in MinnPost for both her work in the Minnesota State Legislature, and for writing a book about her son’s and family’s growth and bonding through the years that her son experienced schizophrenia, are important figures in Minnesota, among many others, for their awareness, enlightenment, and their care and action for people with mental illnesses.
Breast cancer was once a forbidden topic to discuss around men and children. I remember a family member who had breast cancer, and the women in our family told me to not listen and that the conversation was not for boys or men. Mature recognition and conversations about mental illness, among the many forms of illness a person and their body can experience, should receive the same respect. With the work of the two aforementioned community servants, and thousands of others of us in Minnesota, we, as a community, can grow in knowledge, respect, and care for one another.
I am very sorry this happened to you, Barry.
That being said, you don’t have a case. This appears to have occurred over 30 years ago. As such, whatever claims you may have had have long been extinguished by statutes of limitations.
A nice man and by all reports a kind man, which is rare in today’s GOP. And his colleagues killed him with their political posturing about masks. It worked for the election, so I am guessing Gazelka and Daudt call it a win.
The big advantage South Dakota has over Minnesota is it’s proximity to Minnesota.
VERY True.
As someone who works in manufacturing it was always interesting to see MN companies relocate along the I29 corridor: Still with convenient access to their MN customers and the ability to hire employees from MN schools. Regular trips to the Sioux Falls to Fargo to Grand Forks area. Maybe once every 5 years to Rapid City and north.
Dakotas: Your welcome…
The Dakota’s…. literally among the few States in the US that are just: “Cold Omaha’s”.
You Dakota bashers apparently haven’t spent much or any time there. Fargo, Sioux Falls and Rapid City are thriving communities. Both states also have natural beauty and no Minneapolis. All advantages.