Jason “J.J." Park

Jason W. Park is the author of two memoirs, a number of short stories and personal essays, a scientific research note, an academic book chapter, PhD dissertation, undergraduate honors thesis, and more than a dozen Op-Ed’s. His writings typically revolve around the hero’s quest, or more generally speaking, a significance-laden journey. In it, Jason finds himself under constant adversity, weakness and danger, but still can summon the will for self-sacrifice (hence, heroism), for the sake of all humanity.

His more recent projects have redirected from purely literary to public policy. For example, one topic is how “dual diagnosis” or “co-occurring disorder” – mental illness and drug addiction combined – leads to homelessness and incarceration. Jason also weighs in on how the state of California’s mental health system can be improved upon – an issue touching close to home for him.

Finally, a recently emergent theme for Jason is what roles untreated mental illness, easy access to guns and absent law enforcement have in mass shootings. In that vein, Jason attempts to understand the “gun rights vs. gun control” debate less as hopelessly acrimonious and more as positively conciliatory, which could ally conservatives, liberals and moderates around effective gun policy.

Dr. Park is a member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. His latest participation in that organization is with the Crisis Intervention Team/Sharing Your Story with Law Enforcement. In these presentations to law enforcement officers, Dr. Park reflects on his initial contact with them more than twenty-five years ago, at the beginning of his decades-long recovery, when the men and women in uniform saved his life. He finds it personally self-fulfilling to reach out to audience members who are sworn to “protect and serve.”