Roger came to The Heart of Virginia Foundation as a result of his son's
having been shot on April 16th. Derek was sitting in German language
class in Norris Hall when he was injured by a mentally ill schoolmate
at Virginia Tech. Roger was quickly reminded of the old saying "An
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." But in this case,
preventive medicine could have had a much more dramatic effect than is
expressed in that simple proverb.
So Roger decided to get involved in efforts to improve mental health
care, and to generate political support for mental health care reform
legislation in Virginia. It was said, "Cho fell through the cracks."
Roger and others have responded, "Then let's narrow down those
cracks!" That's basically what is meant by preventive medicine ---
help keep people from falling. And we need to realize that prevention
is not just the responsibility of the health care profession. We all
have a role to play.
Roger's background is in civil engineering and transportation
planning. But he also has a good bit of experience in architecture and
computer systems. He has worked for a wide variety of employers, such
as, the City of Philadelphia, the City of Charlottesville, General
Motors Research Laboratories, and the University of Virginia Medical
Center, and others, as well as being self-employed. In recent years,
he has been set back by two diseases, a neurological disorder and eye
cancer, but he is still anxious to help make some positive changes in
the world.
Roger's wife Joanne works with mentally ill veterans at the VA Hospital
in Salem. She has served as the clinical pharmacist for psychiatric
medicine there since 1993. So mental illness is "in the family."
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