Well, now this is interesting.

It must be asked, as we look at proactive mental health, at improved training and opportunity and a focus on accountability - would a more proactive approach to mental health have prevented the challenges at ORNGE? Could they have prevented "personality" problems that led to e-Health, or Walkerton, or the death of Dudley George?
There's plenty of evidence to suggest the answer is yes; given the right, proactive accommodations and conscious thought as to consequences, we could have planned better in each one of these cases. Social-Emotional learning, EQ development, etc. can help foster consciously pro-social development. But do we believe that, seriously? Are we ready to accept that difficult personalities (and charming personalities) are reflective of neurochemistry and environmental factors? Can we get past the “suck it up” and “get over yourself” mentality still prevalent and really invest in understanding who we are and how we exist as a societal system?

Problem is, that kind of survival-of-the-fittest mindset is the exact same thought process that landed the system with Chris Mazza. Mazza, by every account I’ve read of him, is a big-thinker, fast-talker, charming to the nines. He’s the kind of person you just feel is somehow ahead of the curve – his very demeanour inspires confidence.
What if that demeanour, that behavioural pattern, is the exact same starting point for the mess that ORNGE got itself into? What if Mazza has, like so many people in politics and business, an undiagnosed “mental health” condition that, because it caused him to excel, people were willing to overlook until the cracks started to show?
Political operatives can tell you countless tales about seeking the perfect candidate and apparently finding them, only to run into a whack of “personality-challenges” down the road. You could sit in any Legislature in Canada and probably assess rather quickly a number of people who could be slapped with a diagnosis (and some already have one). The problem is, these manic, delusional, obsessive people – when harnessed the right way – are the ones who move the ball forward. They are our innovators, our social outliers, the people who think around corners and inspire other to follow.

We should watch what happens in the case of Dr. Chris Mazza closely. How much his case will incite some introspection on the part of policy makers and institutional leaders will be most telling of how quickly we can start embracing the changes our society needs to keep growing forward.
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