“The most important thing to me is that the story says — A: Christian truly is sick, he’s not evil. He’s really sick and has been for a long time, and, B: His dad loved him so much as he did all of us, and his No. 1 goal was to try help his son have a normal life and to be happy. He wanted his son to be happy and feel loved and cared for by us and others.”

– Cathy Costello, widow of Labor Commissioner Mark Costello, who was killed by the couple’s son, Christian, earlier this year. Christian suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and his family had struggled for years to coordinate treatment for him (Source)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carly Putnam joined OK Policy in 2013. As Policy Director, she supervises policy research and strategy. She previously worked as an OK Policy intern, and she was OK Policy's health care policy analyst through July 2020. She graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2013. As a student, she was a participant in the National Education for Women (N.E.W.) Leadership Institute and interned with Planned Parenthood. Carly is a graduate of the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits Nonprofit Management Certification; the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council’s Partners in Policymaking; The Mine, a social entrepreneurship fellowship in Tulsa; and Leadership Tulsa Class 62. She currently serves on the boards of Restore Hope Ministries and The Arc of Oklahoma. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, and doing battle with her hundred year-old house.

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