By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
April 19, 2002
As he cut the red ribbon Thursday with the help of his wife and three adult daughters, Bradley A. Sanders was thinking, "We're one step closer."
Sanders officially dedicated the first phase of construction for the adolescent complex named for him at East Mississippi State Hospital. He began trying to secure funding for the complex from the Legislature in 1993.
He said having the adolescent complex named for him is a great honor, but he is more thrilled that youths in need of help will have a more proper environment for treatment.
Sanders is vice-chairman of the Mississippi Board of Mental Health. A resident of Madison, he retired in 1995 after 36 years of state service, most of it with the Department of Mental Health.
Sanders said he, Dr. Albert Randel Hendrix, executive director of the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, and Dr. Ramiro Martinez, director of EMSH, set out for the funding nine years ago with the knowledge that the need for the complex would continue to grow.
Citing state budgetary woes, Sanders said the second phase of the project will be done as money becomes available.
Sanders worked eight years as a teacher and guidance counselor in the state's public school system. He worked as a special counselor in the Mississippi Vocational Rehabilitation Division in Oxford and was a mental health consultant and acting director of the Region II Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center.
In 1971 he became program development specialist for the Mississippi Interagency Commission on Mental Illness and Mental Retardation. He served on the commission until it became part of the state Department of Mental Health in 1974.
Sanders' long career with the state Department of Mental Health saw him work as director of the division of community services, chief of the Bureau of Community Programs and chief of the Bureau of Mental Health.
In 1998, Sanders was appointed by Gov. Kirk Fordice to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health Board for a seven-year term. He will begin serving as board chairman in July.