Claudette Fette, Ph. D. - “No Saints Here: A Cautionary Tale of Mental Illness, Health and the Cost of Ignorance in the Lone Star State” -Ep. 3134

Claudette Fette, Ph. D., is an occupational therapist focused on supporting youth, families, and people living with mental illness. She teaches about mental health at Texas Woman’s University School of Occupational Therapy and continues to be active supporting mental health initiatives at local, state and national levels. She has written about mental health for professional journals and contributed to books on the subject. She currently serves on advisories for the National Family Support Technical Assistance Center and the Advancing School Mental Health conference.

No Saints Here presents Claudette Fette and her son Aaron’s experiences as a cautionary tale while offering better alternatives based on Claudette’s years as a scholar and therapist. They share their hard lessons to encourage us to reject ignorance and accelerate the development of a smarter, healthier culture for generations to follow.

Aaron Fette lived with mental illness all his life. At age 15, he envisioned himself as a modern-day Jack Kerouac, living an adventure on the road that he would chronicle in his writing. Instead, after numerous ineffective interventions, he found himself fleeing from paranoid delusions that drove him from city to city. As a victim of abuse, a drug addict and alcoholic, and as a survivor of the US justice system, Aaron’s story offers a unique perspective on some of the thorniest issues in our society today. He died of an opioid overdose in a homeless encampment under Interstate 35 in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 2, 2017. 

His mother, Claudette, now an occupational therapist and college professor, weaves her son’s story into an examination of the critical crossroads in education, mental health and the judicial system — and offers families in crisis a guide for navigating the often-arcane services. 

Find Dr. Claudette Fette:

Facebook: @claudettefette

Instagram: @claudette.fette

Bluesky: @claudettefette.bsky.social