Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan As part of the conversation about the violent gun massacres that have happened, the issue of mental illness comes up. In several (most?) cases, the shooter has form form of mental illness for which there had been warning signs before the time of the incident. I am unfamiliar with what a parent, friend. spouse, neighbor should do when they notice some threatening or concerning warning signs. Police can't really help if no crime has been committed. Once someone is an adult, even parental input is legally limited. What is the equivalent of calling 911 to report someone who is exhibiting some signs of mental instability? Who is the "they" someone should call? Short of locking someone up for the rest of their lives in an asylum, what sort of assistance is available for someone needing this kind of mental help, and for their family, friends, neighbors and co-workers? It seems like that information should be part of a massive public education campaign as part of an effort to stop these horrible events if possible. Like everyone else, I've had enough of the after-the-fact reports of dozens of signs pointing to a bad end for someone mentally unbalanced or disturbed.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper I think this is an excellent idea. The police are not trained to do anything other than to enforce laws. Much of the mental behavior spectrum is more long the lines of symptoms that can lead to a problem and that takes mental health experts, not police, to detect. My mother is a behavior psychologist who runs group homes for people with severe mental challenges. Stories she shares with me on a weekly basis would floor most people. And I mean...knock you back to tomorrow. This is a significant challenge that must be addressed by politicians, public health officials, and society as a whole.
Originally Posted By ecdc Exactly right. Who you gonna call? Is it 911? I know there's a very popular blog post that's "gone viral" about a mother who says her son is the next Adam Lanza. He has serious mental illness issues and throws violent temper tantrums. But that's just part of the problem: I'm glad we're talking about mental illness, but I worry these kinds of discussions are giving the wrong impression. While it is true that anyone who is going to go into a school or a movie theatre or whatever and shoot up the place is clearly mentally unstable, it's also true that violent crime among the mentally ill is extremely low, and that they're much more likely to be the victim of a violent crime than the perpetrator. It's time we start talking about that. And the relationship between poverty and mental illness; if you're mentally ill, it's hard to hold down a job and therefore hard to be anything but poor, unless you were already born into a well-off family that can care for you.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer <a href="http://www.med.unc.edu/psych/psychoticdisorders/about/what-to-do/" target="_blank">http://www.med.unc.edu/psych/p...t-to-do/</a> Start with a family doctor or a local mental health center if the situation is causing concern but no one is threatened. If someone is imminently threatening to hurt themselves or others, call the police. Mental health care is one of the things that Obamacare added to health insurance, so if you have insurance you should be covered. If not, mental health coverage is covered by Medicaid.
Originally Posted By Tikiduck Well, you can thank the Republicans in part for the mental health debacle. Go back to the early eighties, when the Reagan Administration repealed Carter's Mental Health Systems Act, and cut spending by 25 percent, throwing the burdens onto the ever dependable mainstream health and insurance carriers.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer And the GOP is doing what they can to cut mental health treatments even further and to gut Medicaid. I don't really understand what the GOP is trying to accomplish. "Let's make sure that we don't have the resources to identify and treat the mentally ill, and let's make sure that there are as many guns as possible in the country for them to get their hands on."
Originally Posted By RoadTrip A major problem is a lack of space in programs for the mentally ill, whether insurance will cover the expense or not. Many times people with quite severe problems will just be held for 72 hours and released because there is no space in long-term residential programs. Jails and living on the streets have become America's solution of choice for the mentally ill.
Originally Posted By melekalikimaka The police don't like to step in much when it's a child/parent. You have to find (and pay) for a place for your child to go. It doesn't matter if you (the parent) feels unsafe. Most shelters/homes for kids are only for homeless kids. And the police will charge you with neglect if you make your child leave. Even if your child has left your home, if he's got any violent tendencies on his record (which he will have since you DID call the police when he threatened to kill himself...or yourself), then those shelters won't let them stay there. Basically, you and your family suffer. You might suffer less if the child leaves. You're not forced to help them once they're adults (but it's pretty hard to ignore your child who needs help, even when they're grown).
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Mental Illness is a very difficult subject to find a really workable solution too. We don't want to go back to the old days where any family member could have any other family member locked up for the duration, but there should be some way to get them the help they need whether they agree to it or not. My X-wife had some severe problems, mostly anti-social, none physically violent, but problems none the less. Once she reached the point of no return as far as her own ability to recognize the problem, there was nothing we could do for her except watch her self destruct. This was a very educated woman with two masters degrees, not a bag lady talking to shadows. She might as well have been though because no one, not her husband, her children or the mental health care community could do a thing unless she was willing to let them. She was not. She saw the problem as everyone else was hostile towards her as opposed the the actual other way around. Before she could get any help she had to fall over the edge and create a fear the she "might" do harm to herself or others. In one heated session with her caregiver she was finally "persuaded" to say the word suicide. That locked it up and they were able to get her in a hospital and given the proper regiment to help bring her back to at least a livable mental state. She could have also killed someone to get the same result, fortunately she didn't. The sad fact is that by the time she got help it was to late to give her back her life. She had already divorced me and I had started a new life. Our children were trying to help but there wasn't much they could do. Her reputation had prevented her from working so she was on government aid with no real future to look forward to. Her anti-social activity ended but her ability to see anything worthwhile in her future no longer existed so she just floated down to near vegetable state where she remains today. Living in assisted living facilities, short term memory about shot due to incorrect diet and lack of caring on her part. A very sad story indeed. Why did this happen? Because the new laws preventing outside influences from wrongfully taking action also prevented her from protection against herself and her unbalanced way of looking at life. She could have been helped and might perhaps be a happy grandmother, enjoying her grandchildren as we speak. Unfortunately, she is unable to do that or even recognize that she might be able too. The consensus of opinion amongst mental health professionals is that she might have been able to get to a relatively "normal" state had they been able to help sooner. Moral of the story...You might very well be able to see a possible bad ending, but there is nothing you can do about it until it has already happened or almost does. Very difficult problem as I said, but, we need to figure a way to prevent Connecticut not to react to it in a manner that will not help at all or even skim close to the actual cause. Guns didn't kill those children, a mentally ill person killed them with a gun. What do we do about preventing other mentally ill people from that same thing in perhaps a different form?
Originally Posted By TomSawyer We make it so the guns available have limited ability to kill dozens of people with one clip. We make sure that gun owners take precautions so that their guns cannot be used by people who aren't authorized to use them. We make sure that mentally ill people are able to get the treatment that they need and, if necessary, the housing needed to keep them and others safe.
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I"m not so sure lack of access to mental health services was a problem for this family. According to an article I read, Adam grew up in a $1.6 Million dollar home. The home he lived in with his mom is a half million dollar home. Obviously, this family had financial resources well above your typical American family. Also, according to the article I read, the mom was a survivalist who hoared stockpiles of food, and ammo, believeing the world was going to end according to the Mayan calendar, later this week. Relatives and friends describe the mom as "high strung", and "loved guns".
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I also read that she received close to $300,000 per year in alimony following her divorce in 2001. And she was not afraid of the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar. After all, what good are guns going to do you if the world ends? Her friends described her as a "prepper"... preparing for what she saw as an impending economic collapse where groups of armed people would go from house to house looking to steal what they could to survive.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>I don't really understand what the GOP is trying to accomplish.<< I do. They're trying to cut spending so they can cut taxes on the rich.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer "Also, according to the article I read, the mom was a survivalist who hoared stockpiles of food, and ammo, believeing the world was going to end according to the Mayan calendar, later this week." Nice. No wonder the shooter had a bulletproof vest and big clips for his rifle. Lunatics.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>"Also, according to the article I read, the mom was a survivalist who hoared stockpiles of food, and ammo, believeing the world was going to end according to the Mayan calendar, later this week."<<< That would make no sense at all. The theory that I read about said that the earth was going to stop spinning on its axis causing the end of gravity and we would all float out into space and die. What good would guns and food do in that case? Of course, it also could be asked how they knew about earth spinning and gravity connection.
