Our Opinion: We shortchange mental health services at our peril

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Unable to make sense of the senseless — like the Newtown, Conn., massacre — the sensible recourse is working to prevent future tragedies.

People across the nation are mourning the slaughter of 26 people at an elementary school. The gunman, Adam Lanza, began the bloodshed by killing his mother before going to the school, and ended the ordeal by killing himself.

Innocent people die as a result of violent acts every day. What catapults this episode into our collective psyche is the magnitude of the death toll, the inclusion of 20 students among the victims, and the Christmas season.

Struggling to understand the massacre is futile, which is a good sign. An area counselor observed: “If you could understand this, I’d be worried about you.”

Although aberrant, violent behavior may be incomprehensible to someone with a mentally healthy mind, warning signs of mental illness may be apparent.

Identifying, intercepting and treating people with mental illnesses, sadly, continues to encounter obstacles.

First, although society has made strides in understanding and tolerance, a stigma remains attached to mental illness. Differentiating mental health from mental illness is not as clear cut as diagnosing heart disease, cancer or a broken bone.

Despite all the public discussion about health care, little attention has been focused on mental health issues. And organizations promoting mental health do not enjoy the higher profiles and fundraising success of other health associations.

The lack of visibility leads to the second obstacle, which is a profound lack of general public knowledge about mental health. Is a family member or friend just having an off day or severely depressed, sullen or suicidal, moody or prone to violence?

These distinctions are difficult to decipher, even for professionals. An ability to make a correct diagnosis is complicated further when patients deny or refuse to disclose their mental states.

Which brings us to a third obstacle — accessibility to mental health resources and a dearth of available professionals.

Compare the number of patient beds in the community to inpatient mental health facilities. Compare the number of mental health professionals with the volume of physicians in other medical fields.

How many people who desire to see a mental health counselor would do so if they were not deterred by the stigma, the cost or an inability to be seen promptly?

We understand increased attention to mental health services will come with a cost. In addition, no single — and no short-term — initiative will eliminate madness and massacres.

But we, as a society, can begin by acknowledging the need to focus on mental health and to make resources more available, affordable and accessible.

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JCLifer 6 months ago

Is there any evidence that the Connecticuit shooter was ever diagnosed with a mental illness?

I am all in favor of restoring a bunch of the cuts that Jay Nixon made to DMH, but we are talking apples and oranges here.

RobHunterJohnson 6 months ago

JC,It is starting to show up, they are reporting he was possibly having arrangements made for a long stay, just did not make it? Rob

connor 6 months ago

There was a new article out today that begins to show a possible wee bit more light on the subject. No one has yet to produce any clear cut incident leading to a mental disorder claim (by the school he attended or a licensed professional) or any other "official" diagnosis. However there is now a guy who was a friend of the shooter who is claiming that Adam's mother volunteered at the elementary school where the murders happened and was "good friends" with the first victim at the school who was also the Principal and school Psychologist. The article inferred that this good friend had some responsibility or hand in the mental illness claim and subsequent ongoing attempt to have Adam declared mentally ill.

The feminist educator's mental illness inquisition and "let's put all the boys on Redillin" craze has hit a whole new level of tragedy now. No longer are the boys the only victims.

Littleinvestor 6 months ago

Ritalin is the spelling, I think. And it probably is over prescribed. Lots of kids inability to sit still can be traced to ineffective parenting. My kids learned to be still in church and other situations long before they went to school and they also knew don't do that and "NO" meant exactly that, not do it anyway or nag constantly.

JMO 6 months ago

When my son was 3-4, he was having problems in daycare. Wouldn't behave, sit still in class, he was disruptive. The daycare insisted I take him to a child psychologist. I was a single mother who hadn't even been around kids until I had my own, so I did what the instructed, The man spent 20 minutes in a room with my son, not allowing me in, and then told me he needed Ritalin. The reason? Every time he heard a noise he looked at the door. Well, imagine that - he was only in a strange place and didn't know where I was. So I took him to a child psychiatrist. We spent 1/2 an hour sitting and chatting while my son quietly put together puzzles in the corner. In the end I did put him in a program through the school, becasue he needed structure he didn't get at preschool. When I went to the first psychologist, who was the one the school wanted a referral from he grudgingly gave it, insisting I'd have to eventually put the boy on drugs anyway. He didn't need drugs, he needed the teachers to show him who was boss! Don't get me wrong, my son's never been an "easy" kid. The last 14 years, he's tested the boundries every chance he got. But he didn't need drugs.

None of that is to say that mental health issues shouldn't be addressed. But I would agree they are overdiagnosed in young children. I'm pretty sure that Adam's problems were apparent and that he should have had help he didn't get. You don't get crazy enough to shoot your mother then go kill little kids, without someone noticing.

JCLifer 6 months ago

I blame the liberals almost as much as I blame the shooter. I blame them a lot more than I blame the gun.

Think of how many lives would have been saved if the school secretary at the front office had. 9mm and knew how to use it. The trash could have been stopped when he broke into the building.

If the principal was armed, she could have stopped the shooter even if the secretary failed to do so.

These kids are sitting ducks waiting to get plinked when they are at a school that advertises that no one has any protection in the entire building. It will keep happening over and over at schools and other public buildings until we can stop this foolishness of forbidding people in these buildings to protect themselves. And we are so dumb to proudly advertise that they are without protection. How dumb is that?

jcguy25 6 months ago

And then what happens if its the secretary that snaps.. or the principal?

JMO 6 months ago

I hardly think turning our schools into the OK Corral is the way to go. But I wouldn't consider armed security a bad idea.

JCLifer 6 months ago

Regardless of the diagnosis, his actions indicate problems existed. As for his mom getting it from her own gun by her deranged son- I chalk that one up to Darwin. She should not have had available weapons in the house where her son could access them.

linoge 6 months ago

Wow Connor, I like the part about the female educator inquisition.

sancho 6 months ago

It's sad that people have to turn the discussion into an opportunity to belittle others.

This was such a horrible tragedy. We need to work to improve treatment for people with mental illness, and mental disabilities. Families who have a family member with a mental illness need support services. The public needs education about this issue.

We know more about garbage and what happens to the cardboard we put in our recycling bins than we know about conditions faced by neighbors and children in the school down the street that have a mental illness or disability. I don't want to invade the privacy of someone with a mental illness. But I do want to know what behaviors can be pointing to and possible ways to respond to problems.

Providing families with a person suffering from a mental illness or disability increased assess to treatment and help should be one of our highest priorities.

connor 6 months ago

There is still nowhere, outside of the mother telling her social friends, that confirms there even was a diagnosis for a mental illness. Frankly I believe the entire mental illness thing is a figment of the killers mother's imagination and her Feminist support crew which is now being loudly broadcast by everyone because the truth is more than the current Liberal cultist can even bear to think about.

Seriously if she really believed her son had a mental illness would she have left him access to and taught him how to use her weapons? Seriously?

This is more drama caused by the Feminist ME ME ME ME!! Generation and promoted by the typical education career enablers but this time it exploded in their face. Incidents like this will continue to happen as these young men have no options left and feel like outcasts not only from society but from their families.

Girls go to school, boys get drugged and labeled with false mental illness tags and we wonder why they turn into what they are accused of being?

3633 6 months ago

Ok, so you want to say boys, but what about the incident here in Cole County, do you think the young lady that killed the young girl, had a mental illness. Did anyone enable her?? All we know is that it is not normal to kill someone. So all that is being said is we need to concentrate more on helping those with any time of problems, mental or not to stop tragedies from occuring. There is no right or wrong answer, we just know something was wrong in all the cases of mass shootings and as a country we want to try and focus on ways to prevent this from happpening again ; IF WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least we can try!!!!

connor 6 months ago

I assume you are talking about the Bustemante (Sp?) case? In my opinion that stems from the very same social disease I am talking about in this particular case.

Here is what I am saying. There is no helping these people under the current Liberal/Feminist/Multi-Cultist religion they are under. Every action has an opposite reaction and it is only going to get worse.

sancho 6 months ago

The fact that you haven't read about a diagnosis does not mean this kid did not have a problem.

Connor,go back and pull up some articles that mention people who associated with Adam Lanza and read their comments. Put aside your hatred of women and try to process what people have stated they remember about this kid. Former classmates and a club sponsor have described behavior that clearly showed there was a problem.

It's apparent his mother made big mistakes. But it sounds like she tried, and still messed up big time. As everyone's friend JClifer pointed out, having guns in the home, with a kid with problems, was dumb to say the least. She paid for her mistake with her life, as did 26 others.

I've got relatives and friends raising kids with mental disabilities. Getting help for the child is a krap shoot. They may luck out and have a teacher or a counselor that gets it, and works with the parents, provides the support they need and helps them get the services they need. But most of the time it is not that way and they have to fight to get the help their child needs. The child's sex has nothing to do with it. Without the right training teachers do not know how to help these kids, regardless of whether they are boys or girls.

connor 6 months ago

The fact that the firearms were available is the most relevant part of this entire story so far. Any parent who truly thought their son had a mental illness would not have left them accessible. Period. This IS NOT some stupid dumb mistake as you call it. The woman obviously had no concern for her son being dangerous in the slightest but he sure was crazy enough to be locked up. As a parent myself I can only say my son would have to be dangerous before I would even consider locking him up, which means firearms being locked up would come long before a court order attempt.

The fact that over 70% of all Male children are recommended for drugs at some point in their school days and my calling attention to it nets me the standard "woman hater" title, well so be it since they and their supporters are obviously Man haters it is justifiable in my opinion.

Also all those old friends and classmates said basically the same thing he was introverted and had shyness issues. All of them said he was not dangerous. This boy struck out because he felt threatened and he struck out at what he felt threatened by. We don't need some straw man mental illness shield to figure out that when a person feels they have nothing left to lose they lose it.

Continue down the Liberal/Feminist/Multi-Cult path at your peril.

RobHunterJohnson 6 months ago

"The fact that over 70% of all Male children are recommended for drugs at some point in their school days" Conner Where did you find this? Rob

connor 6 months ago

It was linked from a study off of the Spearhead a few years back. I believe the number is higher today actually.

Littleinvestor 6 months ago

He felt threatened by little kids? Unless you are a mental health professional who worked with him, you really do not know anything about his mental state, and neither do the rest of us. I have my "theories" on what may have been going on but they may be way off the mark and I'll keep them to myself. More of the story is coming out but likely the public will never know all of it.

Sequoia 6 months ago

Connor, I think you need to do more reading about the facts of the case, especially what the mother knew about the son, instead of trying to fit this case into your pet theory about feminism.

The mother clearly knew something was wrong with her son. She was terribly, terribly irresponsible for keeping weapons in her house where he could get them, and for teaching him how to shoot. It would be nice if responsible gun owners would speak up about that.

There is a gender issue here. Almost all mass-shooting events are carried out by men, mostly young white men. Women kill, of course, but generally not mass shooting/suicide. If it were JUST a mental health issue, why is it almost only young white American men? What's that about?

connor 6 months ago

That's pretty simple to answer. In fact I have answered it already except as expected those who follow the liberal/feminist religion will refuse to even see it. Women are not the ones being oppressed and falsely accused of mental disorders or constantly having the tables tilted against them. We waste billions and billions each year to accommodate women and further oppress men especially in the education field.

The only thing I see clear here is that the mother wanted the world to think she was caring for a mentally ill son so the focus would be on her. She didn't believe it herself and her actions with the firearms proves it.

TickledPink 6 months ago

Women are not being oppressed or accused of mental disorders? You are so far removed from reality it's scary! Women can't even have a bad day without someone asking if it's PMS. More women are on anti-depressants than men. We have a DRUG culture, not a feminist culture. Yes, you hate women. Or at least women that have any power. You have no idea what this family went through and because the 2 main people are dead, we may never know. But to blame this on feminism is insulting and ignorant.

JCLifer 6 months ago

Women control education in this country. I am not surprised. All the single mothers dont have male fathers in the kids lives. No wonder boys are getting the shaft here.

TickledPink 6 months ago

Women do make up the majority of teachers but administration is male dominated. Principals, superintendants, etc are overwhelmingly male. These are the policy makers, the ones who "control" education, not teachers.

jcguy25 6 months ago

The way I see it and from what I read, the mother grew up in the country and was an avid gun collector and shooter. She was pushing him to get involved in "mainstream" life and taking her son to the shooting range was something they could do together. In several articles there have been mentions of Adam having problems other than being shy and introverted from prior babysitter, tech club leader, classmates, and other family. An FBI profiler discussed that this was not a mental "snap", not meaning he didn't have some mental issues, but his actions were planned out in great detail. The choice of an elementary school was to have the most impact and that he would be remembered. The fact that he shot his mother in the face was definitely an indication of a very personal attack on her. Perhaps she was pushing him too hard to be "normal". We may never know all the real reasons, as it was also mentioned he destroyed his computers, down to taking a hammer to the hard drives. He knew they would look there. This was a very intelligent young man, dealing with serious issues apparently nobody understood, except for always being overlooked and in the background. This was a way to get even and get noticed.

Littleinvestor 6 months ago

Lifer, it is true some single women have no fathers or strong male figure in their children's lives, but not ALL of them. I know divorced couples who do a good job of co-parenting and regularly see one young mother at school events with her out-of-wedlock son handing said son off to the father while they watch a game. The dad lives near me and I see him in the yard with the son some weekends. Not an ideal situation but they are trying to make it work. Schools do try to have male teachers in elementary school and one of my best friends is a man who has taught first and second grade for nearly 30 years and of the last three principals he has had, two have been men. A great many school administrators are men and men teachers are common in high school. Women do not "control" education in this country. It appears to be shared by both sexes from my observation. Too many man walk away from their children because of divorce or out of wedlock situations. That is a problem.

RobHunterJohnson 6 months ago

Conner, went to Spearhead, I did not find the article, but some engaging reading! The mother in my opinion wanted her child to succeed, and was willing to go to great lengths to make that happen! She needed a baby sitter until the sitter could see to much, he needed help to be at school, so she removed him, he needed computer games, so she made it happen, he wore his father out, so he left, he wanted to learn to shoot, so she enabled him, he wore his brother out, so he left, he demanded her time, then he demanded all her time, and he killed her! Sequoia Guns are available to myself. and wife at all the times, I put them up when the kids, or family come by for a visit. Children know where things are at even if you hide them? They know where the keys are located, I was taught at an early age the way to handle a gun is to treat it as loaded. Everyone should know how to handle a weapon, the gentleman who killed his child a couple of weeks ago! He did not check it, he was trying to sell it, if the gun store owner handled it, he should have checked it! I have asked, and have been handed an empty loaded gun on several occasions? It is obvious this lady did not understand the responcibility of Gun ownwership, if she would, she would not have had guns in their home, and it had a very sad set of consequences. Rob

connor 6 months ago

Last article I read on Adam's family situation, which was last night, showed several pictures of his mother hanging out looking about half drunk but very social to say the least. It stated she didn't need to work because as is typical the Father was shelling out over 200K a year in support but was not allowed any say or set visitation rights to his son. Another typical Feminist ploy of controlling/restricting access to the Man's children but then claiming he is a non-interested Father.

The only connection Adam had with that school was through his mother and the meddling of by the school's Principal and Psychologist which he targeted first. The mandatory 21 age of support was ending, the mother wanted to live her "free" life and the boy snapped and was denied any form of a strong male roll model in his life.

A recipe for disaster and one we are seeing play out more frequently as the Feminist/Liberal/Multi-Cult gets more power by importing in more voters. Self destruction on the horizon now.

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