I'm Right Again Dot Com

A new commentary every Wednesday                December 3, 2014


The Mental Health Dilemma

    Every time some deranged person goes on a killing rampage with a gun—usually an automatic weapon, backed up by a pocket-full of oversize ammunition clips—scores of people debate the issue, with no concrete program evolving to cure the problem. 

    This past September, California was the first state to pass a law that makes it easier to confiscate a gun from a person deemed potentially dangerous. Better than nothing, but this is a halfway law. It does not attack the real problem. Take the weapon away from an insane person, and they'll just acquire another.

    I believe that a federal law is called for, instead of a hodge-podge coming from a number of state legislatures.  

    Let's begin by accepting the fact that sane people do not carry out whatever aberrant thoughts prompt insane persons to enter a school or other public place and slaughter as many innocent victims as possible. They most often usually end the horrendous episode by killing themselves. By now, it must be totally apparent that what we have is a never-ending rash of copycat killings perpetrated by mentally sick individuals. 

    I've followed this issue very closely since U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others were shot by an unbalanced person who was known by many people, to have long-time, serious mental problems. Six of those whom he shot, died. 

    This incident sticks with me, because on January 8th, 2011, My son-in law and his son-in-law were helping me cut down an ancient, 30-foot Christmas tree in my front yard—located one half-mile north of the shopping center in Tucson where all of the victims were shot. We learned the reason for the enormous commotion nearby (sirens, helicopters) from an eye-witness: a friend of my helpers was at the scene of the rampage and called on his cell phone to relate what he had just seen. 

   I wish to add that three generations of the Giffords family were advertising clients of mine for their tire business. In the past I was in close contact with them, at least once a month, for longer than 50 years. Consequently, I have exulted, along with millions of others, as we follow Gabby's incredibly amazing, if not miraculous recuperation. We wish her well in her and her husband's efforts toward gun control.

    So, it has been four years now since that day and still there is no clear nationwide program to help prevent further tragedies like it from occurring. In fact, I've lost count of the several more copycat rampages somewhat similar to it that have since taken place.

    There will be more.

    In February of 2011, less than a month after the Tucson rampage, the parents of a young man were unable to keep him confined to a California hospital. The institution says that it did its best to stabilize him with medication. Upon his insistence, he was released and subsequently stopped taking his medications (this is very often the case), and  shortly thereafter, he beat to death a 67-year-old retired man using a flower pot. So, a solution is not necessarily about guns, knives meat cleavers...or flower pots.

    There is disagreement about institutionalizing insane people. Even though there are mentally challenged persons living among us who are a danger to others and themselves, some ACLU types contend that to force them to take their medicines is depriving them of their civil rights. Pardon me for using the word, but that position is really crazy!

    In the past months, we have learned something about Ebola. It is only reasonable to accept that there are times when we have to impinge upon individuals' civil rights when the whole population is at risk.

   Bottom Line: people with a severe mental health problem ought to be compelled to undergo involuntary psychiatric treatment.

  According to Time magazine, there are 9.6 million adults needing treatment for some form of mental illness but only 150,000 psychiatric beds. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of mentally unstable persons cycle in and out of emergency rooms, jails and prisons. They comprise 24% of all jail inmates, and 15% of state prisoners, and undoubtedly a huge percentage of people living on the street

    If you agree with me in the slightest, I suggest you start by learning the applicable law that pertains to court-ordered assisted treatment for the severely mentally ill in your state and inform others. This movement has to start somewhere, somehow.

    It is my opinion that many killings by mentally unhinged individuals, are preventable tragedies. What if John W. Hinkley, Jr, or Jared Lee Loughner had been patients in a court-ordered psychiatric treatment program? (There'll be a test later)

    Fact: We need a federal law that permits a judge to order an adult with a serious mental illness to be involuntarily committed to an assisted outpatient program (AOP), whereupon a team of mental health workers provide wrap-around care that includes full time monitoring of the patient's condition as close as that provided a patient with ebola, smallpox or tuberculosis.

    Each of these patients should undergo close monitoring and treatment, as long as a judge deems it necessary, even if it is for ever.

   Sure, it would cost a lot of money to hire case workers to track each and every severely mentally ill person. The money to fund it must be found. 

    I pray that if you agree with me, that you'll pass this along.

    Yes, ramifications of such a plan, including cost, would be enormous. But, I am sure that there are those who could find areas in our federal budget to provide the necessary funding, such as reducing the money we  give Egypt and other foreign countries, year after year.  

-Phil Richardson, Curmudgeon, Observer and Storyteller. 

Phil's current post can be read at:  http://www.imrightagain.com

If you wish to comment, Phil can be reached at:  

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