Do you think we could do a much better job helping people who have mental illness?

Question

Here's an example of what I mean from the report it seems that we have missed the mark. Do you think these people who were caring for him should have done more?

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/070419/world/us_crime_shooting

Answer 1

yes i believe we can. everything , i believe everything is taught in grade school, but very little on mental health. i think this would help younger people growing up it is not unusual to have problems, and help them understand why, and help other kids understand something about mental illness. a lot of young people when they have mental health issues sometimes think they are all alone in the world, and with some basic understanding of mental illness, would realize they are not alone, and can get help they need. i do not believe that this applies to the person who did the shooting. from what i have read, he had opportunity to get help, but chose to ignore it. yes i think we can do a better job. because , in Canada , the mental health acti is that a person has to be an emmintent danger to self or others, before they are incarcerated in a mental health facility. you have to respect a persons rights, and also weigh out the saftey of the community. it is a very difficult balancing act.

Answer 2

I have a step daughter who is very mentally ill and now is in a institution. She is so bad with her behavior she has constant one on one.I don't believe she will ever get out. My husbands' people all have this problem. which they have learned how to manipulate and use this for their own selfish benefit. As they say the fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.
I've been through a lot, I mean a lot.
What I have learned is there are ones that are termed psychopath, the real Mr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. From what I read they did test on him and found him to be fine. They are such great fakes you can't see their real self. It's very, very scary.
I've had psychologist and others in that field tell me to leave and change my name and ss#. In the past 3 years things have gotten better, but my husband knows if things ever get out of hand again I'm gone.
I know it will happen again, and I know to keep my eyes and ears open.
In saying all this is you couldn't look at him and tell this about him. If you ever met his daughter you'd never know either.

Answer 3

there is always room for improvement. here's one for the scientologists. they would say-take vitamins!



i think this guy was referred to a commitment hearing, which was serious. since he was let go to outpatient treatment, the ball was dropped. he must have been very high functioning, such as getting good grades, taking care of his daily needs, that they were convinced he would be ok. maybe they felt it would do more harm to take him out of school to treat his condition, and the university does not have the power to overturn a commitment hearing decision. he would have had to do something criminal to get kicked off campus, or had academic failure to be put on academic probabtion. he flew under the radar. he acted normal enough to stay in school, even though he was a wacko, and probably had schizophrenia. psychiatric treatment is not a magic bullet, as i have been there. i think they should have mandated him to outpatient treatment, and if he missed, they could have mandated inpatient, possibly long term if he was determined to have schizophrenia/depression. they said imminent danger, come on. they mandated outpatient, and apparently didn't follow up. that is where the ball was dropped. a lot of people can be helped, but some people don't want help, or are too sick to think they need it. they can exist in that gray area of acting normal enough to not get busted or committed.

Answer 4

Yes we should do a better job. It is hard when someone is an adult and has not committed a crime but when they are children we should be able to step in sooner and get them help. There should be mandatory follow up required too.

There were many warning signs with the shooter in the recent Virginia tragedy. And apparently he had been stalking a couple of woman, which IS a crime.

Answer 5

I am bit older, and have worked in the mental health field. for me this reinforces a couple of things.

A. for some people an institution is safer for all parties.
B. outpatient treatment is only as good as the patient's willing to comply to treatment
C. As we moved to deinstitutional mentally ill people the rise of "Impulse Serial Killers" has risen at the same time.
D. During the same period movements to press for Gun Control has restricted ownership of firearms to those who play by the rules.

Cho DID NOT purchase the guns legally, he had been adjudicated Mentally ill, and lied on the Form that the dealer is required by federal law to have. He passed the criminal background, but here in lies the problem. The Mental Health "System" specifically outpatient systems do not report to law enforcement and thus an adjudication of mental illness is not registered in the FBI computer. This needs to change.

We need to revisit the 1940-1950 model of mental health treatment.
The Marxist mentality in our schools, liberal media has been objectifying people for decades. Since the 1970s, gun control has been on the rise and corresponding victims have as well.

While it may not STOP the heinous acts from happening it may reduce them.
I believe reasonable and realistic steps are to encourage CCW on campus. For those who pass criminal background checks and hand gun training.

Personal security begins with self.

IF we sacrifice freedom for security based on government security we have neither security or freedom

Teaching kids to be heros not victims is the key. Liberals so indoctrinate the victim mentality people see the government as the solution, IT IS NOT. Real people are the solution.
We need kids with backbones. not spineless jelly fish.

We have strong gun laws, and people with intent will find a way to perpetrate. Guns are tools as are fire, knives, pitchforks, ammonium nitrate, jet fuel, gasoline, the problem is NOT the object. The problem is the perpetrator.

I believe many people have become willing to usurp their personal liberty for security they will clamor for a police state before long.

I believe that tragedies such as this ought to give us a reason to pause and look at the causes as to why angry people do atrocious and horrific acts.

I believe the media is culpable. I believe that parents are culpable, I believe liberals are culpable, I believe by removing any semblance of conflict from schools we not given kids healthy outlets for conflict and aggression.
When I was a kid, I carried my 22 rifle and 20 gauge shotgun in the truck of my car so I could go hunting after school, I never once thought when I was getting picked on by a bully to go get the gun and kill him.. I thought differently because I respected myself and those around me. If it came to blows with the bully it would be with fists in the parking lot. a bloody nose generally stopped it.

Guns are not the problem. Ignorance of anything is dangerous and society has become ignorant of firearms. Both of my children have certified in hunter safety and firearm training. They not only know HOW to use firearms but HOW NOT to use them. This is the problem with schools today, we no longer accept firearms as a norm so they've become abnormal AND people clamor for control. T

Answer 6

No I think that people are doing the best they can. It has to do with the patients rights. I think that we should never violate any of those rights because we are trying to help them get better not trying to make them think that they are some kind of a criminal. I think that he just didn't get the right amount of help for the right amount of time because if he had kept going to counseling for years or even months he might have not done this.

Answer 7

We could and should do a better job of caring for mental illness. Trouble is, it takes money, and that seems to be in short supply these days.

Almost as short as people who care.