So why did I get so fixated on the mental health issue. Well for one thing I’ve always felt that
murder is committed by someone not in control of reason, even if only for an
instant. That those who plot and carry
out killings make an irrational decision at some point and then stick to it. Others commit crimes of passion, where a
moment’s anger blurs that rationality I keep coming back to. Killing 26 people, with 20 of them 6 or 7
years old has to take an inability to distinguish right from wrong.
My exposure to the Mental Health system was in the 60’s and
70’s, when the state was still warehousing mental patients in places like
Morris County’s Greystone State Hospital.
My first experience with such a place was actually Greystone, but it was
followed by other state and veteran’s administration hospitals. Some were better than others, none were good,
all were intimidating places that seemed to medicate patients heavily and keep
them locked inside. They stunk of
urine. At Greystone I had to pass through
a maze-like series of wards, no doubt housing a unique category of patients in
each – some had stronger urine smells that others. They all had people standing in hallways,
rocking back and forth, others leaning with their foreheads on the walls,
muttering or singing. An uneducated
person like myself assumed the word for these people was “crazy”. Today the huge lines for an iPad are “Crazy” and
rush hour traffic is “Crazy” unless its a bad day and then its “insane”. How we’ve lost the language!
Through that time a movement was building in the health profession
that favored reintroducing these patients into society while under supervision
and medicated. That movement was prodded
along and supported by politicians until it resulted in closing the warehouses
down and saving tons of money.
To accomplish this, we changed the criteria for commitment
to an institution to make it nearly impossible and all through this the stigma
of mental illness grew and grew. Now
they walked among us and the fears that resulted made people very protective of
their loved ones and very secretive as well.
If people were to find out a person was mentally ill, a shame would be visited on
the whole family.
Things continued to change as more and more diagnoses were
for Autism and Bi-Polar disorder and fewer and fewer diagnoses of the more
serious conditions were made. Today, if
you can get help for your suffering relative (cost and access are issues), They get evaluated, labeled and categorized,
prescribed and maybe counseled. If we
get a confirmed diagnosis of ADHD or Asbergers, we’re done, get the pills. Unfortunately, mom and dad lack the letters
after their name to do their own diagnosis and must go along with what they’re
told. If the patient regresses, we find
another diagnosis box to put them in and just give different meds.
The problems become easier to see when a Newtown occurs, and
the experts come out to tell us that Asbergers doesn’t lead to violence. I can’t dispute that, it wasn’t in Psychology
101. But let’s assume the Asbergers box
was entirely right for this case. Other
issue are present, or as they say Asbergers patients don’t generally manifest
such behaviors. So to my way of
thinking, if a patient exhibits behavior “X” and Asbergers patients don’t exhibit
behavior “X”, then Asbergers isn’t the right diagnosis.
Many have had to fight for Mental healthcare for their children,
and many don’t get it, or get inappropriate treatment. Keep in mind that parents need to get past
the stigma to even seek treatment. Then
if your child needs constant care, the only way you can get it for him/her is
if there are criminal charges against them. The California Prison System operates the
largest Mental health Program in the United States. Get your child arrested and they’ll get the
help they need. Most parents I know
would tend to shy away from that (stigma again).
So where’s the answer?
I think it must lie somewhere between treatment in society and treatment
in an institution, but we need much more humane institutions that we had before
we closed them all.
We need a mental health system that can reach the larger
audience, properly identify those that need hospitalization and commit them,
and closely treat the rest with an eye toward changes in condition.
Then we can change gun laws, security systems, parental
education and anything else we can identify that will move us forward.
