As a current member of the mentally ill community (I have OCD and a touch of schizophrenia), I would like to take this opportunity to point out (to those who don't know better) that not all mentally ill people are criminally inclined. I, for one, have never had any problems with the law, and most other mentally ill people are quite harmless. I would suspect that a good number of those in prison DON'T have mental issues, yet you don't often hear in the media about how mass-murderers or hostage-takers were perfectly sane. In any case, America's prisons have become an alternative to mental institutions for many mentally ill, given the cut-backs in the availability of proper mental care.

While I am on the topic, I fear a future crackdown against the mentally ill in this country, similar to what we have had against Muslims and Arabs here in America, if, God forbid, a mentally ill person takes part in or plans a major terrorist attack or takes part in some other kind of large-scale crime.

I know that it may be hard for us to feel sympathy with the mentally ill, unless we or someone in our family suffers from such an disease.
That is why I am particularly frightened, as a mentally ill person, that in the future the mentally ill will be viewed as scapegoats by politicians, the media, and the public, much as how Muslims and immigrants are used as scapegoats today.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Everything affects everybody. We are all members of a society so that when we deny appropriate treatment for mentally ill persons then we will all be touched by the repercussions. The man who held the persons hostage cannot be blamed for his actions because he has an illness just like a person who is epileptic cannot be blamed for having a seizure. Sick persons require help so they can contribute productively to our society. We are all dependent upon each other in this life. We can either deny housing and care for the mentally ill and then expect to pay the price when they act out against society or we can treat the mentally ill and help them to contribute to society. The mentally ill can be helped if they are treated appropriately in the appropriate setting. Where were the mental health workers when this sick man needed help? Why was he made to act out in his desperate cry for help through his actions of taking Hillary Clinton's staff hostages? When we help the mentally ill then we help our society at large. There are no "throw-away" persons. Everyone has something to offer to society.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

the mental health system, in particular reforming the laws that allowed people to be sent to asylums fairly easily. This was because the system itself was often abusive. Ever read "One Flew Over the CooCoo's Nest"? The system was also used for nefarious goals: getting rid of 'troublesome' wives and children. Locking up 'misbehaving' teens for experimenting with sex or pot. Dangerous practices such as electro-shock, insulin shock therapy, psychic driving, and even CIA-funded experiments on unwitting test subjects. Also 'simple' things like sexual and physical abuse of patients.

There also was a focus on the INDIVIDUAL's rights instead of the COLLECTIVE state's right. So laws were changed to make it much more difficult to commit a person without their consent, to force drugs on people, or to force counselling. The irony is that while the individual rights are very important often truely sick individuals do not recognise, at least fully, their illness....so they refuse to stay in facilities, stop taking their meds, etc. And, baring extreme situations, families, police, parents, and society has limited options to help the person now due to the new laws.

So besides the obvious need for more funding, facilities, doctor training, and public awareness we also need to address the issue of how you can "make" a person get help if he refuses it and to ensure that the individual is not abused, taken advantage of, and rights are preserved.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Gallup came out with a healthcare poll summary on Thursday titled "Republicans Report Much Better Mental Health Than Others", and GOP'ers beat Dems by a score of 58% to 43% in the "do I think I'm sane" category. Touchdown, Gipper!

It's no wonder the GOP has "much better" mental health than everyone else with these kinds of thought-bombs:

"There are laws about what is torture and what isn't."
"We're at war with the people we're shooting at."
"Firefighters would make great internal security agents."
"If everyone carries a concealed weapon, then society will be safe."
"America is in a position to reshape norms, alter expectations, and create new realities. How? By unapologetic and implacable demonstrations of will." (Krauthammer)
"The evidence is not conclusive."
"Go Raiders!"

And, in a Rovian twist, the 1000 polling victims were given the addresses of local liquor stores for self-medication.

Self-diagnosis, self-medication... since everybody's happy, that's a free market cost savings of fifty hundred percents.

Reagan's glorious GOP: home of the self-medicated, party of the delusional.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

When I was sentenced to 5 years probation for refusing to serve in the Vietnam war, I worked for 2 of those years working in a Cal St. mental Hospital (Sonoma) as a teacher's aide to the deaf-blind.
As rewarding as that experience was as an alternative to war, we were always at odds with the Reagan State Admin. because of budget cuts--the so-called "fiscal genius" of Reagan at his worst.
There were a lot of problems with the State mental health system, but Reagan's slash and cut policies only exacerbated the horrible system-wide conditions. Far too many people in need were put on the streets with no halfway houses or backup help and the conditions inside only got worse. What a "Fiscal Genius"--and ever since we have been reaping the benefits of that wonderful Governor, Ronnie the (bull) Dozer!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I was surprised and disturbed to see in a copy of The Economist (Oct 13-19) - which i consider to be a rather journalistic version of Time and Newsweek (which have become fluff and entertainment if not outright blind supporters of the current Administration)- a half-page advertisement paid for by the "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" bemoaning the psychiatric / mental health care industry. This group which is actually a front for the so-called wacko/pyramid fund totally for profit group which has been banned in Germany and Belgium as a cult - the "Church" of Scientology has a "museum" in Los Angeles with huge signs saying "Psychiatry Kills".

Of course they are right that there have been abuses throughout history, and some techniques have been found to be useless and discarded. However, there are many more sincere efforts made in the psychiatric/mental health care community to help those who are depressed or otherwise experiencing bouts of mental illness, some of which come from simply from the results of policies which are inequitable in this country and which prevent people from living successfully.

Any and all treatments for ailments have to be monitored and abuses have to be prevented. Obscene profits must be eliminated from the prescribing of drugs and treatments. This is common sense.

But advertisements such as this is just one example of abuse in the opposite direction...the desire by some to eliminate all help from trained psychiatrists and psychologists to the community and the cowardly use of subterfuge to promote it without revealing the true identity or agenda of the organisation behind it.

The Scientologists believe that their cococted rip-off pyramid scheme to make money from those in distress (which by the way was started when the science fiction writer Asimov bet his lesser talented writer Hubbard $100 that he could not invent a religion!) --- their first introduction to most people is their spooky free stress test which leads to exhorbitant payments for further examination and treatment--- is the answer to the world's mental health problems.

That a rather respected journal would include their advertisement among otherwise respected institutions and schools show how some of these groups get attention and further harm the sincere efforts by others to bring help to those who need mental health assistance before a crisis such as the one above-mentioned occurs.

I urge Mrs. Clinton and other candidates for President to use this sad incident to push even harder for a one provider payment system for all health care in this country including for ailments such as depression and other mental health problems which have languished ever since Reagan and his fellow Repunks set those who need our help out into the streets to wander around homeless ...and even more mentally disturbed than before.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

I was diagnosed with schizophrenia when I was 15, I am now 53, and like so many others with this and related disorders, I have led a productive life. I now do street ministry and regularly encounter the mentally ill who don't have the benefit of regular medical assistance and provision of medication. It is widely believed both by medical and non-medical people that these sufferers choose to not take medication, but in reality, many have reached the stage of not being able to remember when and what medication to take...this is particularly so with the people who've been ejected from those 'terrible institutions' and expected to make it on their own. I'm not advocating a return to the old style of institution at all, but until the lives of those mentally ill persons on the street can be somewhat 'normalised' and a regime of monitored medication (again I'm not suggesting forcefully administering medication, most mentally ill persons will readily take needed medication, they're not stupid, on the contrary many are very intelligent when not in the grips of their disorder), there will continue to be some individuals who, fully under the control of whatever delusion they are in, will commit anti-social acts. I'm not saying that all mentally ill people are disposed to commit these acts, but in times of desperation and without adequate medical assistance and monitoring, these disorders continue to grow in severity and it takes only a seemingly minor crises to send the sufferer into an out of control rampage. The sufferer is as terrified as his/her victims, he/she just cannot summon the initiative to end the situation, having people yelling at him/her only increases the panic and confusion. Please remember that a person in a psychotic episode is likely to already be suffering from multiple delusions and may even be hearing voices from all around him/her...to have a person of authority yelling at him/her as well as likely multiple guns being pointed in his/her direction does nothing to calm the situation. Every person, no matter where they live deserves adequate shelter and provision of medical care to meet their needs. It is about time that initial costs of providing this are disregarded in favour of long term benefit of improved health and even productivity of the persons involved. God bless.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

The Problem actually began with the lawsuit initiated by the American Civil Liberties Union "on behalf of" the thousands of mentally ill who were, until the very beginning of the Reagan Administration, housed in state hospitals and clinics as wards of the state. Often these were people who had been committed by their family members for their own protection, deemed unable to contribute to their own welfare. The ACLU determined that this protective custody was a violation of the civil rights and freedoms of the mentally ill, so they sued the federal government to make the "internment" against the law. The case prevailed, and the states were ordered to release all of the patients. Very soon afterward, "Abraham Lincoln" appeared at the gates of the White House, where he remained for years. Thank you, ACLU, for helping all of these people find a better home on the sidewalks of this great country.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

...they crumble from within. for example, look at Ancient Rome.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

As if the damn Republicans wouldn't capitalize on a situation exactly like this!!!!!!!!

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Thank you for yet another reminder of Reagan's crucial contribution to much of the US's present hellish state. Before Reagan, cutting funding for such things was unthinkable, just like being anti-environmental was unthinkable before him. And now we've got US polls that have the citizenry ranking Reagan above Lincoln and Kennedy in greatness! He ruined the country and he's ranked above even Lincoln in greatness by the US public. Gosh, why do people hate Americans? I just can't figure it out.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]