Fix mental health care or expect more shootings
Mel Robbins for CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/28/opinion/robbins-mental-health-rodger/index.html?hpt=us_mid
Every time there is a shooting there is a cycle of how we deal with it based on reforms. There's always a huge uproar over gun reform, but this time after Elliot Rodger's massacre, it's over mental health reforms. Questions have been raised as to how a mentally disturbed boy who had been hospitalized for issues and undergone multiple years of therapy went unnoticed on the web and on background checks when buying a gun.
The law commands for a 72 hour hold when committing someone to a hospital. Once the 72 hours are up, a person is released unless they are still making threats or committing harm to themselves or others. Because of the slip up with Elliot Rodgers he was declared "sane" by many. The question isn't how to restrict gun usage, it's how to revise mental health laws to avoid mistakes like this in the future. Not only will raising attention to the issues in the mental health field solve many of the problems, but it will draw attention to the hesitation many people have towards talking about the subject and reveal the many questions people still have about mental health.
This entire situation is very unfortunate. I hope that in the future hospitals will be more careful in these situations and make better decisions about patients.
ReplyDelete...except that mental health problems aren't the culprit here. everyone uses the mentally ill excuse and it absolves blaming the shooter himself and others like him. we need to focus on systemic male violence rather than focusing on mental illness.
ReplyDelete