the real issue: Mental Heath Services (VT related)
inmytree
Posts: 4,741
As more and more information come out about the shooter at VT...it seems that a major issue that may have lead to this was the lack of Mental Health Services for those in need...in watching the videos sent to NBC and the fact he was committed in 2005, I have to wonder if the decreased funding and focus on the Mental Health system played a role in this...I know in the state of NC they begun "divestiture", meaning they basically farmed out nearly all services to private providers. Which means, if you don't have the money for help, you don't get the help needed...they are also closing down mental health hospitals, leaving people with issues like the shooter out on the streets...
Mental Health services are few and far between, just look at the prison system...and in the US there is a stigma that goes along with having a Mental Health issue...which doesn't help either...
Perhaps we should swerve away from the "gun debate" and maybe look at this issue...
Just a thought...
'Imminent danger'
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/19/vtech.shooting/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Mental Health services are few and far between, just look at the prison system...and in the US there is a stigma that goes along with having a Mental Health issue...which doesn't help either...
Perhaps we should swerve away from the "gun debate" and maybe look at this issue...
Just a thought...
'Imminent danger'
CNN wrote:In 2005, Cho was declared mentally ill by a Virginia special justice, who declared he was "an imminent danger" to himself, a court document states.
Cho was evaluated at a mental health facility after a student rejected his attempts at establishing contact with her, Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum told reporters Wednesday.
Authorities had been told Cho might be suicidal, Flinchum said, but in the certification and order for involuntary admission to a mental health facility, Special Justice Paul Barnett wrote that while Cho's mood was "depressed," "he denies suicidal ideation."
"The alternatives to involuntary hospitalization and treatment were investigated and deemed suitable," Barnett wrote. Barnett ordered Cho to follow "recommended treatments" on an outpatient basis.
But that evaluation was the culmination of a fall semester that saw one professor threaten to resign if Cho remained in her class, another alert university authorities about the disturbing nature of his writings and calls to police from women who said Cho was stalking them.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/19/vtech.shooting/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
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Comments
I agree, inmytree. Even if one has the money, the waiting time for appointments with mental health providers (in the USA) is usually 2 weeks at the minimum, many times longer.
There has to be a change in attitude about mental health. It should be treated no differently than any other kind of health problem. Unfortunately old, negative sterotypes are still attached to mental health problems.
Those who dance are called insane
by those who don't hear the music.
~ Eddie Vedder
I agree, it's mostly a mental illness problem, and the lack of knowledge about them. I don't know about the funding though, these would have to be examine further. He was diagnosed and not treated, the killer in Dawson College (montreal) was also diagnosed as depressive and not treated. I can't say it's always the case, but in this one it seem like it is.
-Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Yes, there has to be a change. But I think it begins with the reduction of all those unnecessary anti-depressive drugs that Big Pharma pushes. Off all the medical fields, IMHO, mental health is the least we know about.
Also I dont know about VT but here at Washington State University we have access to counslers and psychologist for free throught the school. From what I know most universities do.
sure, some services are available...but not many...
I'm talking about the big picture...what I mean is, if the mental health system had not be dismantled by Reagan years ago, maybe there would have been options for the shooter in 2005 when he was committed...
as it stands, commitments are short, if at all, and once committed, the focus is on drugging them up and getting them out...
there are very few options in the mental health system...