Why Won't the Politicians Help Care for the Mentally Ill and Really Solve this?

[Fremmer]

We have people with severe mental illnesses committing mass murders at our schools. Or in movie theaters. Do you think someone who dresses up like the Joker might be severely mentally ill? How about someone who murders his mother to steal her guns?

Look, banning black guns and limiting magazine capacity doesn't address the core problem: We have a huge problem with mental illness, and specifically the treatment of and the immediate intervention to treat the mentally ill who pose a threat to themselves or to others.

Why isn't Washington DC addressing this problem? The mentally ill desperately need help and treatment! Banning guns or attacking the 2nd amendment won't help to treat them. New legislation should address treatment for the mentally ill, not banning guns for law-abiding cititzens.

 

[RaceM]

Because politicians at the national level ARE mentally ill. If they were required to undergo psych evals most would fail and be locked up. Politics is fantasyland where appearance trumps reality every time.

 

[Baba Louie]

Costs money and the ACLU keeps reminding govt that even mentally ill people have rights via expensive lawsuits and elimination of lockups. Mentally ill do not contribute much in way of campaign contributions, but I guess some do vote.

BUT... one would think that with the huge growth of the Govt at the Fed and some state levels, some of that money could have been placed into mental health care as opposed to bridges to nowhere, bullet trains, TSA or huge Embassy complex in Iraq, etc.

Priorities. Pork. Juggling figures to make budgets work.

Keeping this firearm related, it is a far easier approach to demonize firearms and their owners for one or twelve bad apples in the crowd who mis-use them and break the law, taking innocent lives in typically gun free zones.

 

[gossamer]

Because addressing one thing won't solve this problem.

 

[Powerglide]

Train

Train willing teachers each year and give them thumb print vaults.You save the cost of a security guard.The teachers get a little extra cash.The weapon pops out ready to go!But, to only the trained teachers!

 

[22-rimfire]

Generally speaking, when the government stopped supporting the "mental hospitals" in the 60's and 70's, the treatment issue was pushed to state and family responsibility. Neither seems to be able to afford to address the issue on a private basis.

Do you really want the Federal government operating mental facilities directly or to what extent do you want them involved? What is the responsibility of the Federal government with regards to "mental health"? Are you willing to pay for it? Remember most of these people's care will be 100% paid for by the government? That means your taxes will increase some more. Is it like other medical issues? I think not.

The govenment will likely take the easy path and want to control firearm ownership.

 

[Claude Clay]

in any way that those elected to serve us, to represent us...can insert their 'way' into our lives they gain more control and we lose a bit of freedom.

but we all know this.

mental health would...will in the end, cost more than the govt can afford to allocate with out cutting into their already established and cherished programs. these programs being what serve them--and why do they desire power...RaceM said it and i agree.

in a sane society anyone who is driven to accumulate political power should be banned from seeking office.
--------
the agenda today re mental health is to provide services ( reward the victim) thus giving the provider power over the family of the charge.
--the family NEEDS the govt assistance so that the ill can be main streamed.

so, go back to wear housing the mentally ill in institutions...

ain't gonna happen given the enlightened society govt tells us we are living in today. if govt rethinks how mental illness can be better handled it will pave it with another layer of (expensive) bureaucracy. and this pavement will have cracks designed into it big enough to allow that for those who fall through them, it was no one's fault or responsibility.

this ensure that there will be future 'events' and that it means the program is in need of some tweaks and lots more funding. always the govt wants more funding.
---------
creating and funding a govt agency to find an answer to a problem is itself problematical cause if they succeed--they put themselves out of a job.

 

[M-Cameron]

Because they dont care......

These politicians aren't stupid( most of them).... They know full well gun controll won't stop mass shootings.

They don't care about the mentally ill, they don't care about the shooting victims..... They only care about taking the guns from legal gun owners. They are only using this tragedy to further their pre existing political beliefs...and quite frankly it's sickening.

 

[gunlaw]

I would say that the mental health care system in the United States is joke,but then I would be admitting that we actually have one.
Mental health care is difficult and expensive. Many people who suffer from such problems require lifetime care. Many insurance plans don't cover any meaningful treatment.
It is much easier for our elected officials to "do something" rather than address the real problem and attempt a solution.
In this case any form of guncontrol is simply an illusion to make it look like the problem is being taken care of, while the real issue is being swept under the rug and forgotten

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

Why Won't the Politicians Help Care for the Mentally Ill and Really Solve this?

Firstly - the notion that it can be "solved" is where the problem starts. Solve human variables? Ain't happenin'. At least not in a society that a sane man wants to be a part of.

Addressing the issue from a point of view of alleviating the condition within a free society? There's as far as we should really expect "THEM" to go.

As far as "Why won't...?" Because a gun is a "thing" and therefore easy to identify, quantify and demonize whereas mental illness itself is a slippery rascal to get a hold of in terms of identification, diagnosis, treatment and post treatment evaluation.

Each of the above aspects complicating mental illness is further muddied when "responsibility" for each of them exponentially increases the mess.

Just like blaming cell phones for bad judgement in driving or blaming SUVs for the severity of an accident caused by a human.

Blaming the thing, its owner, seller and maker allows the short-thinkers to feel better about their brilliance in identifying the problem and congratulate themselves for their otherwise shallow-end-of-the-pool "humanity".

 

[Fremmer]

My point is that these guys are having complete breakdowns where they are telling their psychiatrists they are thinking about killing people, their parents are seeing that things are getting really bad, and nobody does anything proactive to step in and get them immediate help and to secure them. Nothing happens to stop it and these mentally ill people finally snap and act.

Perhaps the better question would be why aren't we (not just politcians ) doing more to proactively help people who are obviously mentally ill and dangerous? Instead we've got this theme that we just need new gun control and that'll solve the root problem. Which is hogwash.

 

[j1]

You can only spot the crazies after the fact.

 

[beatledog7]

Congress cannot legitimately spend money on anything not specifically enumerated in the Constitution, and it makes no specific provision for funding mental health care.

 

[JohnBT]

"Why Won't the Politicians Help Care for the Mentally Ill and Really Solve this?"

I'm going to try to be polite. If you had taken 5 seconds to google the lack of resources vs. need for mental health, you would have discovered that there has never been enough money and never will be. Too many millions of people need it and the costs to serve those millions and millions of Americans would be out of this world.

A couple of years ago NIMH/Nat. Inst. of Mental Health estimated that there were 2.2 million Americans with Schizophrenia. They estimated that 2.6% of the U.S. population is Bipolar. And on and on it goes. I would guess the number for depression is twice that, but I was too lazy to look it up.

To answer your question, no, someone who wears a Joker mask is not mentally ill - unless you have some other evidence.

Treating mental illness isn't as fast and easy as a 5-minute appointment with a doctor to get some antibiotics or have a boil lanced. It's the hours of associated support services that run up the bill and the need for weekly therapy and regular medication management. I won't even start in on the subject of inpatient treatment and costs.

John

 

[Fremmer]

But John, I disagree: the joker is a prime example of failure at every level. He was already being treated by a psychiatrist. He'd told her that he was thinking about hurting people. She did nothing about it. He'd already decided to drop out of school. CU did nothing. He had broken up with his girlfriend, and I'm gonna guess it was because he was getting worse, and she did nothing. His family did nothing.

All of these warning signs, and everyone did....NOTHING.

 

[M-Cameron]

You can only spot the crazies after the fact.

that is not true.....damn near everyone with a significant mental illness shows symptoms....

people just choose to ignore those symptoms because they dont care...... or it couldnt happen to their kid....or its none of their business..... or they dont want to offend anyone.....or they think its 'just a phase'.....

 

[Mp7]

Does this not automatically lead to a 1st world healthcare system, that
so many conservatives think of as a hitlercommunisttalibanism?

 

[Skribs]

It's simple. Seriously, it's simpler to just go after and regulate a tool than it is to fix the real problems in our society. I've mentioned this in other threads, but I think the real problem is fourfold, and we CAN fix three of them:

1) Revolving door prison system. We need to triage who we keep in prison. Violent offenders need to be in prison at least until they're middle aged, when the hormones of youth taper off and they've learned their lesson. Victimless crimes, IMO, need to not be crimes at all, and if they are then treatment should be the goal instead of jail.

2) Poor mental health care. BO likes health care, this shouldn't be hard to convince the gvt.

3) Poor social system. The government likes to do bandaid social programs instead of resolving the root issue. For example, college tuition is too high? Let's do grants! Instead of simply lowering tuition costs, the government would rather do a grant program, which doesn't help your average student. The same applies in a lot of areas, I think.

4) People are evil. There's nothing we can do about it, except stop evil when we see it.

The problem is that gun control supposes 4 can be stopped preemptively, and is much easier to enact than 1-3. All you gotta do is name a list of brands and/or features and say "illegal" and then tell the ATF "sic em". It won't solve the problem, but it's much easier to get done than to fix the real issues.

 

[Kansan]

I don't think it's the federal government or politicians job to treat mentally ill people. And if they did, it wouldn't really solve this. Some people aren't mentally ill, they are just evil and must be stopped by force or threat of force. Of course, I was taught that we all have a nature prone to evil & the solution isn't more gummint. But then again, I'm one of those people that cling to my guns and religion.

 

[hso]

Because it is a complex problem that takes time to implement and would require significant investment and it isn't actually the goal of the Antis to address the root causes of violence and mass murder.

It has been their goal to get rid of firearms in the hands of the public and this is just an excuse to manipulate the public into supporting that goal. Actually preventing violence isn't their objective.

 

[silicosys4]

Because the government would rather allow a mentally ill person to be charged outrageous amounts of money for medication they need to stay balanced by drug companies that know they have a person backed up against a wall, an ill person who most likely can't hold a job to pay for said meds....than do any kind of real reform of our health care industry.

 

[OilyPablo]

Great answers above.

The politicians don't care. It's an illusion.

It's not about solving the problem really, this most recent outburst is just the usual gun grab. Oh, they say they want a well rounded approach and gun control is the first thing.......don't fall for any of it.

 

[xXxplosive]

With the billions of dollars we are giving those Rat Bastages in Pakastan....we should be taking care of our own.......screw theirs.

 

[somerandomguy]

RaceM: Yeah, politicians want to also require drug testing for welfare, but how many of them do drugs themselves I wonder? Since they are taking our tax dollars, politicians should ALSO be drug tested imo.

 

[7.62 Nato]

that is not true.....damn near everyone with a significant mental illness shows symptoms....

people just choose to ignore those symptoms because they dont care...... or it couldnt happen to their kid....or its none of their business..... or they dont want to offend anyone.....or they think its 'just a phase'.....

According to who, psychiatrists? Remember the Ft Hood shooter? Be careful about who you want to give more power to.

Why Won't the Politicians Help Care for the Mentally Ill and Really Solve this?

Even crazy people are smart enough to not let the government "help" them.