Obama gave a great speech Wednesday night.
But I wish he had some prayers and hopes for Jared Loughner and his family. People with mental illness and their moms need our prayers and support. Jared's schizophrenia wasn't developed enough where his parents could differentiate it from being a 'crazy' teen. But even had they known chances are, there would be nothing they could do.
I've met many a person with mental illness and many a mom of someone with serious mental illness. The moms would call me on the hotline at the local mental health group as things were getting out of control.
"My schizophrenic son/daughter thinks the FBI planted a transmitter in his head". Other variations include, "He thinks he is The Messiah" or "Extraterrestrials are telling him to stay put" or "He is working on a billion dollar program to save the world" or "He won't come out of his room because radio waves will get him".
These sons and daughters almost always have schizophrenia, occasionally bipolar disorder and are always off medications. They've almost always been abandoned by the mental health system that's supposed to serve them.
Let's say you run a mental health program and you have one slot left. And a young urban professional unhappy in her marriage who wants counseling shows up at the same time a psychotic person with schizophrenia shows up. Who are you going to let into your program? The asymptomatic professional who wants counseling or the psychotic who needs intensive help?
The mentally ill and their moms face this every day and when it gets bad mom calls me.
"What should I do?" Mom would ask. "The police won't help. The doctor's won't help. No one will". Other than the platitudes ("Give him his medicine" "Take him to a doctor", "Call your local mental health center", "Call the police", "Try peer counseling") -- all of which she'd already tried ad nauseum, there was nothing I could tell these Moms. I became one more person who didn't help them.
Mom's the new mental institution, given the responsibility to see their loved one stays well but not the ability to enforce medication compliance or get the mental health system to take action.
The law prevents treatment for their ill sons or daughters unless he or she volunteers for it. If you're too sick to volunteer, they won't let you in. The result is that the less ill people get in, while the most ill don't. The ability to get voluntary services is inversely related to need.
So Mom has to wait. Wait until after her child becomes "danger to self or others". The law requires violence, rather than prevents it. Since having a daughter locked in her room convinced she is The Messiah is not enough to allow the police to help, some Moms turn over the furniture, and then call the police, so when the police came, they would have 'proof' the person met the criteria of "danger to self or others".
I've met Moms who've done this. It was their only hope.
Mrs. Loughner never wanted Jared to become a headline for hate. This is the mental health system we have in America. It caters to the well not the ill.
So I hope that we will all do as Obama asks, and be more civil. But I also think we should think about people with very serious mental illness and the problems they have getting services and what we can do for them. And let's pray for some real heroes... their Moms.
DJ Jaffe
nykendraslaw@gmail.com
Addendum: Watch CBS Evening News tonight to see Dr. E. Fuller Torrey.
Follow DJ Jaffe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheRealMrMe
The boy was HURTING! And obviously so. Is it too much to ask that you should go out of your by-the-books-way to reach out to a clearly disturbed person?
That 9 year old girl who was killed demonstrated an intellect and consciousness which would have been an asset to Pima College - and society - once she matured.
You'll never get the chance to see her develop; because you dropped-the-ball toward Jared Lee Laughner.
#1. This was a memorial for the dead and wounded ONLY.
#2. The jury is still out on the parents. It's becoming clearer that the Loughners did nothing to get him help. They knew in September about his suspension, and he was living under their roof with his strange behavior.
#3. As someone noted, his remarks could prejudice the case against him, and I sure don't want him seeing the light of day anymore. In fact, I want him executed. and
#4. This is a speech for the ages. It will be quoted, remembered, memorized for years to come. Obama knows that. The pundits know it. Jared Loughner has no right to be memorialzed in this manner. How dare you!
Last year I lost my younger brother when he was 22, to bi-polar disorder. My family and I were fortunate enough that he did not harm anyone other than himself. I could never put the blame on my parents for his sickness or the result of.
As we knew my brother was not like most kids, had seen mental health doctors early in his teens who failed to diagnose him with any mental disorder. He didn't develop clear signs of mental illness until less then a year before his suicide.
Our family did the best we could to help him, by trying to force him into a mental health facility but, as the writer of this article mentioned, it is impossible to force anyone into treatment. Even as my family began to know for certain he had some form of mental illness, many of the mental doctors he visited would not offer any diagnosis. They told my family that he was going through what many young adults experience.
I'm sorry, but if a damn professed doctor can't even decipher mental illness from "supposed, typical problems", how can anyone expect to blame parents for not recognizing the signs of mental illness?
Also, it's clear you promote drug therapy, but do you also equally support other therapies? My brother has tried that route to much worse misery. He has had much success with relaxation techniques and art therapy. Maybe he isn't as productive as an 8-5 worker bee, but he leads a fulfilling life at his level. My question to you is: What is the motivation of pharmaceutical companies? M-o-n-e-y.
It is best to offer a well-rounded, truly compassionate opinion to inform readers and effect positive change. Perhaps it wasn't your intention, buy this seemed little more than broad blame and coercion.
At this point, no one has pointed the collective finger of blame at the mentally ill, nor questioned their place in society. I think you are overreacting, with all respect.
Having said that, the wound for the other victims was too deep and raw to raise this during the president's speech.
In trying to bring a bit of order to this chaos, he did address, however briefly but clearly, the need to address the issues of gun control and of mental illness, thus putting them on the nation's agenda.
Thank you for taking the time to remind us and provide us with more clarity. I have encountered mental illness in the college classes that I teach, among my friends and neighbors, and in my family. We as a nation must address this issue.