Tweet
After the terrible shooting in Arizona, I gave the issue of mental health laws in the U.S. some serious thought. While I was working on a Masters at the Univ. of Florida, my minor was psychology. I was required to spend so many clinical hours counseling individuals via the community mental health centers.
For those of you who don't remember the 60's era of peace and love (?), the feeling at the time was "if it feels good do it"; "you're not responsible, you're parents are, society is, etc, etc". As a result, it was decided that those with mental illness were being "warehoused" in institutions and their rights were being violated.
Indeed, some of the facilities for the mentally ill were absolutely horrendous. So, thanks to the activism of the liberal left, the Federal government, ordered these facilities closed, passed new laws to prevent institutionalization of mentally ill people against their will. There also mandated 'community mental health centers', which were meagerly funded.
As a result, thousands and thousands of seriously ill people (we're not talking about anxiety, depression, adjustment issues, we're talking about dangerous seriously ill people) were released. As a result a huge number of mentally ill people became homeless.
Their families couldn't care for them. As a nurse, I can testify that it is very, very challenging to care for the mentally ill, much more so outside a controlled environment.
A new law in the early 90's, which was pushed by liberal left and HIV positive individuals, mandated that any information about mental health problems and HIV infection were considered "super confidential" and any medical personnel, clinic, etc. who shared this information were in danger of losing their license to practice and opened themselves to law suits. As a result, I could not report a serious mental illness to the client's family, police, school etc, etc. I could have the person confined for 48 hours pending review by the psychiatrist. only if they threatened harm to themselves or others.
So, it is no surprise that no one reported the behavior of the shooter in Arizona. This is a major example of liberal do gooder thinking has hurt not only the general public, but the mentally ill as well.
Today, the same type of thinking is prevalent throughout the Federal Government and the liberal left. It seems no one is considering the consequences of their do gooder thinking.
For those of you who don't remember the 60's era of peace and love (?), the feeling at the time was "if it feels good do it"; "you're not responsible, you're parents are, society is, etc, etc". As a result, it was decided that those with mental illness were being "warehoused" in institutions and their rights were being violated.
Indeed, some of the facilities for the mentally ill were absolutely horrendous. So, thanks to the activism of the liberal left, the Federal government, ordered these facilities closed, passed new laws to prevent institutionalization of mentally ill people against their will. There also mandated 'community mental health centers', which were meagerly funded.
As a result, thousands and thousands of seriously ill people (we're not talking about anxiety, depression, adjustment issues, we're talking about dangerous seriously ill people) were released. As a result a huge number of mentally ill people became homeless.
Their families couldn't care for them. As a nurse, I can testify that it is very, very challenging to care for the mentally ill, much more so outside a controlled environment.
A new law in the early 90's, which was pushed by liberal left and HIV positive individuals, mandated that any information about mental health problems and HIV infection were considered "super confidential" and any medical personnel, clinic, etc. who shared this information were in danger of losing their license to practice and opened themselves to law suits. As a result, I could not report a serious mental illness to the client's family, police, school etc, etc. I could have the person confined for 48 hours pending review by the psychiatrist. only if they threatened harm to themselves or others.
So, it is no surprise that no one reported the behavior of the shooter in Arizona. This is a major example of liberal do gooder thinking has hurt not only the general public, but the mentally ill as well.
Today, the same type of thinking is prevalent throughout the Federal Government and the liberal left. It seems no one is considering the consequences of their do gooder thinking.
Comment