In the wake of Newtown and Aurora I've heard it endlessly repeated that the solution to the problem is increased public support for mental health. I have not heard any specific policy prescription other than the generic 'we need to address mental health'. I'm curious what kind of specific policies people think should be enacted. A problem I have with those that blame mental health care is that both the Aurora shooter and from what I've heard, the Newtown shooter were both seeing doctors for their mental problems. The Aurora shooter was actively receiving help. It seems that throwing money at mental health care will be ineffective unless the medical field completely revamps its practices because individuals are getting the help they supposedly need and still going on rampages.

They should lock up everyone with mental health problems!! wait ermmm nvm I don't want to go to jail :P

They already do that Bambam. In NY state they closed a lot of psychiatric facilities, so now they all come to jail. I know this because I get all these fruit cakes. It seems 75% of inmates have some form of mental illness. There is a mental illness for everything these days.

How about identifying the at risk, evaluating their risk status, then locking them down if they are a prime risk. We have profilers that are proficient at this sort of thing.

I would strongly oppose that on account of the 5th amendment to the Constitution and the potential for abuse.

Just like having a kid should be illegal without a permit... Think of all the kids who wouldn't be abused, teen moms, and the amount of public assistance we would save.

i heard mengele had made some good strides in the eradication of mental health issues

damn i actually agree with thomas on something

move to china, charcoal and pain.

Yeah I didn't expect to see supporters of a policy as totalitarian as any ever enacted.

I think what it comes down to is education. We need to realize that mental health should be treated the same way as physical health in a few ways:

1. If I have a cold or the flu, you look at me a certain way and it's totally different than the way you'd look at me if I had schizophrenia. There's nothing embarrassing about going to the doctor to get my flu checked out. There is something embarrassing about going to the psychiatrist to get my schizophrenia checked out. That needs to change.

2. We need to be more aware of mental health issues and not ignore them. If we see someone at work with a very bad cough vomiting everywhere, we send them home to rest or to the doctor to get help. If we see someone about to get in their car and they're drunk, we take their keys and call a cab. But if we see someone in our family or in our workplace who appears to be suffering from depression or anxiety or any number of mental disorders we ignore it... we're scared to bring it up for some reason. That needs to change.

3. People shouldn't be afraid of their own illness. This comes a bit from #1, but also from not providing folks with enough information about the treatments available. For some mental health issues, e.g. addictions, we make it clear that help is available (AA for example) and the stigma of admitting that one is an addict is not as great, but for other illnesses we've created a society in which the individual blames themselves and is ashamed of their illness. I'm not ashamed of myself when I get strep throat, why would I be ashamed of myself if I had Aspergers or severe anxiety? That needs to change.

how i know that the psychiatrist is sane enough to treat me properly?

ron artest (bonus)

up

I am sorry but we are still forgetting one thing which is why I can't feel bad for the killers and that is what they are.

They chose to kill innocent people and to try to go out with a bang thinking it will make them famous. Since if they killed themselves then we would not be talking about it. Nor figured they could be famous for doing something. I am sorry I feel sorry for the families that lost their kids and family because they did not have the choice. We like to blame it on this or that and deflect the blame off the individual as what they are which is a KILLER of innocent people.

Maybe my i am a little prejudiced because I have 3 small kids. I can say that we deal with problems from soldiers poorly which is appalling. They sacrifice everything for USA and when they come back with problems adapting the services for them are not AAA like they deserve. Our prisons don't scare people. Where else can we listen to a man saying him dying is inhuman because he is fat and having judges agreeing. OK so keep him in jail for life instead on the tax people dime. We have death row but don't use it. Almost every other country would have killed him another way. If you are put in death row you are killed. Not sitting years and years. Unless you change the laws and to do that you have to change the leaders you can't fix nothing. Until we educate the people to make better choices they don't know what is broke nor do they care so we can't fix anything properly.

Last election summed it up. Even with all the problems we still managed to elect the same president. Even after 4 years people still want their free handouts. I am going to get obama bucks, free medical, free this and that. Well that is killing US. We don't want to work anymore. And Fixing problems is work.

I am sorry so long. And again if you have problems I am not trashing you in anyway. Just the problems I see and you are right they will not be fix but they are best we have now.

I agree with Hawkeyee for the most part.
I think people need to pay more attention to mental suffering as a whole though, not just when it becomes an illness.
Suffering is part of life and our continual quest for pleasure and happiness often means we try to forget our suffering while suffering can be your greatest teacher to improve your life.

It's quite common for mental illness that people feel inherently ashamed and guilty about it though, i.e. those feelings are part of the illness itself apart from the stigma associated with it. Although I think it would certainly help if there was no stigma.