Monday, December 17, 2012

Starving the Beast

Trey Smith


One of the big initiatives in this country today is starving the beast. In the eyes of conservatives of BOTH parties, that beast is the government (with the exception of the military-industrial complex). As the beast has been starved, vital services that we each depend on have been slashed and, in some cases, crippled or dismantled. Of these vital services that benefit the overall society, one that has been severely compromised is mental health services.

In so many communities these days -- like where I currently live -- mental health services are wholly inadequate. I happen to have a great relationship with my mental health counselor, but the services his office can offer me are very limited. When I first started seeing him 3 or so years ago, I asked about hypnotherapy or psychoanalysis. Neither option is available here...or anyone close to here! This situation is similar in other parts of the country as well as the problem of too many potential clients to be treated by to few professionals.

This issue has reared its head again in the wake of yet another mass shooting. While information still needs to be gathered on the assailant, initial reports describe the 20 year old as autistic and having a personality disorder. At this early juncture, there is no indication that he received any mental health services to help him deal with these issues (though this may change as more information is gathered).

This has become a rather common theme in the aftermath of these deadly acts. We have an individual who exhibited telltale signs of some type of mental disorder or distress and yet no or inadequate services were provided. Many people -- both those with a personal relationship to the person and professionals -- merely passed off these signs as eccentricities or nothing to be overly concerned about. This analysis changes drastically after the person commits mayhem.

So, how do we reconcile starving the beast with the need for greater mental health training and services?

In my opinion, you can't. As state, county and city governments are squeezed, they have to make painful choices about which programs to cut. One of the first programs to see the chopping block invariably is mental health services. So, in my mind's eye, if you accept the notion of limited government, then you must concurrently accept the idea that there will be increasing numbers of mentally unstable people roaming the country.

Most of these people pose no danger to anyone but themselves. Yet, as the numbers increase as services continue to decrease or disappear altogether, probability tells us that there will be ever more individuals who will pose a danger to others. There will be more incidents of someone going completely off the rails, grabbing some guns and murdering innocent people.

To read an absolutely gut wrenching article on this same general topic, see "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother" by Liza Long.

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