Prayers to Newtown, Connecticut

On 12/14/12 there was a mass shooting in an elementary school in Newtown, Ct. http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/14/us/connecticut-school-shooting/index.html

I heard this at work, about mid-day.  I checked on the town.  My brother lives in Connecticut, and works for a power company, so I could not imagine him having any reason to be in an elementary school.  The shooting occured in Newtown, not in North Haven, where he lives, nor New Haven, where he works. 

I called him after work.  He did not know of any immediate connection between coworkers and the families in Newtown, but we agreed that surely they will know or know of people who were affected. 

I am very saddened by this tragedy. I have been more emotionally moved by this than by some of the other mass shootings that have occured. Maybe because I have ties to Connecticut, and maybe because it was mostly children who were the victims.

This has had national and international implications.  President Obama http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/12/14/transcript-obamas-statement-on-newtown-shooting/ made a statement.  The Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter to the Roman Catholic Church, St. Rose of Lima hthttp://home.nra.org/#/nraorgtp://www.strosechurch.com/ where a vigil was held that night.  Even the sports communities were affected http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/8748654/sports-world-shaken-connecticut-school-shooting-newtown.   One commentator I heard said that he was calling on the National Rifle Association http://home.nra.org/#/nraorg to not just advocate for the right for gun ownership but for gun safety. That is something with which I wholeheartedly agree.

We are a brave, innovative, and powerful nation. Surely, we are smart enough to figure out how to reduce these kinds of mass shootings.

One of the commentators on TV talked about the need to improve our mental health care system. The thought being that folks who perpetrate these kinds of crimes do need mental health care.

That may be true.  But I have to wonder if they would be identified as needing mental health care prior to committing crimes.  I am not sure that these perpetrators were identifed as needing mental health care, and then for some reason, they did not or chose not to receive it. 

I agree that our nation does not support public mental health care at the level that meets the needs of the public.  I see this in my work: many people end up in prison in the State of Texas because they are not receiving mental health care, are off their medicaitons, and commit serious crimes that might could have been prevented.  Some of the lack of mental health care is "volitional."  People do not want mental health care.  But there is no follow up with them to help determine if they are safe to be without mental health care.

But, there are many people out there who are not even receiving mental health care who need to be receiving it.  Maybe because they do not want it. Maybe because they cannot afford it. Maybe because accessing publicly supported mental health care is so cumbersome, difficult and not time responsive.

But maybe, most people do not not receive mental health care because there is still a very negative stigma regarding mental illness.  No one wants to be identified as mentally ill. The implications are so humiliating to people that they deny the need for mental health treatment. And the general public re-enforces this by the way we treat people with mental illness.

Therefore, when people need help, they do not receive it.  Instead, they act out and get themselves involved in a system of court committed care or incarceration that does not have their mental health treatment in the forefront, but has their stabilization and ability to participate in the legal due processing of their behavoir in the judicial system. This then perpetuates the lack of treatment and ongoing punishment and stigmatization of mental illness, because the patient then goes to court, and if is convicted, goes to prison. And hopefully receives mental health treatment, as minimal as it is in prison.

To wrap this around.  We do not know if  the perperator of this crime had a mental health problem.  We may learn there were some circumstances in his life that influenced his thinking and abherant behavior. We may learn he was floridly ill. We may learn there were no indicators regarding his behavior.

Whatever we learn, we must keep our prayers focused on the family, friends, school members and souls of those involved in the mass shooting.