In a recent report, The
Daily Progress found that since 2007, Virginia’s mental health system has
experienced reforms, “but significant gaps…remain.”[1]
2007 was the year that a gunman killed 33 people at Virginia Tech[2],
throwing a giant spotlight on Virginia’s mental health system and its failure
to avert the massacre.
One of the most
important conclusions that the report reached was that many Virginians who seek
mental health coverage end up on waiting lists for the care they are
requesting.
According to Richard J. Bonnie, chairman of Virginia’s
Commission on Mental Health Law Reform, the private system of mental health
care is “simply unavailable in most parts of the state, or not available in a
timely manner.”
It should not have taken another senseless killing spree to
further attune the attention of Virginians to the need of mental health care in
the Commonwealth, but this is exactly how it’s turned out.
In the wake of the killing spree in Newtown, Conn.,
Virginians and their elected representatives once again shifted their focus
towards mental health care or the lack thereof.
Said Del. David J. Toscano (Charlottesville), “We did make
the investment at the time, [but] we haven’t been able to keep pace with the
need.”[3]
While the conversation shifted to guns in the wake of the
Newtown shooting, one of the first lines of defense was largely ignored (i.e.,
mental health care).
We will never know if the gunman behind the Newtown killing
spree would have been prevented had appropriate mental health care been
received. It’s not even clear that the gunman had any tell-tale signs of mental
illness that would have required mental health treatment.[4]
It is not debatable, however, that more efforts need to be
made to “open up” mental health care to individuals who seek it. Like climate
change and a host of other issues in this country, we have failed to address
some of the more pertinent issues in our society and we have suffered the
consequences as a result.
If our political representatives cannot find the political
will and energy to make the appropriate changes to Virginia’s mental health
care system now, maybe it’s them who need to have their heads examined.
[1] http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/article_b5623f2c-4ca1-11e2-ba0b-0019bb30f31a.html
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/16cnd-shooting.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
[3] http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/article_b5623f2c-4ca1-11e2-ba0b-0019bb30f31a.html
[4] http://thegrio.com/2012/12/17/adam-lanza-and-aspergers-syndrome-sandy-hook-massacre-puts-mental-health-in-the-national-spotlight/
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