The story we’ll never know: Gus Deed’s and the need for mental health expansion

As has become readily apparent, Gus Deed’s stabbing of his father, state Sen. Creigh Deeds, and subsequent suicide has highlighted the reduction in Virginia funds for mental health programs.

According to a report by the Times Dispatch, Gus Deed’s had undergone a psychiatric exam performed under an emergency custody order on Monday, “but was ultimately released because there were no psychiatric beds available for his use in western Virginia.” In other words, the tragic events that occurred on Tuesday could have been prevented.

Ironically, as America as a whole has witnessed numerous mass murders and murder-suicides over the last year alone, states are actually reducing the amount of psychiatric services that they provide their citizenry. According to a 2012 report by the Treatment Advocacy Center (TAC), “Many states appear to be effectively terminating a public psychiatric treatment system that has existed for nearly two centuries.” 

Apparently, not enough people have died to warrant an expansion, or at the very least a stay, of America’s mental health services.

The report found that between 2005 and 2010 Virginia reduced 15 percent of its public psychiatric beds. Good Ol’ Governor Bob McDonnell asked for even more cuts in mental health programs in 2012.

Although America and many Americans seem to adhere to the belief that each individual’s ‘mental problems’ are their own responsibilities, the simple truth is that some individuals with mental health problems require professional psychiatric attention, attention that can only be usually afforded through public programs.

And contrary to the common belief that reliance upon some external ‘other’ (i.e., someone or something other than our selves) will somehow lead one further away from individual self-reliance, seeking professional help can oftentimes be the key to progressive self-reliance. That is, the domino theory that relying on other individuals and/or institutions will continue to perpetuate ad infinitum is only true to the extent that we choose to accept it as truth.

We’ll never know if Gus Deed’s murder-suicide could have been prevented, but we can at least hope that similar incidents in the future can be prevented if state governments expand their mental health programs so that patients who clearly need professional help won’t be turned away.