Thursday, January 13, 2011

predictable, preventable, just not in uhmurkah...,


Video - Raygun ropa-doping on the closure of mental hospitals.

WSJ | In Arizona, public mental-health services are among the worst in the nation. In a 2008 survey by the Treatment Advocacy Center, Arizona ranked next to last among all states in the number of psychiatric hospital beds per capita. If you don't have hospital beds and outpatient clinics to treat mentally ill people, those people don't get treated. Thus the tragedy was somewhat more likely to happen in Arizona because mentally ill individuals are less likely to receive treatment there. Although Arizona is the worst state, except for Nevada, in psychiatric-bed availability, there is no state that currently has enough beds for its mentally ill population, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center study. This tragedy occurred in Arizona, but it could easily have happened in any state.

The big picture is even scarier. Based on Arizona's 2010 population and on estimates by the National Institute of Mental Health of the number of individuals with untreated schizophrenia at any given time, there are today in Arizona over 21,000 individuals with untreated schizophrenia. Most of them, thankfully, are not violent. But a small number of them—about 10% according to my meta-analysis of relevant studies—do become violent, usually because of their delusional thoughts and what their voices (auditory hallucinations) are telling them. This situation holds in every state. It is thus not a question of if such tragedies will occur but rather when and how often.

Mr. Loughner's delusions fixated on Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, one of 12 seriously injured in the shooting. Some have speculated on the possible relationship of our acrimonious political climate to the incident. It is, however, unlikely that there is any such relationship, since similar tragedies occur in politically harmonious times as well.

The motivation for such killings is usually based on psychotic thinking, not political thinking. Dennis Sweeney killed Allard Lowenstein because he believed that Lowenstein had implanted a transmitter in his teeth that was sending messages to him. Russell Weston stormed the Capitol because he believed the government had hidden a machine there that could reverse time.

3 comments:

nanakwame said...

The add factor Doc is that being a white kid in a state that needs to protect Angelo, the police has let this manchild off quite a bit. As Baldwin stated racism hurts white America deeper than they think.
The add on government w/o a good plan leaves these problems. I left the Mental Health field seeing the cuts that came in the field as heartless and short-sighted. Karma is a B

nanakwame said...

The SOP of heartless massmen; I find it is the love of patriotic abstractions than building common good which includes short-term sacrifices. We refused it by this actor’s mantras

Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.

We're in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

People do not make wars; governments do.

I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
Ronald Reagan

The last he told on himself and his mass-persons. This is the dissonance and ignorance of many of our citizens today, there Baba has spoken for them, now reality has spoken.

CNu said...

"their baba has spoken for them, now reality has spoken"

rotflmbao,

nanakwame is truth, accept no substitutes...,