The Arizona Tragedy

Like many of you I've been following the horrible events that unfolded over the weekend in Arizona.  I feel horrible for all those people who were killed or injured. Such senseless acts should never happen.  But I've been hearing some rhetoric which I feel is really off base.  It's the idea that the family should have known and done something to stop him.  While I understand why the public and media jump to this conclusion I know better.  The public gets outraged just like with Virginia Tech.  They blame the family for not "doing something," and they move on because in their eyes they are blameless.  No need to think further.

But if you've been reading my blog you know that state laws ensure that even the mentally ill have rights that are beyond reproach.  Family members can beg and plead for help, but it makes no difference.  Just suspecting someone is capable of something horrible is not enough to get them locked up, no matter how credible the suspicion is.  Case in point, my mother attempted to abduct 4 kids and was hospitalized against her will.  After an 11 day hospitalization (her longest and we had to beg) she is living across the street from those very children.  She recently has been talking about the kids again and saying they need to be saved.  She mentioned this to her psychiatrist.  She walked out of his office at the end of the appointment without question.  The doctor said again that the medicine wouldn't stop the delusions, it only seems to make her too weak to act on them.

I personally think this makes everyone else a little crazy.  Who would let her walk around with the rest of us when she's clearly delusional?  Apparently, Virginia's legislators that's who!  And we the citizens of this country are equally to blame.  We look at a crazy person and we say "someone should do something!"  But no one knows who "someone" really is.  We have no idea that there is no "someone" who will take care of it.  We want health care and a safe country, but we shouldn't pay a penny to fund it.  We want mentally ill people "controlled," but not if it means we are inconvenienced (by a tax bill) in any way.  So these people walk the streets, as is their right, and we shut our eyes to the risk.  The reality is if I block my mother's freedom in any way I can end up being the one locked up.

I certainly don't want to go back to the days where they forcibly lock people up for mental illness.  But there needs to be options.  We have to make it easier to get mental health care in this country.  We can't let people with mental problems, who require hospitalization, to walk out before the medicines have hit their blood streams.  We will have to throw some money at the problem until we figure out how to help.  I don't have the energy to take the entire fight on my own.  I do have a family to raise and an adulthood on hold already. 

Please care.  I don't want to hear about another tragedy like this one.