The campus massacres at Northern Illinois University and Virginia Tech underscore the urgent need to change the way we deal with mental illness. But government fixes, while necessary and overdue, are not enough.
Families should have as much say as mental health professionals in making decisions about their mentally ill members. Who, after all, is more likely to spot subtle but significant changes in a person’s mental state — a relative who’s lived with that person or a social worker just assigned to the case? And who’s more likely to ensure the patient follows treatment protocol, a family member or an indifferent bureaucrat?
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Well-meaning attempts to protect the privacy rights of the mentally ill have backfired because they are based on a faulty premise. A person who suffers from a serious mental illness does not have the capacity to make rational decisions to control his condition.
The only question remaining is whether family members or the government should be in charge of managing his care. The answer is: both. Virginia state Sen. Ken Cuccinelli, R-Centreville, who had been pushing for reform of his state’s mental health system well before the Virginia Tech massacre, wants to give responsible adults the ability to commit minors for up to 96 hours — even if they object.
As it stands now, parents can only stand by helplessly and watch their children deteriorate until they pose “an imminent danger.” Cuccinelli’s good friend, Michael Garbarino, was one of two Fairfax County police officers gunned down in 2006 by 18-year-old Michael Kennedy, who friends described as suffering from hallucinations. Kennedy’s parents later told officials they had taken their son to see mental health professionals many times, but were repeatedly told he was not a threat to himself or others. Well, the mental health professionals were wrong.
Likewise, the parents of Virginia Tech gunman Seung Hui Cho were unable to monitor their son’s downward spiral — even after a judge ordered him into mental health treatment — due to misapplied privacy provisions of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which needs to be revised.
As it stands now, the mentally ill are “free” to live on steam grates until they do themselves or someone else harm, but their families can do little to help them until a tragedy occurs. Only our society’s overwhelming discomfort with mental illness prevents us from finding a sensible solution somewhere in between.
