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Five-Point Action Plan for President Obama to Reduce Violence by the Mentally Ill
National Review Online ^ | December 17, 2012 | D. J. Jaffe

Posted on 12/17/2012 12:19:31 PM PST by neverdem

President Obama said the federal government has to do something meaningful to prevent future shootings, like the recent massacre of 26 children and adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut.  Here is what the federal government can do to prevent violence related to mental illness:

1. Start demonstration projects of Assisted Outpatient Treatment (e.g. Kendra’s Law in New York, Laura’s Law in California) throughout the country. AOT allows courts to order individuals with mental illness to stay in treatment as a condition of living in the community. It is only applicable to the most seriously ill who have a history of violence, incarceration, or needless hospitalizations. AOT is proven to keep patients, the public, and police safer. The Department of Justice has certified AOT as an effective crime-prevention program.  But mental-health departments are reluctant to implement AOT because it forces them to focus on the most seriously ill. Demonstration projects would help mental-health departments see the advantage of the program. (For why some people with serious mental illness refuse treatment, see this. See also how Assisted Outpatient Treatment laws (Kendra’s Law in NY and Laura’s Law in CA) keep patients, the pubic and police safer

2. Write exceptions into the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) so parents of mentally ill children can get access to medical records and receive information from their children’s doctors on what is wrong and what the children need. Right now, for reasons of “confidentiality,’ doctors won’t tell parents what is wrong with their kids or what treatment they need, even as they require parents to provide the care.  As a result, when a child goes off treatment, the parents’ hands are tied. They have all the responsibility to see the person is cared for, but none of the information or authority to see it happens. We have to change the patient confidentiality laws so parents can help prevent tragedies rather than become a punching bag for the public when something horrific happens.

3. End the Institutes for Mental Disease (IMD) exclusion in Medicaid law. This provision tells states: “If you kick someone out of the hospital, we will pay you 50% of the community care costs.” This causes states to lock the front door of hospitals and open the back door, regardless of whether the community is an appropriate setting. If you have a disease in any organ of your body, other than the brain, and need long-term hospital care, Medicaid pays. Failing to pay when the illness is in the brain is federal discrimination against persons with mental illness. I wrote on Medicaid discrimination for the mass market in the Washington Post, but John Edwards wrote a more scholarly paper on ending the IMD Exclusion. Relatedly, a proposal made by former vice-presidential candidate Ryan, under which Medicaid was block-granted could solve this problem.

4. Create a federal definition of serious mental illness, and require that the vast majority of mental-health funding go to it. Due to mission creep and the tendency to diagnose normal reactions of people as a mental “health” issue, government agencies now claim that 40 percent or more of Americans have a mental ‘health’ issue.  Worst, most mental “health” funding currently goes to this group of the highest functioning. But only 5 to 9 percent of Americans have a serious mental illness. That’s where we should be spending our money — on the 5 to 9 percent who are most likely to become violent and need help, not the worried well. There is more than enough money in the mental-health system to prevent Newtown-type incidents, provided it is spent on people who are truly ill, not the worried-well. I wrote on this for a mass market on Huffington Post, but a much more scholarly paper was written by Howard H. Goldman and Gerald N. Grob. With the fiscal cliff approaching, prioritizing the most seriously mentally ill for services is more important than ever.

5. Eliminate the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency (SAMHSA). SAMHSA is the epicenter of what is wrong with the American mental-health system. SAMHSA actively encourages states to engage in mission creep and send the most seriously ill to the end of the line. They provide massive funding to organizations that want to prevent mentally ill individuals from receiving treatment. They have nothing positive to show for their efforts in spite of a massive bureaucracy that meets and meets and meets and never accomplishes anything. I wrote on this for a mass market in the Washington Times (PDF) and Huffington Post. But Amanda Peters wrote a terrific scholarly piece on SAMHSA(PDF)

for a law journal.

If Obama is serious about wanting to do something, the steps above would be the best first step. True, the mental-health industry may throw a fit as they find themselves obligated to serve the most seriously ill, but it’s the right thing to do. Anything else could be deadly.

Here is what states should do.

States should make greater use of Assisted Outpatient Treatment, especially for those with a history of violence or incarceration. AOT allows courts to order certain mentally ill people to stay in treatment as a condition of living in the community. AOT works. New Yorkers remember Larry Hogue, the “Wild Man of 96th Street,” who kept getting hospitalized, going off meds, terrorizing neighbors, and going back into the hospital.  Connecticut does NOT have an AOT law on the books (see these facts about the Connecticut mental-health system), and we can’t say for sure if it would have helped in this case, but all states should have one to prevent similar incidents.

• 
States should make sure their civil-commitment laws include all the following, not just “danger to self or others:  (A) Is “gravely disabled”, which means that the person is substantially unable, except for reasons of indigence, to provide for any of his or her basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, health or safety, or (B) is likely to “substantially deteriorate” if not provided with timely treatment, or 
(C) lacks capacity, which means that as a result of the brain disorder, the person is unable to fully understand or lacks judgment to make an informed decision regarding his or her need for treatment, care, or supervision.


• When the “dangerousness standard” is used, it must be interpreted more broadly than “imminently” and/or “provably” dangerous.


State laws should also allow for consideration of a patient’s record in making determinations about court-ordered treatment, since history is often a reliable way to anticipate the future course of illness. (Currently, it is like criminal procedures: what you did in the past presumably has no bearing, so the court may not know past history when deciding whether to commit someone.  In fact, there are ways to know which mentally ill individuals become or are likely to become violent.) 

– D. J. Jaffe is executive director of Mental Illness Policy Org.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: banglist; bho44; mentalhealth; mentalillness; mentallyill; psychiatry; violence
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It sounds good, but the left will probably try to abuse these proposals. It's not hard to conceive.
1 posted on 12/17/2012 12:19:40 PM PST by neverdem
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To: neverdem

The gov’t should get rid of the mental illness known as Liberalism.


2 posted on 12/17/2012 12:21:32 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: neverdem

These are great ideas....if they can be applied to the first individual as a public trial: The President of the United States


3 posted on 12/17/2012 12:21:39 PM PST by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: neverdem

were suppose to get this from someone who has Narcissistic Personality Disorder


4 posted on 12/17/2012 12:22:47 PM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: neverdem
It sounds good, but the left will probably try to abuse these proposals. It's not hard to conceive.

You're right, because doing what feels good is a lot easier than doing what is good. But these proposals are very valid, especially the one about creating a HIPAA exception in the case of mentally ill adults. Since they aren't capable of making treatment decisions, family members must be included.

5 posted on 12/17/2012 12:23:25 PM PST by ArGee (Reality - what a concept.)
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To: neverdem

Is there one thing in this proposal that is constitutionally authorized?

Didn’t think so.


6 posted on 12/17/2012 12:28:29 PM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: neverdem

Five-Point Action Plan for President Obama to Reduce Violence by the Mentally Ill
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Point 1) Remove everyone’s freedom

Point 2) Remove everyone’s freedom

Point 3) Remove everyone’s freedom

Point 4) Remover everyone’s freedom

Point 5) Remove evryone’s freedom

And justify it all using the lowest common denominator od morality society has: give in to those who are evil, violent and insane.

Yeah that’ll work!


7 posted on 12/17/2012 12:31:19 PM PST by Candor7 (Obama fascism article:(http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html))
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To: neverdem

Obama comes from Illinois, the state that put the mentally ill out on the streets in the 70s and recently attempted to shut down the State Mental Facilities due to budget shortages.


8 posted on 12/17/2012 12:34:01 PM PST by stars & stripes forever (Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord!)
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To: kingu
Wow, that was really insightful analysis.

Not only are you clearly wrong, your attitude is part of the reason why Constitutional issues are rarely given the serious discussion they deserve.

9 posted on 12/17/2012 12:34:25 PM PST by wideawake
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To: neverdem

What we have is not a mental illness issue, but a sin issue.


10 posted on 12/17/2012 12:35:42 PM PST by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: neverdem

These sound good....however, I am STILL trying to figure out how that would have stopped the killings. This kid did not get his guns through buying them himself. His Mother had them. I guess parents of mentally ill parents should be banned from gun owning??? Slippery slope.


11 posted on 12/17/2012 12:36:01 PM PST by napscoordinator (GOP Candidate 2020 - "Bloomberg 2020 - We vote for whatever crap the GOP puts in front of us.")
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To: neverdem

Mental illness is whatever the medical “profession” says it is, and they will go along with whatever the government tells them to say it is. I don’t trust the medical establishment or the government with the diagnosis of mental illness.


12 posted on 12/17/2012 12:39:54 PM PST by I want the USA back
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To: neverdem
"the left will probably try to abuse these proposals" ..... You mean, "Your problem is that you are insane, Winston." OBrien, `Nineteen Eightyfour'? Or the Soviets sending political dissidents away on grounds of mental instability? Possibly, but the author is right on target: This is the problem. It always comes out later that these guys were practically wearing signs around their necks: "I'm Bug-nuts Dangerous". See attached Larson cartoon. I'm not making light of this horror, just trying to make the point. The left will dismiss the point because actually addressing the problem disallows them from mau-mauing "gun control".
13 posted on 12/17/2012 12:41:46 PM PST by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: All armed conservatives. "A long train of abuses and usurpations.")
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To: napscoordinator
These sound good....however, I am STILL trying to figure out how that would have stopped the killings.

If he had been in an institution where he belonged instead of out wandering the streets, this would not have happened.

That's the point.

14 posted on 12/17/2012 12:41:55 PM PST by wideawake
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To: neverdem

The ACLU won their case and then governor Ronald Reagan had to open the doors to the mental institutions. Can’t hold anyone against their will.

Adam Lanz, the Sandy Hook shooter didn’t have a history until Friday. Yes, he had run-ins at school, and no doubt, his late mother tried to help him in every way she knew how. Yet he shot her point blank FOUR times. Poor lady.

Obama and the anti-gun folks like Senator Feinstein (D-CA) are against “assault” guns, and 10 round clips. Look up “assault weapons” on Wikipedia.


15 posted on 12/17/2012 12:44:20 PM PST by oneamericanvoice (Support freedom! Support the troops! Surrender is not an option!)
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To: Biggirl
What we have is not a mental illness issue, but a sin issue.

That's a theologically bankrupt statement.

This atrocity was the work of a paranoid schizophrenic.

Are you arguing that he was a paranoid schizophrenic because he was a sinner?

Or are you arguing that his rampage was somehow divine punishment for sins?

16 posted on 12/17/2012 12:44:46 PM PST by wideawake
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To: wideawake
Not only are you clearly wrong, your attitude is part of the reason why Constitutional issues are rarely given the serious discussion they deserve.

Gosh, maybe I have an out of date constitution which is missing the magic 'mental health care' power, or 'limitation upon patient confidentiality' power. There is every valid reason to restrict the federal government from having access to medical records, but not one in restricting a doctor from telling a patient's mother about medical issues. Privacy restrictions are upon the government, not on other parties. I can not scream that you're infringing on my first amendment right to free speech, as that contract is upon the government, not you.

But that's ok, let's continue the fiction that some vast intelligence is invested in Washington DC and that they'll come up with some solution... Oh, right, yet again, they are the problem here.

17 posted on 12/17/2012 12:52:05 PM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: wideawake; Biggirl

Nope, I take biggirl to be arguing that evil is sin, and that one can be both evil and mentally ill at the same time.


18 posted on 12/17/2012 12:58:24 PM PST by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! True supporters of our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: neverdem

What does “on medication” mean when people ascribe SSRIs the blame?

Does that mean they had a prescription?( that’s not the same as they’re taking their meds.)

It’s a chicken and the egg scenario. We’re they mentally ill before or after the drug was prescribed?
Were they taking their medication as prescribed?

I see the ‘rats making a 2-fer based on emotions: further advancing more socialized medicine under the guise of ‘free’ mental healthcare for all AND more restrictions on the 2nd Amendment.

Statists will try to label anyone who believes in a small federal government as “mentally ill”.


19 posted on 12/17/2012 1:03:06 PM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: neverdem

Excellent ideas all.


20 posted on 12/17/2012 1:04:19 PM PST by carolinablonde
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