Of course, the issues surrounding mental illness are no exception. And the incidences of mentally ill people committing violent crime is one of those political issues. Recently, two police officers in New York were killed by a man supposedly trying to avenge the killings of black citizens by the police. Seems like a racially motivated thing? Maybe, but when you look closer, that certainty may be misplaced. Turns out that this guy was mentally ill. And on the way to killing these officers, he killed his girlfriend. Maybe this isn't about racial politics. Maybe it is about how we identify and treat people with mental illness. Maybe it is also about how we evaluate the need to act with solid data. Or how we ignore the need to collect solid data. Here is an interesting article in The Huffington Post: http://huff.to/1xRsQmS What I found so compelling in this article is one interesting observation. Apparently, the Federal Bureau of Statistics doesn't keep track of the number of times that mentally ill individuals attack police officers. Hmmmm. Any research that we currently have indicates that if the mentally ill are going to become violent, they will attack friends or family. But is there more to the story? I don't believe that our mental health treatment system is set up to address the needs of the more severely mentally ill in society. Our jails are filled with mentally ill inmates. Where very little is done to deal with the problem.
It makes me wonder if we really address violence perpetrated by the mentally ill, or if we make guesses based on the incidents that hit the newswires. If it's news, we are concerned? If it isn't, we don't address it? We don't really know whether our evaluations of how mental illness impact society are actually true. We don't know whether something is a problem unless we look at numbers. I remember a statistics course in graduate school. In addition to driving me crazy because I don't like statistics, I learned a great deal about how important it is to have good data in order to develop public policy. I also learned that it is crucial to continue evaluating numbers because bias is not unheard of in the ways that people crunch numbers. Do we actually have access to the numbers? Do we make our policy decisions regarding mental illness based on stigma or based on real information? How can having accurate information help us to develop treatment programs and training for police officers so that they are more able to productively deal with people who become violent and have a serious mental illness?
Violence and mental illness have been in the news a lot lately. Just look at the most distressing incidences of violence perpetrated in the last few years. Look at the number of times that the police have killed mentally ill people because they believe they are a danger. I know we have a lot of other issues to look at. Racial profiling in policing creates death also. The fact that obtaining a gun is almost as easy as obtaining a new computer is another. It is time to make solid decisions in a variety of areas. This includes looking at how we handle mental illness in relation to policing and criminal justice. This will mean having more data. It will mean more coordination between mental health professionals and the justice system. It will mean a comprehensive system to identify and treat the mentally ill. It will even involve efforts to create a society in which weapons aren't so easily obtained. It really is time. Let's talk!
It makes me wonder if we really address violence perpetrated by the mentally ill, or if we make guesses based on the incidents that hit the newswires. If it's news, we are concerned? If it isn't, we don't address it? We don't really know whether our evaluations of how mental illness impact society are actually true. We don't know whether something is a problem unless we look at numbers. I remember a statistics course in graduate school. In addition to driving me crazy because I don't like statistics, I learned a great deal about how important it is to have good data in order to develop public policy. I also learned that it is crucial to continue evaluating numbers because bias is not unheard of in the ways that people crunch numbers. Do we actually have access to the numbers? Do we make our policy decisions regarding mental illness based on stigma or based on real information? How can having accurate information help us to develop treatment programs and training for police officers so that they are more able to productively deal with people who become violent and have a serious mental illness?
Violence and mental illness have been in the news a lot lately. Just look at the most distressing incidences of violence perpetrated in the last few years. Look at the number of times that the police have killed mentally ill people because they believe they are a danger. I know we have a lot of other issues to look at. Racial profiling in policing creates death also. The fact that obtaining a gun is almost as easy as obtaining a new computer is another. It is time to make solid decisions in a variety of areas. This includes looking at how we handle mental illness in relation to policing and criminal justice. This will mean having more data. It will mean more coordination between mental health professionals and the justice system. It will mean a comprehensive system to identify and treat the mentally ill. It will even involve efforts to create a society in which weapons aren't so easily obtained. It really is time. Let's talk!
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