by Michelle Sicignano, LMSW, Staff Writer, SJS
I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother, by Liza Long
is a heart-wrenching first person account that is both scary and true. I urge everyone to read the piece (accessed through this link). This woman’s pain and helplessness is too real for too many. The stigma associated with mental illness has long-reaching, devastating impact from the amount of money and time and policy solutions to every day horrors and heartbreaking devastation. Too few solutions, too little real dialogue, and very limited ongoing aid are available. Gun control is an easy answer that doesn’t begin to touch the extent of this horrible horrible problem. Nothing can ever explain the horror and sadness and utter devastation caused in Newton, Connecticut. Nothing will ever make such horrific, wanton destruction acceptable. Blaming is not a solution, and offers no comfort. We must address the real causes and acknowledge that our systems are broken and we are failing our children and our families.
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I read the article via Huffington Post. After close 15 years in child welfare, she has it nailed.
The truth is that there is no cure for mental health issues, despite advances in medication. Foster care is used as a last resort for children- kids abandoned at hospitals due to parental fright and exhaustion are so common voluntary placement laws are now a norm. But foster care is not treatment- foster care agencies have to go through the exact same process as parents to secure mental health care for children. We need to change the laws on commitment, so that a person cannot avoid commitment after an episode of stunning violence by simply calming down in the ER an hour later. And we need to change our insurance rules so that people can be committed for years, or lifetime, if need be, and re-open long term care hospitals run by states. I’m not big on expanding government- but this is one role that government is needed, and its’ role has been reduced due to misguided policies from left and right. The new legal standard for commitment should be “serious and reasonable risk of harm to self and others”, and pattern of recent actions should be mandated to be assessed as part of admission.
I agree that there is a place for inpatient long-term care, and what currently exists is deplorable for the most part. Early intervention and intensive treatment should also be a priority, and there must be resources to aid over-taxed, ill-equipped families other than jails! Individual rights and freedoms are dear and valuable, but our right to these privileges end when we pose a real risk to the rest of society. To ignore that reality is a slap in the face to the heart of a civil, just society.