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Health & Fitness

America's Failing Mental Heath System Needs To Be Adressed

We need to remove the taboo nature surrounding mental health issues in America and create a strong support system for those most at risk.

In the wake of various tragedies across America including the Aurora shooting, the Tucson shooting, and the Virginia Tech massacre, various issues have been brought into the public eye to take the blame. People have placed blame upon lax gun control laws and regulation, overly violent media, and various extremist views, but one issue that is frequently ignored by the public is the issue of our poor support for the mentally ill across the nation.

In all three of the previously mentioned shootings, the perpetrator had a history of mental health issues, but was still able to avoid medication, access weaponry, and get to a crowd of potential victims in such a state. James Holmes, the Aurora gunman, had been declared "dangerous" by one of the three psychiatrists he had been seeing, and had raised red flags at his university about his mental state just prior to the shooting. Jared Loughner, responsible for the Tucson shooting, had been required by his school to get a mental health clearance from a psychiatrist before he'd be allowed to return, and acquaintances noticed severe changes in his personality. In the most clear-cut example of our system's failings, Seung-Hui Cho, the man behind the Virginia Tech massacre, was found by a court to be mentally ill and in need of hospitalization, but was let go with a simple requirement of seeking outpatient assistance instead. Even after raising more concern about his mental state on campus, he was still never institutionalized or restrained, and was able to commit the shooting. These are three of the most extreme examples of what can happen when we ignore such warning signs, but our system has more flaws than just this.

Another example that hits home with many of us is the issue of depression and suicide amongst American youth. As of 2010, over 4,000 Americans aged 15-24 commit suicide per year. This rate is alarmingly high, and with the state of our mental support system for those most at risk, it will likely continue in this manner until dealt with. In her article about the lack of mental health help for youth, Maia Szalavit, resident neuroscience journalist for TIME, writes that, "Families with out-of-control, suicidal or aggressive children have no central place to turn to for help, and no coordinated action plan for learning about and accessing services that could provide desperately needed support". She also points out that our system may not even deserve to be called a system. Unlike the Food and Drug Administration, there is no federal regulation over standards for talk and behavioral treatments. Patients who seek help in such manners have no assurance over what their treatment will actually help with.

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The people most at risk of being severely mentally ill are often a risk not only to themselves, but others around them as well. Who knows how many incidences of violence or self-harm over the past year alone could have been prevented with proper mental help available. Mental health has long been an elephant in the room for America, but if we hope to help those who are at risk of being a danger to themselves or others, we need to remove the taboo nature of it and create a strong mental health support system.

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