It only took a few hours for the news media to start attacking the Virginia Tech administration for the delay in warning people about the shooter. My years working for FEMA (back when FEMA worked) taught me that people absolutely must have someone to blame, even for "acts of God" or serious lapses in personal responsibility.
I submit that blaming the administration for the delay is a rabbit trail. To find blame, look in the mirror.
Too many of us deny the reality of mental illness. We treat it as a character flaw, a lack of self control. When mental illness is recognized, finding treatment is a monumental challenge. Health insurance companies say that mandating parity in mental health and physical health coverage prices people out of insurance. "Taxpayers" won't "waste" money on Medicaid, so doctors can't afford to take on Medicaid patients. Hospitals resent mentally ill individuals who show up in their ERs. Well, how much money do you think mental illness costs? Lost work produtivity. Family violence. Police time. Jails. Courts. Prisons. We pay for mental illness, one way or another. Why not pay before it causes so much havoc?
This is my personal crusade: putting mental illness into the "mother’s handbook." We know how to recognize and treat chicken pox, dislocated soccer toes and migraine headaches. Why don’t we include mental illness in our handbook? I remember when it just wasn’t done to admit there was cancer in the family. That’s where we are with mental illness now.
Mental illness is painful--just as painful as a broken leg or laceration. Would we deny the existence of those maladies? No! Why not? Just because we can see it and we "know" about it?
Until we as a society diagnose, fund and treat mental illness, tragedies such as the Virginia Tech massacre will continue to happen. The first rule of crisis management: The bes t crisis management is crisis avoidance!
I submit that blaming the administration for the delay is a rabbit trail. To find blame, look in the mirror.
Too many of us deny the reality of mental illness. We treat it as a character flaw, a lack of self control. When mental illness is recognized, finding treatment is a monumental challenge. Health insurance companies say that mandating parity in mental health and physical health coverage prices people out of insurance. "Taxpayers" won't "waste" money on Medicaid, so doctors can't afford to take on Medicaid patients. Hospitals resent mentally ill individuals who show up in their ERs. Well, how much money do you think mental illness costs? Lost work produtivity. Family violence. Police time. Jails. Courts. Prisons. We pay for mental illness, one way or another. Why not pay before it causes so much havoc?
This is my personal crusade: putting mental illness into the "mother’s handbook." We know how to recognize and treat chicken pox, dislocated soccer toes and migraine headaches. Why don’t we include mental illness in our handbook? I remember when it just wasn’t done to admit there was cancer in the family. That’s where we are with mental illness now.
Mental illness is painful--just as painful as a broken leg or laceration. Would we deny the existence of those maladies? No! Why not? Just because we can see it and we "know" about it?
Until we as a society diagnose, fund and treat mental illness, tragedies such as the Virginia Tech massacre will continue to happen. The first rule of crisis management: The bes t crisis management is crisis avoidance!
