By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Now that that finger-pointing and politics of the Tucson shooting have been laid aside, the Congressional Mental Health Caucus is calling on Congress to study the real problem – the state of mental healthcare in the United States.
The Hill is reporting that Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA), a former child psychologist, is calling on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which he is a member, to hold hearings on the events that led up to the Jan. 8 shooting, which left six dead and more than a dozen wounded, before attempting to pass legislation such as gun control.
“I believe this issue has touched the hearts of so many members of Congress who are constantly stopping me and saying, is there something else we could have done? Is there something else we can do? And I believe so,” Murphy told The Hill.
“Right now you have a number of members of Congress who really want to do something, and they don’t know what they’re going to do so they are reaching out in the areas that they know something about — gun control, security systems, Internet control. What I want to do is use the resources and talent of the Mental Health Caucus and sit down and review this with professionals once we have more data and then ask the questions: Were there gaps in care or in the process here that can be remedied by congressional action?” he said.
The suspect in the Tucson killings, Jared Lee Loughner,who is widely believed to be suffering from schizophrenia, has a history of acting out in aggressive ways, particularly while attending Pima Community College where teachers and fellow students were openly afraid of him. Loughner was eventually removed from the school and his parents were told he couldn’t come back until a mental health expert assessed him. However, to the best of everyone’s knowledge, this was never done.
What was the school aware of? Did they make referrals for counseling, for therapy? Did someone follow through? What were the parents aware of? What were the law enforcement agencies aware of? Was there any involuntary commitment for psychiatric care? Was there any drug and alcohol treatment?
These are all questions Murphy wants answered before attempting to pass legislation regarding gun or Internet control.
His colleague, Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) agrees.
“It’s always something you don’t talk about, you don’t discuss because of the stigma. And I think we need to address that heavily,” she said on CNN’s State of the Union. “It’s one of those areas where I believe that we are not informing and educating the public enough to be able to help them make the decisions to help those that they love.”
She blames the mental health system for failing to do more to help people like Loughner who are known to be mentally ill but who, for various reasons, don’t receive the treatment they need.
“I think the ability for parents to get their children help, know where to turn to, know what the systems are” is one of the shortcomings highlighted by the shooting.
“There has not be enough cohesiveness to treat it as the disease that it is,” she said. “We need to begin to impress upon both the state and federal governments the urgency of this, because every time there’s a tragedy, there’s a lot of hoopla for a month, two months … and then we’re on to the next thing.”
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