shot dead in DC

[orthodoc]

The second group is definitely more fearful and resistant to treatment. But these things can be sorted by diagnosis. The first group should have access to care, because the anxious ones will function better with some treatment. But they could be treated by PCPs. The second group needs priority for specialty care. They're harder to reach and treat because they're seriously ill with a brain disorder that makes them distrust everything they encounter. But they should have the Elite Class pass to immediate specialty care whenever they present.

[xoxoxoBruce]

But how do you locate and treat them before they try to ram the White House gates, or gun down a classroom full of children?

[orthodoc]

That's the million-dollar question. I do think that if serious attention were paid to providing priority treatment to those with serious mental illness, we could reduce the number of those who decompensate in a dangerous way.

[lumberjim]

It was just their finger. And, P.S., .... I'm not sorry about it.

[sexobon]

All of my personal experiences with alcoholics are success stories as they are all still recovering alcoholics. I have been an Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program Coordinator and have acquired knowledge of failures of people I didn't know personally. I believe it was regular.joe who posted about the loss of personal acquaintances. It's more plausible that you either misattributed the "personal experience" or gambled on your statement being correct knowing you had a 50/50 chance; but, lost. Now you're backpedaling, hoping that doubling down on your I'm so offended routine is going to fool someone but it's old hat. Carry on with your carrying on.

[Aliantha]

Well, i am sure there will be revelations about the womans mental health in the coming days. What i wondered about this situation was why they didnt box her with cars. She wasnt shooting at the cops was she?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Well, i am sure there will be revelations about the womans mental health in the coming days. What i wondered about this situation was why they didnt box her with cars. She wasnt shooting at the cops was she?

They did at one point but they were rolling and she braked out of it. The fact that she wasn't shooting is irrelevant. She'd tried to crash the White House gate and was racing around the Capitol area. She had to be stopped before she killed a pedestrian or detonated a trunk full of TNT. Nobody knew what she was up to or capable of.

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

They did at one point but they were rolling and she braked out of it. The fact that she wasn't shooting is irrelevant. She'd tried to crash the White House gate and was racing around the Capitol area. She had to be stopped before she killed a pedestrian or detonated a trunk full of TNT. Nobody knew what she was up to or capable of.

I am sure thats all true Bruce. It just all seems so senseless. And so terrible for the child. A tragedy.

Maybe i am bleeding heart, but i am trying to be less cynical about people. I am finding it to be less stressful.

Eta: some people do make it difficult to not think the worst though. :/

[xoxoxoBruce]

OK, but when people do some stupid shit there's no time to find out if they are just having a bad day. This is called "suicide by cop".

Besides, we got over 300 million more.

[orthodoc]

@sexobon ... yes, I misattributed your reference, thinking you actually had personal experience. As for 'doubling down' or having an 'I'm so offended' routine - there is no routine. I grew up with a mother who was mentally ill. Two of my children were psychotic at different times; one was admitted to inpatient multiple times.

While in medical school and residency I did extra work in psychiatry, always on the inpatient wards with the most severely ill patients. I saw successes and failures of treatment. I saw that these diseases were and are heartbreaking. I worked with a man who had the delusion that he needed to stare at the sun so that an alien race would perceive him and land in Canada to rescue him. He had stared at the sun long enough that he had gone blind.

But, never mind. Why should I share the experiences of people in pain and fear with you, when your only concern is for a puerile one-upmanship?

I'd hoped to have an actual conversation, but you're always and only about the put-downs and one-ups. At your age, that's sad.

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

[paraphrasing mine]

[BigV]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

@sexobon ...

--snip--

I'd hoped to have an actual conversation, but you're always and only about the put-downs and one-ups. At your age, that's sad.

Well said.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

It's far less expensive than treating lifestyle-induced chronic disease, and we don't balk at that.

This. You're a lard-ass with emphysema needing a triple bypass? Well, of course, that's just basic necessary medicine. You were born with a psychotic disorder through absolutely no fault of your own? Let's pretend it's your own fault and deny treatment.

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But how do you locate and treat them before they try to ram the White House gates, or gun down a classroom full of children?

The vast majority of those with mental illness have family members who tried for years to get them help. The current situation is made clear in an essay that made the rounds awhile back, called "I am Adam Lanza's Mother." If this mother could get the support she needed now, then her son hopefully would be stable and no threat by the time he's grown. But once they are adults--or sometimes many years before they are adults--family members are no longer equipped to take care of these mentally ill relatives by themselves anymore. They fight the system for as long as they can, but as has been noted, it's extremely difficult to get someone resident care unless they are a direct, immediate, violent threat to themselves or others.

It's true that it's harder to do something about those with mental illness who are already far off the beaten path. But if we invested in the supports now, families would get their children the help they need before things got too deep to handle. Even bad parents whose drug/alcohol/physical/emotional abuse is partly to blame for their children's mental state, they would still be more likely to seek support because from a selfish perspective it would ease their burden.

[Adak]

I hope the driver finds the peace that eluded her in this life.

My sympathies for her child, friends, and any family she had. I'm sure they were stunned to hear of this tragic, wild incident.

Congrats to the Capital police force. They did their job, being neither too quick to shoot, nor too hesitant to fire, when it became obvious that she would not stop.

Luckily, the child wasn't hurt.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Adak

My sympathies for her child, friends, and any family she had. I'm sure they were stunned to hear of this tragic, wild incident.

I rather expect that her family and friends were the opposite of stunned. I imagine their primary thought has been, "Goddammit. We told you all something like this would happen."

I have a relative with only mild mental illness. Yet he has, surprise surprise, no insurance, so it comes and goes in waves and is not at all managed. And if one day I learned he had done something like this... I'd be very sad, but I most definitely would not be stunned.