Mental illness can't be ignored

It seems like mindless shootings have almost become part of daily life in America.

We all had just begun to recover from the tragedy at Virginia Tech when yet another one occurred on May 19. This time, the scene was Moscow, Idaho, another small college town where people usually don't fire over 200 rounds in every direction, hoping to kill everyone they encounter.

While not equivalent in the scope of their consequences, these two events do have significant parallels. Both shooters displayed an incredible amount of pent-up rage that they released upon others, who did not deserve to be victims. Both murderers ended up taking their own lives, which arguably could be viewed as the ultimate purpose behind the shootings. And, not surprisingly, both men had a history of mental problems.

As the shock wears off, the natural inclination is to assign responsibility. We search for the "black box" — the evidence of what went wrong.

While there are many factors that might have changed the outcome of these and other such tragedies, there is an underlying issue that cannot be ignored: The community mental-health system currently cannot serve the nearly 60 million people who are affected by mental illness in this country. Mental illness is more common than cancer, diabetes or heart disease, making it the leading cause of disability in the United States.

As a culture, we are so frightened by mental illness, or the stigma associated with it, that we do a pretty good job of ignoring it. Until an event such as these captures our attention, and reminds us.

The cost to all of us is horrific. Senseless tragedies. Wasted lives. Broken families. Increased crime. Billions of dollars in lost workplace productivity.

Chronically underfunded, community mental-health organizations have wrestled with diminishing resources and growing needs for several decades. Indeed, for many of those individuals who lack good insurance coverage, or Medicaid eligibility, necessary mental-health services are now almost completely unavailable.

Fortunately, the vast majority of those suffering from mental illness pose no danger to others. However, as Virginia Tech and Moscow indicate, even the rare individual who is determined to make others pay for his mental anguish can create a tremendous amount of suffering for whole communities.

There are solutions. But the problem is of such magnitude that it will take a dramatic shift in our thinking and government action. The first step of the solution is recognition of the wide prevalence of mental illness, and the fact that treatment is indeed worth our time and money.

Another step is to realize that someone with serious mental illness rarely improves without psychiatric intervention. In fact, without that help, his/her condition likely will deteriorate over time.

It would be nice to believe that tragedies such as these will help focus our elected leaders upon the need for seamless, ongoing care for those with mental illness. Unfortunately, history suggests that we will all soon turn our attention elsewhere, until the next similar event.

The choice is simple: We can continue our patchwork approach to public mental-health services and suffer the consequences or we can move toward a more cohesive national mental-health system that better meets the needs of those with mental illness and their families, as well as our communities.

David R. Stone is the CEO of Sound Mental Health, formerly Seattle Mental Health, the largest community mental-health agency in King County, serving more than 11,000 clients annually.