Lysiak: Society Can’t Allow Sick People Like Adam Lanza To Go Untreated

Matthew Lysiak in The Guardian:

There is a powerful lesson that can be learned from the tragedy of 14 December 2012, but while our attention has focused on gun legislation and tightening up school security measures, my fear is that we have neglected the problem at the core of this recent spat of mass shootings; the fatal flaw in America’s mental health system.

In the case of Adam Lanza, we have a young man who had been suffering from mental illness since childhood. From a young age, the smallest sense of touch, light, or sound could be enough to cause him to withdraw completely into isolation. As he got older, that isolation grew into obsessions over mass killers and weaponry…

My fear is that if we don’t act, we are in the midst of a trend that is poised to continue well into the foreseeable future. Until we deal with the issue of what to do with those suffering from mental illness who remain untreated, we can expect this pattern of mass shootings to continue.

If Americans are serious about stopping the next mass shooter, they will finally decide to do something about the dangerously mentally ill. The Avielle Foundation, named after Avielle Richman, a victim at Sandy Hook, is looking into the field of mental health for proactive ways to prevent the next tragedy…

The mission of The Avielle Foundation, as described on its website, “is bridging behavioral and biochemical sciences” and decreasing the “shame, secrecy, and stigma associated with brain illness; and ultimately facilitate appropriate early-identification and prevention/intervention methods to prevent violence”.

Simply put, the lesson of 14 December 2012, is that we no longer have the luxury of allowing sick individuals like Adam Lanza to go on untreated

 

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.