By Hailey Rollheiser (Contributor) – Email
Print Edition: January 23, 2013
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings have sent a shockwave through the media, government and health care system. Although past school shootings have been equally tragic, this one hit a particular nerve among people. The fact that this school shooting took place only 11 days before Christmas and many of its victims were children, resonated with the country. There are now 26 families from Newtown, Connecticut, who have experienced unfathomable loss and tragedy.
The first question people ask during such immeasurable tragedy is why?
The answer may lie with mental health support. There needs to be more funding to mental health programs, more availability and success of treatment as well as a raised awareness of mental health issues.
If the raging debate that has been going on for the past month is any indication, Americans are most preoccupied with the gun control side of things. A loud minority are terrified of losing their gun rights; the Second Amendment states that Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms, and many states allow for guns to be carried on their person or in their vehicle.
But massacre-style shootings are about much more than guns alone. We know how the shootings took place. What we need to look at is why.
News organization Mother Jones reports that of the 61 mass shootings that took place in the U.S. over the last three decades, mental illness was apparent in over half of the shooters before the crime occurred.
Obviously something is seriously wrong if you open fire on a large mass of people before turning the gun on yourself. But these people have struggled with lifelong issues that should have been treated.
According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill prison inmates is five times greater than in people of the outside population. Instead of shoving the mentally ill into prisons where their condition is more sedated than treated, the mentally ill need hospitals and treatment centres that can intervene before incarceration does. It is obvious that there is a serious need for more funding for mental health care.
Mental health is easy for politicians to underfund or ignore. Yet it should be at the top of their agendas; it is a very serious problem with far-reaching effects. Crime and unemployment are just two of a host of issues directly linked to mental illness. Investing in mental health programs would pay off too; if the government took better care of the mentally ill, the crime and unemployment rates would decrease, eventually saving the government money.
As individuals, we need to be more aware of one another and ourselves. Beyond the obvious physical signs of neglect, sometimes we notice someone who seems a bit intimidating or we overhear disturbing bits of conversation. As a fellow peer, it is not reasonable to interfere or inquire directly to the person we think is a bit “off.” However, in an institutionalized setting such as school or university, there is an “authority figure” that we can come to with our concerns. If you notice someone who seems like they just might need someone’s help or someone to talk to, chances are other people have noticed too. There is nothing wrong with talking to your teacher, professor or school counsellor about someone who you think may be struggling with some aspect of his or her life – especially if that person is you.
This is even more important for close friends and family members of struggling individuals.
The Canadian Mental Health Association states that one in five Canadians have or will experience a mental illness in their lifetime. With such a high percentage, the stigma of mental illness needs to be eliminated. There needs to be a more open conversation about mental illness and an increased priority for education in schools is a must. Many people are uneducated and wouldn’t be able to notice signs even if they saw them.
When it comes to the prevention of tragedies like Sandy Hook, mental health needs to be given much more attention. If Americans don’t like the idea of changing the availability of high magazine, military-style assault weapons, the only option is to focus entirely on mental health. Ideally, greater mental health awareness and treatment would be the most important way to prevent such catastrophic loss from happening again.
