Tread Carefully on Mental-Health Reform

By Michael D. Tanner Michael D. Tanner

In the aftermath of the horrible tragedy at Marjorie Stoneman
Douglas High School, there has been an understandable desire to do
something. Much of the debate fueled by that desire has
been focused on gun control. And the anger, fear, and raw politics
on both sides of the divisive issue have largely overshadowed other
important questions that deserve serious discussion.

Among those is the tricky issue of mental-health reform. In
fact, it has become a bizarrely automatic call and response that
when Democrats say “gun control,” Republicans respond
with “mental-health reform.” And, clearly mental-health
reform is needed. According to some estimates, at least 60 percent
of mass shooters are mentally ill. Many would probably consider
this a vast understatement. Indeed, it’s hard to think that
anyone who commits such a heinous crime could not be mentally
ill.

Mental illness is also at the heart of many other social
problems as well. Researchers estimate that between 25 and 45
percent of the homeless have mental-health issues, depending on how
one defines such issues. Roughly 16 percent of those in prison have
been diagnosed with a mental illness. And America’s
substance-abuse epidemic has undeniably been made worse by mentally
ill people who self-medicate.

We should be every bit as
cautious in giving the government more power to deal with
mental-health issues as we are …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute