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They say she tested clean the night of the incident, and that she's bi-polar. But I'm not sure if the clean drug test took into account prescription drugs (i.e. taking too much?).
Even if Brittney was "Clean" for drugs,if she took halucinogenic drugs in the past ex.LSD it could permanently affect her. And if she IS bi-polar and abusing these types of drugs she is REALLY foolish!
In this country, we have a tendency to let people fall apart or fall thru the cracks when they have mental issues.
TBO.com - Entertainment From AP (broken link)
Britney is just the latest sad example.
In Miami, they have hundreds of people with mental issues, some of them considered mentally insane. They have no plans in place to help them, so instead they toss them into jail.
Is this really how we want to treat these members of our society?
1975 Supreme Court Decision - O'connor vs Donaldson - "A finding of 'mental illness' alone cannot justify a State's locking a person up against his will and keeping him indefinitely in simple custodial confinement… In short, a state cannot constitutionally confine without more a nondangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and responsible family members or friends."
From there it varies state to state. In some states any "interested party" can have a person committed for up to 72 hours. Then of course, you get into "right to refuse treatment" issues. If a person has been involuntarily committed, they still have the right to refuse treatment in some cases.
Detaining people is expensive and goes against the American ethics of freedom and liberty. When we arrest people for criminal behavior, we often release them while they are awaiting trial unless they are deemed a serious threat. Someone who is delusional or psychotic isn't necessarily a threat, there are degrees of dysfunction, and while we would like all people to enjoy mental health, the fact is that all behavior falls within a range, some behavior we define as eccentric, some as crazy, some as criminal. There is no line between eccentricity and individualism, it is a judgment call. And it is a judgment call to determine if someone's behavior is insane or merely socially unacceptable. I just personally have issues with a society that dictates what is normal and then requires the people living in it fall into those parameters. I worry that to a degree we are already doing this when school districts can demand that children be medicated for hyperactivity or ADD because whose diagnosing these children, teachers or doctors. Or when schools measure BMI and send letters home. Will the parents of children who are obese and who fail to reduce their children's weight face legal charges such as child abuse? I worry that we are halfway down the path to criminalizing smokers, and leaning that way when it comes to obesity. I find it worrisome that pharmaceutical companies seem to be far more interested in treating chronic conditions rather than curing diseases, and that we are steadily thinning the ranks of the healthy by restricting what is considered healthy (ie healthy blood pressure, healthy cholesterol levels, healthy weight). When "normal" becomes a minority of a population, then it's time to re-address our perceptions of what "normal" is. So when you take people who have already been marginalized such as the poor and the homeless, and mandate they be evaluated for their mental health status and treated accordingly, I think that lots of questions need to be asked. Because on the surface it seems that people who have mental health problems would benefit and society would be better for it. But who else benefits?
DC
It sounds like you may not have had a lot of interaction with the mentally ill. Over the past several years I have watched a family member of mine deal with Schizophrenia. Psychiatry, as a profession, seems like a joke to me. In general, psychiatrists he has seen (and there have been several) take him at his word, give him some drugs, and say "See you in 4-6 weeks." There is some follow-up with a psychologist in the meantime, but the prescriber of the medicine has been amazingly unconcerned about how it is working, is the dosage right, is there something better, or even (unbelievably!) what have you been taking up to this point?
We don't let delusional people rewrite their wills in this country. I don't understand why we let delusional people make their medical decisions, especially if the mental illness is causing them to have the decision-making capacity of, say, a 14 year-old.
It sounds like you may not have had a lot of interaction with the mentally ill. Over the past several years I have watched a family member of mine deal with Schizophrenia. Psychiatry, as a profession, seems like a joke to me. In general, psychiatrists he has seen (and there have been several) take him at his word, give him some drugs, and say "See you in 4-6 weeks." There is some follow-up with a psychologist in the meantime, but the prescriber of the medicine has been amazingly unconcerned about how it is working, is the dosage right, is there something better, or even (unbelievably!) what have you been taking up to this point?
We don't let delusional people rewrite their wills in this country. I don't understand why we let delusional people make their medical decisions, especially if the mental illness is causing them to have the decision-making capacity of, say, a 14 year-old.
Just my 2¢ worth!
Actually, I do have some experience. Three older family members were committed to institutions, and I lived with someone who was manic-depressive and because he could not maintain employment for any real periods of time could not get insurance to treat his disorder. He generally self-medicated with alcohol which only exacerbated his problems.
While I would like health-care to be universally available, I DON'T want a government defining what is "normal" and then forcing people to medicate so their behavior will fall into "normal" parameters.
Actually, I do have some experience. Three older family members were committed to institutions, and I lived with someone who was manic-depressive and because he could not maintain employment for any real periods of time could not get insurance to treat his disorder. He generally self-medicated with alcohol which only exacerbated his problems.
While I would like health-care to be universally available, I DON'T want a government defining what is "normal" and then forcing people to medicate so their behavior will fall into "normal" parameters.
DC
We might be talking about two different things. I would agree with you on manic depression. I am talking about schizophrenia where some one has no connection with reality and has delusions that include hearing voices. There is no way to define that as normal.
My family member has actually received much better care in the state system than he ever did with private insurance. While I am categorically opposed to universal, state-run health care (a topic for another thread) private insurance may not be equipped to deal with such a serious, long-term illness. My family member was diagnosed in his late teens and has otherwise good genes. He could live with this horrible disease for over 50 years!
in addition, I'm thinking they need to come up with a better way to ensure people take their meds.
I've been thinking a lot about this very topic. I'm Northern Illinois University alum so this shooting is really affecting me. I hate that this tragedy has happened at a place that I have so many great memories. And its coming out that this gunman was on medication for depression/mental issues, which he quit taking. It was widely publicized that the Virginia Tech gunman had severe mental issues. I feel like something needs to be done. If one is over 18, they have complete control over their own pysciatric care. How is someone who is mentally unstable able to make these decisions for themselves? Maybe if someone could have intervened and gotten these two men help, the tragedies at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois could have been avoided. And at the very least, people with mental issues should NOT be able to walk into a gun shop and purchase a gun.
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