At least on my public radio station, the announcer rather chirpily promo'd
this story as "some simple ways to detect mental illness in college students," which of course roused a frisson of dread as I wondered what responsibility I would be envisioned as having in this supposedly simple system. Fortunately, the story itself is more solid than that, noting some patterns we've mentioned here:
"These are youngsters many of whom in the past wouldn't have even finished high school," says Dr. Katherine Nordal, with the American Psychological Association. "Special education services in high school mean that more students with emotional difficulties and special needs are going on to college," with their more emotionally stable counterparts.
Kay says college mental health programs are typically overwhelmed with the numbers of students needing help. And while there are mental health counselors, he notes that most schools have psychiatrists available only a few hours a week — a dire shortage of specialized help in such a time of great need, he says. And many schools have experienced recent budget cuts in mental health programs.
The story also suggests that family and longstanding friends are best-equipped to notice changes that might signal mental illness. For all my concern about the effects of helicopter parenting and belief in the value of letting students assume control of their lives, I have to agree with this one. Especially when students have already shown signs of potentially-disabling mental illness, there may be an argument for keeping them close to home, and in touch with family. Of course, there is probably another category of students with mental illness -- those whose dysfunctional families don't deal well with the problem, or even exacerbate it -- who would benefit from getting as far away as possible from home, and in touch with new friends and counselors who can give them some perspective. And there are some whom neither careful monitoring nor distance and new perspectives are really going to help. As with most issues, it's complicated.
People need to stop seeing a connection that does not exist. Mental illness does not equal violence or criminal. Violence and crime are usually about power.
ReplyDeleteIN FACT, those who suffer mental illness are 9 times as likely to be the VICTIMS of violence rather than the perpetrators. People who feel powerless and take it out on the less powerful.
http://www.slate.com/id/2280619/
It would make us comforted to know that murderers are crazy. And yet, they aren't always crazy. The act of murder is not necessarily this crazy thing that just happens to crazy people.
Finally, there has been no reliable way to predict what mentally ill person will go off and shoot people. I was just reading about this and I cannot find the link but I'll keep looking and post it later if I can find it.
I wish the media would stop with the crazy = criminal. It's not true and it prevents us from dealing with crime in a meaningful way.
We still need a better system for detecting and treating mental illness, whether the illness leads someone to who goes on a shooting rampage or one of the many who commit suicide. Everyone who works with teenagers and early twentysomethings should be trained in the early signs of mental illness and actually have somewhere free to refer them to.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder what would happen if my students were trained to recognize the signs of mental illness. I wouldn't be "zany" any more, I bet...
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