Nowhere to Go: Mentally ill youth in crisis - on "60 Minutes"

[question everything]

They interviewed Virginia State Senator Deeds who was stabbed by his mentally ill son who later shot himself.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mentally-ill-youth-in-crisis/

Once the son was diagnosed, the father removed all firearms from the house, except for a hunting rifle but with no bullets.

The son did manage to get ammunition for the gun and, I think, the father was lucky to be stabbed instead of being shot.

And with all the valid complaints about the lack of facilities for the mentally ill, I just asked: how did he manage to buy ammunition? Shouldn't this be regulated?

[LiberalEsto]

1. Deeds's son should have been in a treatment facility

being treated, not roaming around buying ammunition or attacking his father.

[question everything]

2. Indded. And this was the point of the story - there were no hosptial beds availabe

and the father had to take him back home.

Since the 60s many mental health facilities were closed. Yes, too many were like "Cuckoo's Nest," but just releasing all the mental health patients to the street - our society still is having hard time dealing with this.

[1monster]

3. Treatment facilities?! This country doesn't do no stinkin' treatment facilities!

They throw people who need those treatment facilities in prison and throw away the keys... when they don't dispatch them to their makers first.

Try, just try getting help for someone who needs it. A good 90% will just separate you from your money and then dump the patients. Another five percent iwll try to help, but are incompetent. The remaining five percent maybe could help, but by the time you find them, you are out of money and the person who needs help is sitting in jail awaiting trial on hyped up charges that will keep them in prison far longer than the just plain criminal who committed the same acts.

Been there, done that with an autistic person who just didn't understand society's rules and is now sitting in prison doing fifteen years, with another fifteen years community control when he gets out... The original charge, which was never filed because the then prosecutor could see that he w totally incompetent, statute of limitations ran out years before the current prosecutor decided to press charges and looked for a way to do so twelve years later. That original charge carried a maximum of two to five years.

Still found incompetent, he was sent off to a state mental institution where he was made competent... if you could call it that. Competency for defendants is not what one would consider competent for any other situation as.

[question everything]

4. This is horrible. And, no doubt, your story is just one of many, too many

And this morning I read that many states, with now increased revenues, want to cut taxes. Cut taxes? I screamed at the article. Why not build facilities to treat the mentally ill?

I hope that someone in your state will decided to take a hard look at the way society treat the mentally ill and, as you say, incompetent. This is really a sad story.