Discussion of Schizofrenia on the TV machine right now (Sharpton)

[HereSince1628]

37. No I am not missing it. I've acknowledged the general problem

I'll say it again. There are many things which discourage or dissuade people from seeking mental health care. I know you are concerned about the role of stigma. Fear of the consequences of being labelled mentally ill is very real because the consequences are very real and easily observed all across America. I think we are actually in the same place on that thought.

Then again factors besides stigma may contribute to an individual not seeking mental health care, including denial of the presence or severity of a mental illness, availability of care, affordability of care, belief in that the care works, mobility, lack of support/encouragment and others.

What bugs me is that on DU there is a meme at work that says the American mental health care system must be fixed to prevent more James Holmes from causing more Auroras. No doubt the American mental health industry needs attention in many places, but the evidence isn't yet available that the mental health care system failed Holmes thus leading to the massacre of innocents.

My initial entry in this was in response to soccer1's reply. That was reply #1 in this thread; it specifically is about Holmes and availability of care.

Your response in #32 was about Holmes access to psychiatrists.

My responses have been related to Holmes because the replies I'm responding to have been about Holmes' and his apparent access to care.

Why my interest in that? Because the evidence seems to point to Holmes being positioned in society to have access to some of the best mental health care in the country. Better access than many Americans.

Maybe he isn't mentall ill, maybe he is. I'm not in a position to say.

But the implication on DU that an underfunded or dysfunctional mental health system failed Holmes seems to be a miss. With the limited information available it seems to that if anything failed Holmes it was something outside mental health care available in the Denver area.