Our Health Policy Matters

The shock of sudden violence is so severe it takes your breath away. When it happens in a time and place where it is unexpected, it does more than just remind us that no one is immune to it.  It also reminds us how pervasive it is, how much it affects us all, and how important it is that we do something about it.  In the summer of 1989, I imagined that sudden, random violence was something far removed from my hometown.  But I was about to learn differently. An  article in The Atlantic has just detailed the event, dredging up some quarter century old memories of a day that changed my community’s life. I was running for Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, at the time, and had reserved a booth at the city’s annual Sidewalk Sale in late July.  I was handing out yardsticks, asking for a vote “for government that measures up to your expectations.” Suddenly, there was a commotion about a block north of where I was standing.  I noticed people...

The shock of sudden violence is so severe it takes your breath away. When it happens in a time and place where it is unexpected, it does more than just remind us that no one is immune to it.  It also reminds us how pervasive it is, how much it affects us all, and how important it is that we do something about it.  In the summer of 1989, I imagined that sudden, random violence was something far removed from my hometown.  But I was about to learn differently. An  article in The Atlantic has just detailed the event, dredging up some quarter century old memories of a day that changed my community’s life. I was running for Mayor of Middletown, Connecticut, at the time, and had reserved a booth at the city’s annual Sidewalk Sale in late July.  I was handing out yardsticks, asking for a vote “for government that measures up to your expectations.” Suddenly, there was a commotion about a block north of where I was standing.  I noticed people...

More than 11 million American adults with mental illnesses – 4.5 million of them with serious mental illnesses – are not receiving care today.  So it may not be unreasonable to conclude that the history of public mental health services over the last century can be summed up in a single brief sentence.  We replaced the chains of institutions with a chain of neglect. I have argued that this chain of neglect typically begins when children with mental health needs are still young, and continues throughout their lives.  And that it often has tragic consequences. Why is it so important that we talk about breaking it now, the month after Sandy Hook and almost exactly two years since the mass shooting in Tucson? It is because tragedies like those in Sandy Hook and Tucson remind us that it is wrong to balance budgets on the backs of children and young adults with mental illness and expect that there will be no consequences. This is a sensitive, and even com...

More than 11 million American adults with mental illnesses – 4.5 million of them with serious mental illnesses – are not receiving care today.  So it may not be unreasonable to conclude that the history of public mental health services over the last century can be summed up in a single brief sentence.  We replaced the chains of institutions with a chain of neglect. I have argued that this chain of neglect typically begins when children with mental health needs are still young, and continues throughout their lives.  And that it often has tragic consequences. Why is it so important that we talk about breaking it now, the month after Sandy Hook and almost exactly two years since the mass shooting in Tucson? It is because tragedies like those in Sandy Hook and Tucson remind us that it is wrong to balance budgets on the backs of children and young adults with mental illness and expect that there will be no consequences. This is a sensitive, and even com...