Most decent Americans are horrified by the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi (“The man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi was on a ‘suicide mission,’ according to court filings.” November 1). Much has been said about the bitter atmosphere leading up to the midterm elections. I see this as an opportunity to explore the current state of mental health treatment in our country.
I was following the trial of Darrell Brooks, who was just convicted of murdering and injuring many people in the 2021 Waukesha, Wisconsin Christmas parade. Brooks’ crimes were gruesome enough, but his behavior during the trial was downright obnoxious.
As a parole and probation agent and supervisor in Baltimore, I, like all agents, have dealt with many people with a variety of psychiatric problems. But there were others who did not. Some act in our office, but we can usually defuse the situation. A young North District officer arrived and told them that he had taken the man in question to the Union Memorial Hospital emergency room the day before. The ER is just a place to drop people that no one else wants. The family faces a wall.
You don’t have to be a psychiatrist to recognize someone with a very obvious mental illness. Mental health professionals can categorize and recommend treatment according to technical guidelines, but most people can tell when a person is in a mental health crisis.Baltimore Growing up in , I had never seen these people in my community because they were often patients in state psychiatric hospitals. Hospitals were closed or downsized, leaving patients to their own devices. No effect. As we saw with the school shootings, many of these people have been out of control for years. Families are not prepared to deal with dangerous and violent family members. Pelosi’s case is an outlier because it doesn’t involve a gun.
So why can’t we address this very serious health and public safety problem that has gotten so bad? I’m here. By viewing this as a public health problem, we have brought it into the pocket of the medical community. How well is it working? There are families living in a state of fear because they know what their relatives can do. The problem is that the rest of us don’t know until it’s too late.Many people frown on custody care, but they don’t offer real alternatives.
How many more lives must be lost while waiting for someone to show leadership? I hope they will work hard to develop plans to keep dangerously mentally ill people out of their communities until legislation is available.
— Edward McQuarrie McDonnell, Baltimore
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