Wounded Minds: Understanding and Solving the Growing Menace of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

English: Major Nidal Malik Hasan, Fort Hood shooter (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by John Liebert (Author) , William J. Birnes (Author)

Recognizing and solving the PTSD epidemic, for our soldiers and our society.

Suicide rates among Army soldiers increased 80 percent between 2004 and 2008, according to a recent report published in Injury Prevention. In the last several years, the number of soldiers returning from the Middle East with mental and physical wounds has continued to climb. According to Dr. Simon Rego, a supervising psychologist at Montefiore Medical Center, “Unlike any other time in history, U.S. military suicide rates now appear to have surpassed those among comparable civilian populations. It is therefore critical that we address this emerging public-health problem.”

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Liebert, a psychiatrist who has examined hundreds of violent offenders with combat experience, and bestselling author Dr. William Birnes uncover the disturbing truths of why post-traumatic stress injury is on the rise, how it’s threatening society, and how the military is failing to properly address this serious issue. In addition, they describe the most recent research and methods that have been developed to help soldiers heal their mental and emotional wounds.

Wounded Minds dissects several high profile cases of suicide and massacre, including Staff Sergeant Robert Bales’s murder of sixteen Afghan citizens and Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who opened fire on a room full of defenseless American troops. Through these stories the authors paint a clear picture of the very real threat PTSD poses to individuals and society. They then go on to explain how to diagnose and understand the brain abnormalities associated with PTSD, the diagnostic problems confronting military medicine today, and both immediate and ongoing medical solutions.

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Social Learning Theory: Properly Applied or Just an Excuse?

Tabetha M. Cooper

Anytown (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here in Anytown, the outraged cries or the joyous exclamations can be heard from citizen.  The local Department of Job and Family Services have implemented a policy stating that any parent that has been arrested for domestic abuse, child abuse, or anything to do with drugs or alcohol will have their children removed from their home.  Upon removal the children will become a ward of the state and be placed within a variety of foster homes throughout the community.  Parents who have lost their children will have to complete at least one of the following treatments, and in some cases all of them, prior to the return of their children: alcohol and/or drug treatment, counseling, family therapy, mental health treatment, anger management, life skill classes, and/or parenting classes.  When implementing this policy the Department of Job and Family Services called into reference the Social Learning Theory as a means to support their actions.  Today, the issues of benefits vs. the negatives, ethical/moral issues, and the impact on everyone involved will be addressed.  Then the meaning of Social Learning Theory and whether or not the theory was indeed applied correctly will be explored.  The discussion will end with my personal opinion on this issue.

There are a few benefits to this new policy.  It reduces the chances of children being mistreated.  It also lessens the exposure, that each child in those conditions is subject to, that can have a negative impact on what they learn.  Some children will be exposed to a more positive environment and 

Children of the United Kingdom's Children's Migrant Programme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

improved living conditions.  Although the negatives that come along with this can counter the benefits.  The negatives include, an overcrowding of foster homes, some children being taught more negative behaviors from other children than what they would have learned within their own homes, and education can be at risk because the children may be more concerned with what is going on in their personal life and less worried about school work.  Another issue that should be taken into account is that the court system may begin to become clogged not only with the parents who are trying to gain custody of their children back but by allegations against foster parents.

This policy infringes on the rights of parents.  Their children are being ripped from their homes without an individual cause.  The charges of spouse abuse, “child abuse, and drug/alcohol problems are the leading reasons that children get removed from the home to begin with,” (Weldon, 2001, Foster Care: A Psychological War).  Although if the parents have already had documentation of these issues then one would infer that they have already paid for their injustices.  Either the state at the time of the charges the state deemed the home safe or the children have already been removed and allowed to return.  It must be asked, after a man or woman pays for their crimes is it ethical or moral to make them pay a second time?  Is that not double jeopardy without a second trial?  Ethnically what this policy is doing is not exactly right.  Some of these parents have committed these offenses prior to 

Length of stay in U.S. foster care (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

even having children, and now the well-being of their child is at risk due to something that had happened in their past.  With a policy like this every parent here in Anytown has to be aware of their action and live in fear that a decision that they have made and deemed acceptable can ultimately cost them their children, even for a small portion of time.

Everyone in the community is going to be affected by this policy.  The thing that will affect every citizen the most is the increase in taxes that will have to be implemented to support all the foster homes.  As a result of the increase of taxes, the economy will start to suffer.  Less money in the pockets of the citizens means less money to pay bills and to acquire the items that are essential for everyday life.  Without people spending money, factories and stores will begin to layoff and even shut their doors, decreasing our job availability here in Anytown.  Parents will also be at risk of losing their jobs, as it is, because of trying to complete the programs required to get their children back.  This will make meeting the Department of Jobs and Children’s required standards take more time.  As stated by Charlotte Weldon (2001), children are at risk of suffering from psychological problems such as separation anxiety, behavioral issues, and depression.  The family unit will have to readjust upon the return of the children, adding unwarranted stress to everyone in the community.  There is a large chance of the development of psychological issues from having to witness the problems in the home, and then add the stress of being moved from home to home numerous times.  It can be foreseen that the damages that this policy can cause that it may actually cause an increase in crime among Anytown’s youth. 

Photos taken at the 2007 National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day celebration in Washington, D.C. For more information on National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day, visit www.samhsa.gov/children (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The basis of this policy is the Social Learning theory, defined as “the view that people learn to be aggressive by observing others acting aggressively to achieve some goal or being rewarded for violent acts” (Siegel, 2007, p.109).  It can be seen how the Department of Jobs and Children thought that by implementing this policy that they were doing the community a favor, based on the definition of Social Learning theory.  In a home where charges of domestic or child abuse have been a problem in the past, one would infer that the children of these parents would observe violent behavior.  Although, something that hasn’t been taken in account is the aggressive behavior these children see with their peers and on television.  Removing a child from their home does not extinguish these observable factors.  Then it must be discussed that children of parents with drug and alcohol problems may never be subjected to aggressive behavior, in fact these children may never even see their parents using these things.  The definition also states that the aggressive behavior being learned through observation is deemed good to the child because the behavior is being rewarded.  Parents that have been arrested or at the very least charged for the behaviors that the policy specifies as unacceptable, so they did not get rewarded, but instead punished.

Regions of the brain affected by PTSD and stress. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In my personal opinion, the Department of Jobs and Children misinterpreted the Social Learning theory.  This theory not only covers just bad behaviors learned at home but things that are learned through watching friends, television, video games, or any form of behavior observation where aggressive behavior is rewarded.  The man that came up with the Social Learning theory was Albert Bandura.  Recounted by Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner (2009), Bandura came up with an experiment called the “Bobo Doll Studies,” where he had two groups of children observe adults acting aggressively with this doll.  One group saw the adults get reprimanded for being aggressive with the doll and the other group observed that the adults didn’t get in any trouble for such behaviors.  The children that witnessed the reprimanding of the adults acted less aggressively with the doll but the children that seen no punishment handed out for the behavior mimicked what they seen the adults doing to the doll.  These children were not ever exposed to aggressive behavior prior to this study yet they still acted aggressively toward the Bobo doll.  The adults they were observing weren’t even their parents, which shows that learned aggressive behaviors can be learned outside the home.

I believe that they failed to take into account all the other negative things that not only these parents and children with have to endure, but the negative impact on the community as a whole.  I think that this policy is not only unethical but goes against this nation’s Constitution.  I believe that the Department of Jobs and Children had only good intentions when implementing this policy but had they weighed the negatives against the few positives, they would have seen that this policy isn’t any way a good idea.  There are some positives that can come from this policy, such as, removing children that are exposed to truly dangerous home conditions, but that isn’t what the Social Learning theory is concerned with.

English: Children & Family Services (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With exposure to the negatives, the few positives, and some repercussions, a person could easily come to the conclusion that this policy isn’t in the best interest of Anytown.  With a clear understanding of the Social Learning theory, it can be said that the Department of Jobs and Children misinterpreted the theory.  It is fair to say that the policy needs to be reconsidered and that the Social Learning theory shouldn’t be used as the main argument for the policy.  Whether you are one of the people saying the hoorays or part of the group that was crying out in anger, faced with the problems this policy can make, I think we can all agree that this policy needs to be reevaluated.  

  

References

Schacter, Gilbert, & Wegner (2009). Psychology. New York, NY. Worth Publishers; p. 243-244

Siegel, L. J. (2007). Criminology: The Core (3^rd Ed.). Belmont, Ca. Cengage Learning; p. 409-410

Weldon, C. (2001). Foster Care: A Psychological War Retrieved from: http://www4.samford.edu/schools/artsci/scs/weldon.html

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Mental Health Issues and Incarcerations

by Tina Handrick

Introduction

There are a number of men and women in our prison systems today that are suffering from some form of severe mental illnesses and are not getting the proper treatment that they need to get 

Prison Cell (Photo credit: danielkoehlersfotos)

to the point where they can function as a normal citizen. It is even safe to say that our prison systems are now the new considered as the new mental health facilities, even though they are not designed or equipped to handle mentally ill inmates. The prisons systems are hard on the mentally challenged because of the overcrowding, violence, lack of privacy, lack of meaningful activities, isolation from family and friends, the uncertainty about life after prison, and the inadequate health services, and from untrained correctional officers that do not know how to deal with some of these issues. The impact of these issues rises as well when prisoners whose thinking and emotional responses are impaired by schizophrenia, bipolar disease, major depression, conduct disorder, antisocial disorder and other serious mental illnesses. As with all prisoners, mentally ill inmates have poor mental health services and that usually leaves them with medications that they either don’t need or with medication that does not work correctly (Fellner, nd).

Prison 2 (Photo credit: planetschwa)

There are is a dangerous atmosphere at any correctional facility because of the security measured that need to be in place to keep everyone safe and the mental health considerations. There are rules and regulations that need to be followed, and codes of conduct in prisons that reflects staff concerns about security, safety, power, and control. Trying to coordinate all of those needs of the mentally ill with those rules and goals is nearly impossible (Fellner, nd).  By trying different ways to deal with mentally ill inmates while in correctional setting can make it easier to deal with them, but it is crucial to properly train any personnel that are going to have any daily connection with them as well. That can make it a safer and a less stressful environment if a person knows what they are dealing with.

Mental Health

There is never a good time to be a prisoner in the United States, but incarceration is not meant to be fun and games. But a combination of strict sentencing guidelines, budget shortfalls and a punitive philosophy of corrections has made today's prisons much more unpleasant and much less likely to rehabilitate their inhabitants than in the past, many researchers say. So what is the role for psychologists? First and foremost, they are providing a mental health services to an ever expanding prison population, which has rates of mental illness at least three times the national average (Etienne, 2003). “More broadly, they are contributing a growing body of scientific evidence to political and philosophical discussions about the purpose of imprisonment,” says Craig Haney, PhD, a 

English: Institute of Mental Health building in Belgrade. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "Psychology as a discipline now has a tremendous amount of information about the origins of criminal behavior," says Haney. "I think that it is important for psychologists to bring that information to bear in the debate on what kind of crime control policies we, as a society, should follow."

Until the mid-1970s, rehabilitation was a key part of U.S. prison policy. Prisoners were encouraged to develop occupational skills and to resolve psychological problems such as substance abuse or aggression that might interfere with their reintegration into society. Indeed, many inmates received court sentences that mandated treatment for such problems. Since then, however, rehabilitation has taken a back seat to a "get tough on crime" approach that sees punishment as prison's main function, says Haney. The approach has created explosive growth in the prison population, while having at most a modest effect on crime rates (Etienne, 2003).

As a result of this the United States now has more than 2 million people in prisons or jails which is the equivalent of one in every 142 U.S. residents, and another four to five million people on probation or parole. There is a higher percentage of the population is involved in the criminal justice system in the United States than in any other developed country. Many of these inmates have serious mental illnesses. Starting in the late 1950s and 1960s, new psychotropic drugs and the community health movement dramatically reduced the number of people in state mental hospitals. But in the 1980s, many of the mentally ill who had left mental institutions in the previous two decades began entering the criminal justice system (Etienne, 2003).

English: The campaign 'The Incarceration of John' was created to highlight the inadequate and damaging response of chemicals and incarceration that John Hunt got to his emotional distress and psychosocial problems. It highlights the gap in the services and the human rights violations that people diagnosed with a mental health disorder experience. It challenges the concept of mental health disorder and psychiatric power. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of people in prison are mentally ill, according to U.S. Department of Justice estimates, and that is only an estimate that number is probably far from accurate. "Prisons have really become, in many ways, the de facto mental health hospitals," says former prison psychologist Thomas Fagan, PhD. "But prisons weren't built to deal with mentally ill people; they were built to deal with criminals doing time."

To help shift the focus from punishment to rehabilitation, psychologists are doing more research on the causes of crime and the psychological effects of incarceration. In the 1970s, when major changes were being made to the U.S. prison system, psychologists had little hard data to contribute, but in the past 25 years, says Haney, they have generated a massive literature documenting the importance of child abuse, poverty, early exposure to substance abuse and other risk factors for criminal behavior. The findings suggest that individual-centered approaches to crime prevention need to be complemented by community-based approaches (Etienne, 2003).

Researchers have also found that the pessimistic "nothing works" attitude toward rehabilitation that helped justify punitive prison policies in the 1970s was overstated. When properly implemented, work programs, education and psychotherapy can ease a prisoners' transitions to the free world, says Haney.  Finally, researchers have demonstrated the power of the prison environment to shape behavior, often is the detriment of both prisoners and prison workers (Etienne, 2003).  It’s really hard to get your thought process to change if you have others around you encouraging you to back against the system or commit some kind of infraction.  The Stanford Prison Experiment, which Haney co-authored in 1973 with Stanford University psychologist and APA Past-president Philip

English: Huntsville Unit, Huntsville, TX Español: Unidad de Huntsville, Huntsville, TX (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 G. Zimbardo, PhD, is one example. It showed that psychologically healthy individuals could become sadistic or depressed when placed in a prison-like environment.

More recently, Haney has been studying the so-called "supermax" prisons high-security units in which prisoners spend as many as 23 hours per day in solitary confinement for years at a time. Haney's research has shown that many prisoners in supermax units experience extremely high levels of anxiety and other negative emotions. When released often without any "decompression" period in lower-security facilities they have few of the social or occupational skills necessary to succeed in the outside world. Nonetheless, supermax facilities have become increasingly common over the past five to ten years. "This is what prison systems do under emergency circumstances they move to punitive social control mechanisms," explains Haney. "[But] it's a very short-term solution, and one that may do more long-term damage both to the system and to the individuals than it solves."

If these individuals are having any kind of mental issues and are being kept locked up for 23 hours a day then you can imagine that once they get released they really feel as if they are being freed and can go crazy, because for one they really never received treatment, they were just locked up and their issues we not dealt with.

Logo of the United States National Institute of Mental Health, part of the National Institutes of Health. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When there are so many different mental disorders in the prison system, it is really important at this day and age to find out what exactly they are and how best to treat it, if it is by medication, counseling or both. Robert Hare (1993), one of the world’s leading experts on psychopathy, describes psychopaths as “social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and empathy, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret”.

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that people most people often associate with a “crazy behavior” especially since it frequently manifests itself in highly bizarre actions. It is still a mental disorder that continues to be extremely complex and poorly understood (Andreasen & Carpenter, 1993; Sitnikova, Goff, & Kuperberg, 2009). Schizophrenia generally begins early in life, and often leads to social and economic impairment, and leaves traces on its victims for the rest of their lives (Andreasen & Carpenter, 1993). Behavioral manifestations of schizophrenia are varied, but there are some common characteristics (Bartol & Bartol, 2011).

The disorders described in this section have a variety of names and diagnostic labels, su

English: Chicago-Read Mental Health Center sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ch as affective disorders, mood disorders, and bipolar depressive disorders. The most common label is major depressive disorder. The symptoms include an extremely depressed state that lasts for at least two weeks and is accompanied by a generalized slowing down of mental and physical activity, gloom, despair, feelings of worthlessness, and perhaps frequent thoughts of suicide. Everyone has up and down periods, but these mood changes are extreme and the depression is deep and usually long-lasting. Persons with major depression describe themselves as down, discouraged, and hopeless. A less common form of depression is bipolar depression in which there are both periods of depression and periods of excessive euphoria called mania (Bartol & Bartol, 2011).

The DSM-III and the DSM-III-R criteria for the antisocial personality disorder (APD) have been among the most frequently criticized because of their vagueness and lack of empirical anchoring (Widiger et al., 1991). The DSM-IV and DSM-IV-TR, however, have tried to address these problems by incorporating into the criteria more empirically based attributes. As mentioned in Chapter 6, many of the new criteria closely follow the Robert Hare definition of the criminal psychopath. The essential feature of a person with an APD is a history of continuous behavior in which the rights of others are violated. The individual must be at least 18 years of age and must have a history of some symptoms of conduct disorder before age 15. Recall that a diagnosis of conduct disorder is reserved for children and adolescents. Before a person can be diagnosed with APD, a pervasive pattern of disregard for and the violation of the rights of others must be indicated by at least three of the following behavioral patterns:

1. Failure to conform to social norms or the criminal law, as reflected by frequent performance of acts that are grounds for arrests

2. Irritability and unusual aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults

3. Consistent irresponsibility, as reflected in a poor work history or failure to honor financial obligations

4. Impulsivity or a failure to plan ahead (characteristic at all ages)

5. Deceitfulness, as reflected in frequent lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure

6. Reckless disregard for the safety of others or self

7. Lack of remorse or guilt for wrongdoings, as indicated by indifference to or rationalization of having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another Additional symptoms, as outlined in the DSM-IV, include stealing, fighting, truancy, and resisting authority—typical childhood symptoms. Antisocial personalities lack empathy and tend to be callous, cynical, and contemptuous of the feelings, rights, and sufferings of others.

Furthermore, they frequently exhibit precocious and aggressive sexual behavior, excessive drinking, and the use of illicit drugs. There is a markedly impaired capacity to maintain lasting, close, warm, and responsible relationships with family, friends, or sexual partners (Bartol & Bartol, 2011).

Conclusion

Prison doors (Photo credit: rytc)

More and more research is proving that behavior is learned from their parents and their environments and that as long as they are allowed to keep up with their present behaviors then they are more than likely to be in the prison systems when they are adults. Yes there are real disorders out there that some of these children do have and with the right combination of treatment hopefully they can lead productive lives, but our biggest issues in the United States are that kids are having kids, and they have no idea how to be a parent and they usually allow their children to do whatever they want because they are usually too busy out doing their own thing.  Parents need to become more involved in their children’s lives so that if they do see that their children are showing any signs of any mental disorders they can get them the help that they need before their children get involved with the criminal activity.

References:

Fellner, J. (N.d). A corrections Quandary: Mental illness and prison rules. Retrieved from Harvard University: http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/crcl/vol41_2/fellner.pdf

Bartol, C. & Bartol, A. (2011). Criminal Behavior: A Psychological Approach (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Chapter 5 Human Aggression and Violence: http://docsharing.next.ecollege.com/(NEXT(b5b0756b9b))/Main/CourseMode/DocSharing/ListCategoriesAndFilesView.ed#

Chapter 8 Crime and Mental Disorders: http://docsharing.next.ecollege.com/(NEXT(b5b0756b9b))/Main/CourseMode/DocSharing/ListCategoriesAndFilesView.ed#

Benson, E. (2003, July). Rehabilitate or punish? Retrieved from American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab.aspx

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You Have the Right to Remain Silent - Opinion Article

by:  Scott Hall (docplocky@gmail.com)

         

Mental Health (Photo credit: homelesshub)

I must confess this article to have been produced out of sheer concern for our world in general.  The tragic news that I witnessed through the vast media outlets about the Connecticut school shooting, left a void in my belly that seemingly could not be filled, until this article came into my focus and friends and readers of this humble blog, this Author has something he too would like to inject into the grumblings and debates that are all part of humanity searching for answers and until this and a series of terrible events, something has not been said.  We know full well that for years within communities all around our world that children as well as adults are being abused for various reasons, the mentally ill are being forced into poorly funded programs or worse, left alone on the streets with no real help until they get arrested.  The time to stop remaining silent has indeed saturated our air waves and penetrated our hearts.  We here at Criminology & Justice open our hearts to those who are weakened or still longing for it all to not be so real, we offer a path to those who know someone who has suffered or is suffering, we offer a listening ear and with our Senior Author guiding our minds thoroughly in explanation and wisdom and cleaning off our truth glasses, we can and will to the best of our ability reach out to help.




          The paragraph above mentioned that there was something missing and it is not just a path to getting the help needed, it is opening our mouths and stopping the silence, we have so many persons in need of care, in need of help and maybe, one person at a time, we can break the chains of atrocity that keep us in fight or flight preparatory mode.  The NRA Executive VP had made a statement in a news conference that included suggesting placing armed personnel in our schools to help try and protect them from other incidents such as these.  My first thoughts drifted to "why should we as a society tolerate any level of this thinking at all." and my next thought actually came from a statement that the founder of C&J, Elizabeth Hall made, "We really need to overhaul the mental health system in our country, lots of these cases could have been handled at a much earlier time, maybe this one too, but due to the losses at this point, we will likely never really know, which is why we need to work on what we do know, we have lots of problems to solve, mental health should be a bigger priority."  I concur and I am willing to bet the vast majority of our nation and world would agree.  Problems such as these and others could be solved if we invested our money more wisely into creating a system that helps in earlier stages those who truly need it and the funding would roughly be equal to the same as paying an armed person for an 8 -10 hour shift, 270 days a year.  For example, using the low end of those figures, if the armed guard earned a average wage of 15 dollars an hour, that is 15 times 8 for 120 times 270 for 32400 per salary per school.  Just in my own little area, there are at least 25 schools, so, per average scholastic calendar year 25 persons would be paid, 32,400 for a grand total of 810,000 for just 270 days of coverage, this in a system where most law enforcement and government agencies are either strapped for cash or strapped for qualified personnel (see related articles within our archives, yes we have talked about these issues in our founding). The thoughts of a million dollars going to protect our kids is staggering, but also probably very necessary.  The truth of this matter is YES there is indeed a select population that need our attention so NO MORE CHILDREN DIE like this and NO MORE TEACHERS have to live in fear of what tomorrow may bring or what to say or not to say to diffuse the ticking time bomb of bad events.

English: Institute of Mental Health building in Belgrade. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Where do we go from here in our path forward in both healing and prevention, will we continue to debate gun control or what guns are "allowed" to be used and why or will we begin to shift our focus to our communities and take a hard look at what is actually happening and this will not take long to accomplish if we set aside our differences and work toward a very common good.  Let's look at the max end of the money, maybe more, say 1.25 million in money pouring in to prevent these items, how many homes of a basic nature, say single bedroom homes could be built to house the homeless or maybe even open a small clinic and provide jobs to the medicine givers while giving care and hope in boundless terms, more importantly, would any of us be willing to donate time to do so, as along with money comes time and labor and though we may be in shock and weary from grief, the shining examples of hands extending out to victims everywhere is just as large, just as strong as the tragedy that tried to silence us further, so yes, in our own way, we have been way to silent, as it is a given right under Miranda law, however, it is not a given right when children suffer or any life is lost at the hands of some one mentally ill.  Senator Gifford can attest first hand to that and God Bless her as she continues to improve and get stronger every day.  Some may even say that community policing may be in order or that stricter punishments be developed as a deterrent to these items, this author says maybe, but definitely we need to work on fixing what is broken and then protecting what isn't, I am betting when the two ends meet that our worries will be fewer and our hearts will be lighter and the smiles of persons dear to us will not be extinguished on a glitch oversight or other happened event.

167 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          Along with healing those who may be in need of specialized care, we can not dare to overlook the sacrifices and restrictions that have been placed upon our law enforcement persons and first responders as well as those who deal with the heavy trauma of every day life (the EMT's).  These fine men and women must make a series of crucial decisions all based on protecting the public and keeping things as safe as possible.  Some departments are fortunate enough to get high tech equipment and use secret radio waves that are either going to different frequencies or being trunked to keep our scanners at bay, sorry fellas, FCC says you broadcast it, you gotta announce it and the frequencies must be recorded, in print form (available online).   All this aside we must respect the evolution of these departments and respect those who are still filing good old fashioned gumshoe and paper work paths, once they go high tech, look out bad guys, the world will indeed change.  These men and women must now consider armored vests in there uniform array, protective gear for defense so as to NOT shoot someone, just because.  They must subdue the unruly, arrest the suspected, erradicate the drugs, uphold the laws and suddenly in a place where "normal" every day occurs, one man dressed in a combat hero outfit on an opening day or night at a theater, BOOM. People dead and we ask questions about what mental state they were in while punishing them for the crime, should the criminally ill (mental ill stuck in jail) have an ability to remember or even be corrupted to a way of thinking, not only do they miss out on the intervention of care, they are influenced by persons within that system less than healthy for them to interact with.  Should we build prisons for those persons, maybe but only for a select few, the rest need care, help or study so that we can connect and prevent as well as heal and restore.

Issues in Mental Health Nursing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

          In conclusion, you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to look away and not work toward finding a more viable solution, but in the end when we become horrified or overwhelmed by the heinous acts of someone new or different looking to copy or out do the predecessor, what will we say then, we need more gun control, we need harsher or more laws or we really need to change the way the process is going and make new, stronger paths that prevent, heal, and restore a base to who the criminal really is.  The police officer who has to deal with the person screaming will have a better chance at knowing whether the person is doped up or off their meds and not place either of them in true danger to the officer, the public or themselves, giving those persons extra time to focus on getting rid of the real problems, the serial rapists, the serial killers, the armed bandits that always "seem to elude officers" and start funding the entire network with real money being used in much more efficient and productive channels.  So there you have it, this author's heart goes out to all the families who are suffering the losses, not just in CT but all around this big old revolving planet of ours.  Truth Glasses down and prayers to the families in all these terrible events.

Scott Hall
         

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