How can we strengthen our laws.to have severely mentally ill in the District committed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Courts do this, all the time. There's a mental health court located right inside Bellevue in NYC.

But a "mental" person has to commit a crime first or be a threat to himself or others.

If we are talking about the ubiquitous homeless folks, odd ball neighbors, and the like than there is no way to get them committed and if the streets pre-emptively.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Courts do this, all the time. There's a mental health court located right inside Bellevue in NYC.

But a "mental" person has to commit a crime first or be a threat to himself or others.

If we are talking about the ubiquitous homeless folks, odd ball neighbors, and the like than there is no way to get them committed and if the streets pre-emptively.

Threat to themself or others is the rub. I have walked by people on the street shouting "you're gonna die" or "I'm gonna kill you". How do YOU interpret that? Current law certainly looks the other way, youre right

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Courts do this, all the time. There's a mental health court located right inside Bellevue in NYC.

But a "mental" person has to commit a crime first or be a threat to himself or others.

If we are talking about the ubiquitous homeless folks, odd ball neighbors, and the like than there is no way to get them committed and if the streets pre-emptively.

Well that's ok with me, because I don't think "ubiquitous homeless folks" and "odd ball neighbors" should be deprived of their liberty!

Our laws are fine. What we need is more resources to identify the people who need more support, including legal intervention and institutionalization (or court-mandated outpatient treatment).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Courts do this, all the time. There's a mental health court located right inside Bellevue in NYC.

But a "mental" person has to commit a crime first or be a threat to himself or others.

If we are talking about the ubiquitous homeless folks, odd ball neighbors, and the like than there is no way to get them committed and if the streets pre-emptively.

Well that's ok with me, because I don't think "ubiquitous homeless folks" and "odd ball neighbors" should be deprived of their liberty!

Our laws are fine. What we need is more resources to identify the people who need more support, including legal intervention and institutionalization (or court-mandated outpatient treatment).

hallucinatory schizophrenia where the sufferer hears voices and perceives threats seems to be a theme with these crimes... and then the articles in the grisly aftermath mention how the family sought to have their loved ones treated for years but ran into Americas unhelpful "you do you" mental health laws. They're out of whack when we've had three violent mental health related deaths in the past weeks in our pretty small city, two randomized, fatal stabbings and one in which an aggressive mentally ill homeless person was found viciously slain through beating and head wounds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not that we need to have them committed -- it's that we have to pay for them. When Reagan was elected president, the streets became flooded with the mentally ill that society no longer wanted to pay for. You can thank Ronald Regan for ruining our society by pretending that NOT caring about others was a virtue rather than the other way around.

F-f-false. Plenty of bipartisan blame.

[Anonymous]

Put them all on Epstein island

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Do you even know what a red flag law does? It's pretty clear you don't. Red flag laws are for people who are threatening harm to self or others. It is about behavior, not a diagnosed mental illness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Courts do this, all the time. There's a mental health court located right inside Bellevue in NYC.

But a "mental" person has to commit a crime first or be a threat to himself or others.

If we are talking about the ubiquitous homeless folks, odd ball neighbors, and the like than there is no way to get them committed and if the streets pre-emptively.

Well that's ok with me, because I don't think "ubiquitous homeless folks" and "odd ball neighbors" should be deprived of their liberty!

Our laws are fine. What we need is more resources to identify the people who need more support, including legal intervention and institutionalization (or court-mandated outpatient treatment).

hallucinatory schizophrenia where the sufferer hears voices and perceives threats seems to be a theme with these crimes... and then the articles in the grisly aftermath mention how the family sought to have their loved ones treated for years but ran into Americas unhelpful "you do you" mental health laws. They're out of whack when we've had three violent mental health related deaths in the past weeks in our pretty small city, two randomized, fatal stabbings and one in which an aggressive mentally ill homeless person was found viciously slain through beating and head wounds.

Get K2 and PCP off our streets and the death count will go down, as will cases of first episode psychosis and schizophrenia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Courts do this, all the time. There's a mental health court located right inside Bellevue in NYC.

But a "mental" person has to commit a crime first or be a threat to himself or others.

If we are talking about the ubiquitous homeless folks, odd ball neighbors, and the like than there is no way to get them committed and if the streets pre-emptively.

Well that's ok with me, because I don't think "ubiquitous homeless folks" and "odd ball neighbors" should be deprived of their liberty!

Our laws are fine. What we need is more resources to identify the people who need more support, including legal intervention and institutionalization (or court-mandated outpatient treatment).

hallucinatory schizophrenia where the sufferer hears voices and perceives threats seems to be a theme with these crimes... and then the articles in the grisly aftermath mention how the family sought to have their loved ones treated for years but ran into Americas unhelpful "you do you" mental health laws. They're out of whack when we've had three violent mental health related deaths in the past weeks in our pretty small city, two randomized, fatal stabbings and one in which an aggressive mentally ill homeless person was found viciously slain through beating and head wounds.

Get K2 and PCP off our streets and the death count will go down, as will cases of first episode psychosis and schizophrenia.

That's definitely a part of the spike, but the some of the above mentioned had long histories of instability. Funny how we have decriminalized drugs and stopped involuntary commitment, but we haven't upped treatment. So when the mentally unstable has some PCP its the perfect storm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Do you even know what a red flag law does? It's pretty clear you don't. Red flag laws are for people who are threatening harm to self or others. It is about behavior, not a diagnosed mental illness.

Who gets to report on your red flag behavior?

[Anonymous]

We used to till about 20 years ago and then they did the deinstitutionalization trend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the problem with red flag laws.

How do you define mental illness? And who is making this judgement call? Civil rights?
What are the checks and balances? You cant just go around arbitrarily plucking out people whom you deem are crazy....and if that was the case 2/3 of people posting in dcum would be committed.

Do you even know what a red flag law does? It's pretty clear you don't. Red flag laws are for people who are threatening harm to self or others. It is about behavior, not a diagnosed mental illness.

Who gets to report on your red flag behavior?

Do you think you are helping people with severe mental distress but not acknowledging their suffering?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Commit them where? You know we don't have insane asylums, right?

Why don’t we have actual mental health facilities??

Yes why? We have mental illness, but no facilities?

There are mental health facilities. Both public and private. I'm not sure why people are claiming there aren't any.

So if a homeless, addicted person with schizophrenia decided one day that they wanted treatment and medication, they could go somewhere and get treatment?

Yes. Are you local? VA’s hospital is behind FFX hospital and close-in MD is off 270, I forget the exit.

Uh. Have you ever tried to help a family member get treatment? I'm guessing no, because just having the address of a facility isn't going to do it for you.

The people who make these simplistic statements have never dealt with a severely mentally ill adult family member.

Actually I worked at Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute. So continue with your “simplistic statement” and tell me again that I don’t know what it’s like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Commit them where? You know we don't have insane asylums, right?

Why don’t we have actual mental health facilities??

Yes why? We have mental illness, but no facilities?

There are mental health facilities. Both public and private. I'm not sure why people are claiming there aren't any.

So if a homeless, addicted person with schizophrenia decided one day that they wanted treatment and medication, they could go somewhere and get treatment?

Yes. Are you local? VA’s hospital is behind FFX hospital and close-in MD is off 270, I forget the exit.

Uh. Have you ever tried to help a family member get treatment? I'm guessing no, because just having the address of a facility isn't going to do it for you.

The people who make these simplistic statements have never dealt with a severely mentally ill adult family member.

Actually I worked at Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute. So continue with your “simplistic statement” and tell me again that I don’t know what it’s like.

U might be missing their point though?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The biggest problem is money not laws. No one wants to pay for their care and treatment.

Nope... it was a "civil rights" issue in the 70s that drove most of the current laws. We spend plenty on SSI, homelessness programs, police, prisons, etc., etc. that could be used for inpatient treatment.