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FACE the NATION Missed the Issue but Rep. Tim Murphy Thankfully Didn’t

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Rep Tim Murphy (R-PA)  appeared on FACE the NATION yesterday along with Michael Fitzpatrick, the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, to discuss violence and mental illness.

Although the host kept trying to focus the discussion on whether or not video games spark mass shootings, Rep. Murphy did an excellent job explaining that the real issue that we need to address is our broken mental health system. Murphy worked as a psychologist before being elected to represent his Pittsburgh district, and he showed his mastery of the subject by explaining in a few moments how de-institutionalization and a lack of adequate community services have caused the criminalization of persons with mental disorders.

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FROM MY FILES: Psychiatric Advance Directives Can Be Helpful Tools

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From My Files Friday:  Psychiatric advance directives are more common today than they were when my son suffered his first breakdown or when I first wrote about them in early 2010. If you aren’t familiar with a PAD — you should be because it can be an important tool for a person who has a mental disorder and those who love him/her. I’d like to hear from anyone who has a PAD or has had experience using one — so please leave a comment and tell us whether or not a PAD helped in your situation.

Psychiatric Advance Directives Make Sense, first published March 23, 2010

If you have read my book, this blog, or heard me speak, then you know that the first time my son became psychotic, I raced him to a hospital emergency room. Mike was delusional, but he didn’t believe anything was wrong with him, and he was convinced that all “pills were poison” so he refused treatment. The emergency room doctor told me that he could not intervene until Mike became an “imminent danger” either to himself or others. That was the law in Virginia at that time.

Mike had a right to be “crazy.”

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We Need to Investigate These Mass Shootings and Identify the Flaws in Our System

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My parents taught me that the first step in correcting a mistake is investigating what went wrong and then not repeating that error.

Sadly, we are overlooking this rudimentary logic in the wake of the horrific Dec. 14th murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

President Barack Obama moved decisively when he dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to consult with a plethora of experts. However, what happened next was predictable.  Gun control proponents demanded tighter controls. The National Rifle Association circled its wagons. Mental health advocates complained about a lack of funding and community treatment services.

Was anyone surprised?

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A Psychiatrist Speaks About Gun Laws

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Jessie Close’s guest blog yesterday hit a nerve and sparked an email from Dr. Dinah Miller, a Baltimore psychiatrist and founder of SHRINK RAP, one of the most helpful mental health blogs on the Internet.

I want to share Dr. Miller’s email with you. I would encourage you to read the editorial from the Baltimore Sun that follows her note. In it, Dr. Miller points out that most of the legislation being suggested is a knee jerk reaction to the Sandy Hook shootings. There is no evidence that many of the bills being rushed through will accomplish much except further stigmatizing individuals with mental disorders.

Dear Pete,

Please thank Jessie Close for writing about guns and medical records — an issue that all of us need to monitor.  The Newtown massacre ignited legislators to propose many bills which will attempt to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.  In Maryland alone, I believe we have about 40 bills before our General Assembly. I have been writing about the intrusion that mandated reporting may have on doctor-patient confidentiality, and how that may stigmatize patients and discourage them from getting care.

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Jessie Close Speaks Out About Guns and Medical Records

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Jessie Close responding to questions

      My friend, Jessie Close, contacted me Sunday to rant. She’d just watched Meet the Press and was angry.
    Many of you know Jessie because of her tireless advocacy and the blog that she writes weekly for BringChange2Mind, the anti-stigma group founded by award-winning actress Glenn Close.
     Glenn happens to be Jessie’s sister. It was Jessie who got Glenn interested mental illness. Jessie has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and her son, Calen, has schizophrenia.
    I suggested that Jessie turn her rant into words. Fortunately, she agreed and wrote a guest blog for me to share with you.
GUNS AND MEDICAL PRIVACY
By  Jessie Close
     Every time I hear the words, ‘universal back ground check,’ I think I’m missing something. What exactly does that phrase mean?

TV Interview About Prophet of Death Sparks Memories

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Barn where Lundgren executed the Avery family

A crew from the Discovery network interviewed me last week about my book, Prophet of Death: The Mormom Blood Atonement Killings, which was published in 1991 and is one of my least known books.  It’s about a cult murder in Kirtland, Ohio, that involved a self-proclaimed prophet who broke away from the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints and murdered a family of five in an attempt to bring about the end of days and return of Jesus Christ.

Because of what happened to my son, when I think of mental disorders, I focus on bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. But if mental illness was involved in the case of Jeffrey Don Lundgren, it came in the form of anti-social personality disorder, narcissism and grandiosity. Because I am not a psychiatrist, I still don’t know if Lundgren had a mental disorder or was simply a con man. What I do know is that he destroyed and greatly harmed many lives, including his own children’s.

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