Don't Be Ill in Texas!

Texas State Representative Robert Pena Raymond wrote an interesting article that was published in the Austin American Statesman on February 18^th, titled “Raymond: Invest more in mental health.”  Rep. Raymond is also the newly reappointed Chairman of the Human Services Committee, which handles matters pertaining to physical and mental health, alcohol and drug abuse, aging and people with disabilities.

Rep. Raymond begins the article with a recollection of the Whitman shooting at the UT tower, in 1966, and then the more recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut.  His argument is that the issue of gun control is not going to be solved anytime soon and claims, “Various interest groups and politicians are taking steps to do whatever the public and the Constitution support regarding guns and firearms.  But that portends a long political fight.  What we should do now is identify those individuals who need help, especially those who have cried out for it.”

Nearly everybody in America was affected when mentally ill Adam Lanza killed 20 children in Connecticut; liberals, conservatives, gun owners, proponents of the Constitution and those who oppose guns and fight for stricter gun laws.  I believe that Raymond’s article appeals to all these people and the people who are without answers or are undedicated to either side of the gun debate.  Americans are looking for an answer to this debate and I agree with Rep. Raymond when he says we “need to put greater resources for psychological examination and treatment in the hands of city, county and state law enforcement and mental health authorities, who consistently ask for more assistance.”

Rep. Raymond mentions that Texas ranks 49^th in spending on mental illness per capita but I’m a little disappointed about what he didn’t mention.  Aside from mass killings and the whole gun issue, untreated mental illnesses can lead to joblessness, homelessness, incarceration (juvenile and adult), divorce and the separation of families.  Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst eliminated 134 million from an already underfunded Texas Department of State Health Services in 2010, leaving our community’s children, who have diagnosable mental illnesses or chemical dependence problems, to fend for themselves in Juvenile detentions.  This doesn’t benefit our economy.

I watched PBS Frontline, Tuesday night, about Adam Lanza.  He was just a kid himself, in desperate need of some psychiatric care.  Maybe the killings could have been prevented if he had it.