Everyone agrees that better and more mental health care is
part of the answer to stemming the tide of school shootings. Yet, in the nearly
sixteen years since the shooting at the Appalachian School of Law, the quality
of mental health care in Virginia has declined; thanks in a large part to the
privatization of mental health care facilities.
What better example does anyone need than the sloppy and
unprofessional care given Seung Hui Cho in the years and months before he went
on his rampage at Virginia Tech?
And if the
Virginia Tech massacre is not evidence enough of the Virginia’s substandard
mental health care, then look at the tragedy that struck the Creigh Deeds
family on November 19,, 2014
According to press
reports, Austin “Gus” Deeds had a mental-health evaluation on Monday November
18, 2013 and an Emergency Custody Order, ECO, had been placed on Gus Deeds to
see if he should be placed in custody for a longer period. Mental health
officials said they could not find a bed to hold young Deeds for further
evaluation and treatment. That was not true. Subsequently, it was found out
that beds were available. The next morning young Deeds apparently had a
psychotic episode and stabbed his father multiple times in the face and upper
torso before killing himself.
Austin “Gus”
Deeds died, in part, because of the poorly run private mental care system in
Virginia; a system that cannot even keep track of vacant beds. Young
Austin Deeds was a victim of political machinations in Richmond. Politicians
who have backed cuts in mental health treatment and the privatization of the
state’s mental health care share part of the blame for the calamity that struck
the Deeds family. (To be continued)
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