Mental Health

The lack of mental health resources in the United States has contributed to a significant increase in visits to the emergency department ("How to care for mentally ill people?" Jan. 8). Psychiatric emergencies grew by 131 percent between 2000 and 2007, according to a recent study. Psychiatric patients often "board" in the hallways of emergency department for several days, waiting for inpatient psychiatric services. This contributes to overcrowding which harms everyone. Emergency physicians are dedicated to providing a medical home for any patient who can't access medical care including people with health insurance who are unable to get timely appointments with their primary care physicians.

Bryan Johnson didn't know he had bipolar disorder until he ended up at the emergency room, where he assaulted a police officer. His family had taken him to the University of Maryland Medical Center because he was acting strangely, staring into the distance and constantly pacing as he struggled with the death of his brother and the loss of his job. He was sent to Central Booking as soon as he was released from the hospital, and wound up with a...

Dr. Ellen G. McDaniel, whose distinguished career in psychiatry spanned more than 40 years and influenced patients, medical students and even juries, died of lung cancer Thursday at her home in Highland. She was 71. The former Ellen Garb was raised in Cleveland and went off to college with thoughts of becoming a nurse. But her father encouraged her to train as a doctor, and she did — graduating from the University of Michigan Medical School as one of only seven women in the class of 1966, said her husband, John P. McDaniel.

A state task force studying gun access laws for people with mental illnesses has proposed authorizing police to seize firearms from individuals deemed a credible threat to themselves or others. Such seizures, the panel said Wednesday, would take place after law enforcement "substantiated" reports from mental health providers, social workers and other professionals. The proposal is among nine recommendations by a task force convened months before December's mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that sparked a nationwide debate on gun control and access to mental health services.

To those opposed to tougher Maryland gun laws, I can only say that we have to start somewhere ("Battle lines form in gun debate," Dec. 19). The answer cannot be that criminals will get guns anyway so law-abiding people must have them as well to protect themselves. We are living in a society where the character and moral differences between the good guys and the bad guys are blurring. The country is awash in paranoia and fear. The reasons for the good guys to be armed may be purer and nobler than the reasons for the bad guys.

After 31 years in local law enforcement, I'd often tell myself that I had seen and experienced every act of cruelty man can inflict. In light of the despicable act of violence this month in Newtown, Conn., I was clearly wrong. We are learning more, day by agonizing day, of the details of the crime, the history of Adam Lanza, the heroism of the school staff, and the stolen wonder of 20 beautiful little children. An incredible and horrible tragedy - but one that perhaps could have been averted had we reacted to the outrages of the past.

I am grateful to Mark Komrad for his expert commentary related to persuading a troubled loved one or friend into professional mental health treatment and The Sun for publishing it ("Helping them to get help," Dec. 19). I would like to emphasize a point Dr. Komrad made twice: Mental illness should not be equated with crime. Mistakenly, some of the public identify mass killers, as in Newtown, Conn., with all people with any mental illness. Consequently, the social stigma of mental illness is an added burden people with these illnesses must bear.

Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold said this week that the county will host a forum in February to discuss mental health initiatives in the county. The forum, he said, comes in response to the shootings last week in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 students and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School were shot and killed by a 20-year-old man. In a release, Leopold said, "Mental health is a key piece in our discussion about how to prevent these terrible events, which often a perpetrated by a lone gunman who goes unnoticed until the unthinkable happens.

America's children seem to be shortchanged on almost every issue we face as a society. Not only are we failing to protect our children from deranged people wielding semi-automatic guns, we're not protecting them from poverty. The rate of child poverty keeps rising -- even faster than the rate of adult poverty. We now have the highest rate of child poverty in the developed world. And we're not protecting their health. Rates of child diabetes and asthma continue to climb. America has the third-worst rate of infant mortality among 30 industrialized nations and the second-highest rate of teenage pregnancy, after Mexico.

Though none of us yet knows much of Adam Lanza's backstory, it doesn't take a mental health professional to suspect that a man who killed his mother before killing so many children and adults was likely suffering from a severe mental disorder. Although mental illness very rarely results in violence, let alone such heinous behavior, the fact is that so many of those who could benefit from state-of-the-art treatment do not receive it, for a variety of reasons. For example, some fear the implications of facing a condition that might limit the power of will to control thoughts, feelings or behaviors.