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"The report is important for the entire nation. It exposes problems thatexist not just in Virginia but throughout the country.
Last year, Virginia's mental healthcare system received a 'D' grade in anational survey. The national average also was 'D.' With this report, Virginianow has a chance to rise to the challenge and provide national leadership thatwould honor those students and professors who died at Virginia Tech.
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The report's findings echo what too many reports have said before. As inmany states: "Virginia's mental health services are flawed and services formental healthcare are inadequate. Lack of sufficient resources results in gapsin the mental healthcare system including short-term crisis stabilization andcomprehensive outpatient services."
NAMI applauds the report's recognition of privacy concerns and clearstatement that "In reality, federal laws and their state counterparts affordample leeway to share information in potentially dangerous situations."
NAMI supports efforts to clarify interpretations of the law and to promotenecessary information-sharing that not only protects public safety, but alsooffers help to persons struggling with mental illnesses.
It is important to keep in mind that as noted by the U.S. Surgeon General,the overall contribution of mental disorders to the total level of violence insociety is exceptionally small. When violence occurs, it is an indication thatsomething has gone terribly wrong, often within the mental health care systemor other agencies.
Forty years ago, Senator Robert Kennedy observed after the assassinationof Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that there is a violence that is slower butjust as deadly and destructive as gunshots or bombs. It is the violence ofinstitutions, indifference, inaction, and slow decay. It is the kind ofviolence that too long has marked the mental healthcare system in Virginia andelsewhere.
Today's report is a foundation for action. The issue now is whetherleaders will act, or whether more tragedies and institutional violence willoccur and simply more reports will be written. It is a challenge that extendsbeyond Virginia to every state."
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/TempContent/techPanelReport.cfm
SOURCE National Alliance on Mental Illness
