LETTERS

Time to reopen mental institutions

Posted 6/29/22

To the Editor,

Why is it that whenever there is a school shooting or any horrific mass shooting or, for that matter, any appalling single shooting, the media talks only about the one non-lifeform …

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LETTERS

Time to reopen mental institutions

Posted

To the Editor,


Why is it that whenever there is a school shooting or any horrific mass shooting or, for that matter, any appalling single shooting, the media talks only about the one non-lifeform involved in the crime… the tool that was used… the gun… about the horrific violence it caused… and how to prevent guns from ever causing any harm again. Never is it about the violence in the head of the mentally ill person who used that gun to cause death and mayhem.… Never is it about the mentally disturbed child or man driven to committed these heinous killings or how to prevent others like him from ever committing another similar crime.

In the 1980’s our government shut down the mental institutions, saying that these people were no danger to themselves or to others. That was so very true back then… while most of the mentally ill were still under the supervision of responsible adults. Yes, the reason they were no danger to themselves or anyone else was because of those who took care of them in those institutions back then. Their caretakers made sure their patients took their medications on time and as prescribed. They made sure they ate the proper foods, not foods that might tend heighten their anxieties, their fears, their neurosis.

Now, with those mental patients out of those institutions, on the streets and on their own, do they continue to take their medications? Do they continue to eat properly? Do they continue remember to take their meds on time… as prescribed… without supervision? Do they even remember to refill their prescriptions? Do they erroneously feel they are now cured one day and no longer have need of medications any longer? Who knows… Does anyone even check up on them occasionally?? Does anyone even care???

Is it time to reopen our mental institutions and begin taking proper care of these disturbed people with mental difficulties who need guidance because cannot care for themselves?

I believe It is time to help them towards a cure or at least keep them properly supervised in order to keep them sane enough to prevent violence from ever entering their thoughts, and the attraction of a gun as a way of solving all of their problems. Let’s get them off the streets and back into institutions where trained personnel can help them. Let’s offer them the care they really need to be at peace with themselves and the world once again. It will keep them safer, and it will keep everyone else safe as well.

Passing laws that keeps mentally balanced, law abiding citizens from owning a gun, does nothing to prevent the mentally ill from committing violence… or having a gun. Ever hear of the black market


Michael Carbone

West Warwick

Comments

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  • The Berg

    One wonders if this writer has ever heard of Rhode Island's own Ladd School and its history filled with horrific living conditions, overcrowding, medical malpractice, forced sterilizations, physical and ***ual abuse, untold human rights violations, suspicious deaths, murders, and more. These institutions were dumping grounds. To advocate reopening such facilities as a form of gun control or for public safety is the definition of insanity.

    Wednesday, July 13, 2022 Report this

  • umpwuggly

    @ The Berg

    Then what is your suggestion?

    I agree that there were many issues with medical institutions in the past along with just about every group or institution out there, such as the Church, the Scouts, Hollywood and the News Media, Olympics and politics. Recently the FDA, CDC and Dr. Fauci. That doesn't mean there isn't value in having some structure in the lives of those that can't structure themselves. Going after good Citizens for something they didn't do is just plain wrong.

    Thursday, July 14, 2022 Report this