A 52 year old truck driver collapses over the wheel and slams into a school bus killing 8 children. He’d had a heart attack.
A 22 year old man takes a gun, enters a theatre and shoots randomly, killing 8 children. It seems he had an acute psychotic break.
The truck driver probably won’t go to jail. There was no intent. The community will feel empathy for him. There but for the grace of God…But the young man? He’ll be maligned and incarcerated.There is little room for forgiveness.Rather than empathy, there will be exclamations of horror. In truth, neither one is to blame for their illness or the tragic unpredictable events.
I received many angry notes, from young people and adults, when I wrote about Amanda Todd’s mental illness rather than focus on bullying. People were intent on denying the place of mental illness in Amanda’s decision to take her own life. There was a need to run from the diagnosis, perhaps because we fear those with mental illness and blame them for their behaviour as if they could control themselves if only they tried harder.
In Canada 65,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS. It’s a managed chronic illness. Three hundred and thirty-five thousand have schizophrenia, a disease that attacks 18to 24 year olds. We rarely hear about them because so few commit horrible crimes, crimes that should have been prevented with proper mental health care. Education reduced the fear those with HIV/AIDS; education can do the same for mental illness which affects 7 million Canadians.
I remember the video of Ashley Smith. She was bound up on a gurney, surrounded by people in tactical gear as if fearing for their lives. There was a time when we feared those with HIV/AIDS and isolated them. Medical personnel entered their rooms wearing protective clothing, afraid of contamination. At one time the diagnosis of HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. We know better.
We need to “know better” about mental illness. It isn’t in the mind, it is in the brain.
Dr. Eric Kandel, psychiatrist, neuroscientist and professor at Columbia University points out, "All mental processes are brain processes, and therefore all disorders of mental functioning are biological diseases. The brain is the organ of the mind. Where else could [mental illness] be if not in the brain?" He said social and environmental factors are undeniably important to understanding mental health. "But they do not act in a vacuum. They act in the brain."
Dr. Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said mental illnesses are no different from heart disease, diabetes or any other chronic illnesses which have biological as well as behavioural components.
Mental illness like heart disease and diabetes is a genetic/epigenetic disease. According to Dr. David Koczerginski, Chief of Psychiatry at William Osler Health System, once a mental illness is diagnosed and treated the prognosis is as good as if not better than those diagnosed with some chronic physical diseases.
Too many refuse to believe that mental illness can be controlled. When someone with a mental illness ends up in the court system, it speaks to a failure of our health care system. Rather than spend time and money addressing the lack of accessible care for the mentally ill, there’s new legislation being brought forward to deny Charter Rights to those found not criminally responsible (NCR). We have a right to expect our government to base legislation on fact, not fear and ignorance. Facts show that recidivism amongst NCR accused is very low. Yet, the Conservative government is proposing a mean-spirited solution that feeds the irrational fear of mental illness rather than caring for those living with it. There was a time, out of fear and ignorance, when we tried to take away the Charter Rights of those with HIV/AIDS. Let’s not repeat that with mental illness.
