Jessie Close’s guest blog yesterday hit a nerve and sparked an email from Dr. Dinah Miller, a Baltimore psychiatrist and founder of SHRINK RAP, one of the most helpful mental health blogs on the Internet.
I want to share Dr. Miller’s email with you. I would encourage you to read the editorial from the Baltimore Sun that follows her note. In it, Dr. Miller points out that most of the legislation being suggested is a knee jerk reaction to the Sandy Hook shootings. There is no evidence that many of the bills being rushed through will accomplish much except further stigmatizing individuals with mental disorders.
Dear Pete,
Please thank Jessie Close for writing about guns and medical records — an issue that all of us need to monitor. The Newtown massacre ignited legislators to propose many bills which will attempt to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. In Maryland alone, I believe we have about 40 bills before our General Assembly. I have been writing about the intrusion that mandated reporting may have on doctor-patient confidentiality, and how that may stigmatize patients and discourage them from getting care.