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Sandy Hook: What Are You Doing To Help!

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The senseless murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School have pricked the conscious of our nation. I’ve been doing my best this week to call attention to the need for mental health reforms, even though no one has said, for certain, that the shooter had a mental disorder. 

Talking about the shootings is tricky. We must make it clear that persons with mental illnesses are more likely to be the victims of violence than to be responsible for it. At the same time, these terrible shootings have opened a window for us to advocate for better care.

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My Son’s Reaction To The Sandy Hook Shootings

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Several readers have asked me what my son, Kevin Michael, has to say about the horrible shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Here is his response.

It seems there have been an abundance of shootings in America this past year. Instead of looking for a scapegoat, or a solution, I say we look at ourselves. Do we mock others who are not like us? Is the behavior we exhibit kind and generous and encouraging? Do the interactions we have with others lead to them feeling isolated, dejected and depressed, or …do our interactions lead them to feeling warm, appreciated and included? Do we celebrate violence, whether through our entertainment, music, video games or movies? Do we judge those who don’t have materials we have? Do we socially ostracize those who don’t meet whatever criteria of “success” we hold of them?

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Is the Recovery Movement Hurting The Sickest Among Us?

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Is our current emphasis on RECOVERY actually hurting the sickest among us?

A Canadian advocate argues that it is.

In her report, The Emergence of the Recovery Movement: Are Medications Taking a Back Seat in the Road to Recovery?    Lembi Buchanan writes:

“Recovery proponents support a consumer-driven, psychosocial holistic model that promotes hope, self-determination, empowerment, respect, responsibility and spiritual healing to enable people living with mental health problems and illnesses to lead meaningful and productive lives whether or not they are symptom-free. They dismiss the essential role of medications for individuals who are severely disabled by their illness and incapable of managing their own recovery.”

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Can Anyone Predict Dangerousness?

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Can psychiatrists and other mental health practitioners predict violence?

Because of the shootings on the Virginia Tech campus, in Tucson and, more recently, in Aurora, it’s an important question.

A recent article published in the Association for Psychological Science magazine examines trends in how mental health professions assess risk and predict violence. The article’s authors, John Monahan of the University of Virginia, and Jennifer L. Skeem, of the University of California, Irvine, begin by examining the mostly commonly used methods.

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The Colorado Shootings and Mental Illness: As a Nation we still don’t get it!

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We don’t know enough about the mind of the alleged Colorado shooter,  James Holmes,  to determine if he has a severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, or if he was driven by some narcissistic, anti-social desire to hurt others and become infamous.

But as the father of an adult son with bipolar disorder, who has been arrested and who once fixated on a movie during a psychotic break, I’ve watched the public reaction to the horrific shootings in Aurora — and earlier ones in Tuscon and on the Virginia Tech University campus — with trepidation. As a nation, we are stumped by mental illnesses.

Some observations.

* These awful tragedies should turn attention on our nation’s woefully inadequate mental health care system. Instead, the spotlight always focuses on gun control. A possible reason is because people are afraid of being sympathetic or being viewed as excusing the acts of the gunman if they discuss mental illness. But how can we prevent future shootings if we don’t question why Seung-Hui Cho fell through the cracks in Virginia after he was declared “a danger to himself and others” or why Jared Lee Loughner’s schizophrenia went untreated? We ignore the elephant in the room — our nation’s failed mental health care system — at our own peril.

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A Sly Project with Judge Jeanine Pirro

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I met  Judge Jeanine Pirro several months ago and she told me that she was looking for someone to help her write a novel about her early days as the first female prosecutor in Westchester County,  just outside of New York City. Shortly after Jeanine was hired in 1978, she created one of the first Domestic Violence Units in

the country. She specialized in prosecuting spousal abuse cases at a time when it was not illegal in some states for a husband to beat his wife. After calling attention to domestic violence, Jeanine targeted pedophiles, by creating the first sting operation in the nation to catch sexual predators. (This was decades before NBC’s Dateline Series: To Catch A Predator.)  Jeanine later was elected the first woman judge in Westchester County and eventually ran unsuccessfully for the New York Attorney General’s job. Since leaving the bench and politics, she has been a regular on television, hosting her own FOX prime time program, Justice With Judge Jeanine.

I was hooked the moment I met Jeanine. She is a smart, no-nonsense, tireless legal champion for underdogs. She also has a great sense of humor and smile. I  liked the idea of fictionalizing actual cases and I especially was interested in helping write a novel grounded in the 1970s about a feisty, female prosecutor.

Jeanine and I quickly came up with a main character — Dani Fox — who is (not surprisingly) a lot like Jeanine. The title of the first book is  SLY FOX , which will debut in July and is now available for order. A second novel, CLEVER FOX, will be published later.

This is not a ghostwritten book where a FOX TV News celebrity simply attaches his/her name to a professionally written novel.  Jeanine selected the cases  and we worked collaboratively on the manuscript with her pouring over every word.  Because Jeanine was so involved, SLY FOX gives readers an intimate and insider’s glimpse at what she experienced as a young prosecutor when women were not welcomed in courtrooms.  The reviews (printed below) have been good.

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