Current Mental Health Model Complete Failure
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
It’s time to admit that the mental health model that’s been used for the last fifty years isn’t working. One only needs to peruse the most recent deadly violent attacks to fully accept that there is no question that the combo of diagnosing and drugging isn’t working and many would argue the drugging model is actually creating mental health problems.
It should be of interest to everyone that every time a mass shooting incident occurs, the media reports “he had a mental health background” or “he suffered from several mental illnesses.” What is not given to the public is the shooter’s mental health history, meaning what drugs were prescribed over the years.
This is no small issue. In fact, in just the last three weeks, the public has been advised that the shooter in Manhattan, Shane Tamura, Montana Bar shooter, Army veteran Michael Brown, and Austin, TX, Target shooter, Ethan Nieneker all have a mental health history. While knowing that there is a mental health history is a good first step, it is woefully inadequate without the follow up information…the “treatment” information.
It’s too late to pretend that prescription psychiatric drugs don’t play a role in violent attacks. Too many incidents like the above have occurred over too many decades to pooh- pooh the suggestion that the drugs may actually be causing the violent acts.
But, of course, it’s difficult to say with complete certainty because not only is the information, when available, not being made public, but it appears that there is not one single federal agency that actually requires that mental health data (including drug history) be collected for consideration. Afterall, how can anyone determine what is causing the increased violence if no one is collecting all the data?
What is known is that there are millions of Americans being prescribed psychiatric drugs. And the most recent estimate is that one in four Americans take at least one prescription psychiatric drug just to function daily. The breakdown of psychiatric drug use by age groups is frightening and some would argue criminal.
According to 2020 data provided by IQVia (formerly IMS Health) the largest vendor of US physician prescribing data, nearly 77 million Americans take at least one mind-altering drug. Most disturbing is that the data reflects that nearly eight thousand children between the age of 0-1… that’s right an infant, were prescribed mind-altering drugs. As if that number wasn’t completely unacceptable, more the 1,300 of those 0–1-year-olds were prescribed antidepressants.
How, one might ask, did any physician determine that the infant was depressed and in need of an antidepressant? And these drugs are not even approved for use by infants. But the mental health community can’t be bothered with those irritating details. This is the mental health model. And years later, after cradle to grave damaging psychiatric drug use, the world wonders why mass violence occurs. The adverse side effects associated with psychiatric drugs provides a window into what violence can be caused by the drug use. The possible side effects associated with antidepressants include mania, psychosis, abnormal behavior, strange dreams, amnesia, depression, anxiety, hostility, depersonalization and suicidal thoughts and suicidal attempt to name a few.
It makes perfect sense that the mental health/pharmaceutical industry isn’t pushing to collect data about these mass shooters, but that is exactly what is needed. When violent attacks occur, there must be a standard questionnaire used by all law enforcement, state and federal, that documents the mental health and psychiatric drug history of the perpetrator.
The information collected must then be included in a national database, not unlike the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), that must yearly report to Congress and allow for public use of the database. There is no need to worry about HIPAA violations as no names or personal identifying information is necessary. The only data required for entry into the database specifically deals with years of mental health treatment, diagnosis and prescription psychiatric drug information.
Once the database is instituted, then and only then, will lawmakers be able to responsibly address the mental health “crisis” that is plaguing the nation. Pouring billions of dollars into the mental health industry is not producing positive results. Every year the number of people diagnosed increases as well as the number of psychiatric drug prescriptions.
Even the newly appointed Food and Drug Administration Administrator, Marty Makary, explained during an expert panel discussion on the SSRI antidepressants “we’re losing the broader battle of addressing mental health in the United States and as a matter of fact, in some respects, we’re going backwards.” Makary concluded “from a national standpoint, the more antidepressants we prescribe, the more depression there is.” Yes!
Finally, is it possible that the country is being led by grownups willing to take on the psycho/pharma behemoth? The kind of honesty Makary is exhibiting is a promising start. But federal legislation is needed to collect the necessary data that lawmakers will need to ensure that mental health funding is targeted to areas that may actually help.
Continued funding of the current mental health model will only result in more tragic violence and the vicious circle of shooting incident equals calls for more mental health funding. The current mental health model, funded by hundreds of billions of dollars yearly, isn’t working and many, like Makary, are starting to ask the right questions.
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AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.
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