bigbro: is that all you do is berate people on here? I read all 21 of your posts and each of them (with the exception of 1 or 2) is negative and aimed at a particular user. To quote you "button up."

First of all, I hate commenting on these things, but Im pretty sure conservatives cut health care and mental health costs. Check Reagans records on mental health costs/spending. To blame liberals for this is ridiculous. Moron.

Ihavealife ? is this all u do is blogg

It is very clear that the system we have in place tragically failed two people and two families. It is also clear that the system we used to have violated modern medical ethics and constitutional and human rights, in addition to generally failing to treat underlying illnesses. We can't just lock someone up because they need prescription drugs in order to function. We can't identify in advance the mentally ill who will kill any more than we can identify in advance the sane who will kill. _Minority Report_ was science fiction, and a cautionary tale at that.
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Much of what is missing here is funding for community-based treatment. The mentally ill often need to have to be capable of holding a job before they can be insured, and without insurance they depend on the public purse. If we then skimp on funding because, well, we like our taxes lower, we have to bear some of the responsibility for allowing tragedies like this to happen. I know saying that is going to get someone mad, because they just can't face the idea. Well, tough. We as a society are judged on how we treat the weakest and least among us.

It's not about institutions or even parenting. As a society we're not set up to deal with the hardships of even mild mental health issues, much less something as severe as schizophrenia. There are treatments available, but doctors are often as ignorant as the patients, treatment takes a lot of time and money, patients are not educated about their disorders like people with cancer and other illnesses, and there is a poor support network among many families, peers, and employers.

My heart goes out to both families, but you do have to feel for the parents of the son who took two lives. My parents are incredibly wonderful parents, and probably would have been in a terrible quandry as to what to do if one of us kids had been diagnosed with a mental illness... What parent out there can claim, "Oh yes, I would have known just what to do, and it would work the first time and we're geniuses!!" They have to live with the fact that their son hurt another. I hope they get professional counseling and have a wonderful support group of family and friends, just as I hope the same for the other family.

They need more supervised living arrangements for mentally ill adults. I know a place in Des Moines where they have apartments for the chronically mentally ill. They are staffed 24/7 and the staff gives the meds to insure compliance. Staff writes a daily log on each resident to monitor their behavior and then can report any irregularities to their doctors and/or family members. The residents can come and go as they please, work, have friends over, etc. as long as they are compliant about taking their meds. A place like this could have saved two lives in this situation.

support_local_racing:

Nope, I got up on the right side of bed, just in a house full of kids who *should* be in school. I’m not arguing that everyone with some form of mental illness need be locked away. I have some of it in my family, as well. But the people with a severe mental illness should be closely evaluated, and if they are deemed to be a danger to others, or themselves, then they shouldn’t be allowed to live on their own. If their illness can be controlled with medication, as many can, then no problem, unless they have a history of refusing to take that medication.
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I’d bet a six pack of scotch that somewhere along the line, a mental health professional evaluated Adam Peterson and worried that some day he would hurt somebody. Read back through the news, and it isn’t hard to find other cases like this. Reopening the institutions won’t take all the dangerous people off the streets, but I have to believe it will help.

Northman: May I remind you that it was the Reagan Administration (Conservatives) that deregulated just about every industry, including mental health. They closed down institution after institution because they were too costly. Those inmates that should have remained, were put on the street. As Paul Harvey says: "Now you know the rest of the story".

Northman, my step-mother is a schizophrenic that lives quite normally with the help of medications and friends and family around her. How dare you say she belongs in an institution. Your comment is ignorant at best and borderline hateful.
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Normally, you're fairly insightful. You wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?

Back in olden days, when us Neanderthals ruled the earth, people with severe mental illnesses were locked away in mental institutions where they wouldn’t be a danger to themselves or others. Then the liberals came along and told us this treatment wasn’t just wrong, in fact it was positively inhumane! There was nothing wrong with these people, they are just slightly different from you and I. Everybody should be able to walk about freely and reach their full potential, regardless of their mental “challenges”. So now, in these more enlightened days, we have these opportunities to feel sorry for the killer and his family, because this is all a big surprise and a “tragedy”.
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Granted, some of the old institutions, asylums, et al, fell below the standards we expect for care and individual respect. But it really is time to bring back the concept, and keep people who can’t function in society, away from society.

They should have been watching him closer, he had attempted suicide once already. It is sad for both family's. It is something that most of us will never understand and I pray never will due to experience.

I agree with Mr Peterson it IS sad for BOTH families!

It is sad that Joels family will not get the justice they deserve. They will never get to tell adam what hurt and loss he caused their family.

Nice Gazette. You do like bringing on the drama.. Yes I know the numbers.

Our thoughts and prays are with both family's
neither of these family's asked for this.