Shooting highlights the need for mental health care
To the editor:
The tragic death of Tanner Chamberlain once again raises the issue of the inadequacy of mental health care in Nevada ("LV officer shoots, kills juvenile," Wednesday Review-Journal). It's my understanding that In 2006, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill gave the Nevada mental health system a D-minus.
We were also 37th in the nation for mental health funding and No. 4 in suicide rate.
In the face of the recent financial crisis, funding for mental health services has been gutted even further, with virtually lethal cuts in funding to both the state system of care and to Medicaid, which provides what passes for insurance for many individuals who are disabled by psychiatric illnesses.
I hear that services at Southern Nevada Mental Health (the only state facility of its kind for Southern Nevada) have been cut so severely that people with mental health crises are forced to line up around the block waiting to be seen on a first-come, first-served basis.
Nevada's neglect of mental health services comes at a high cost to all Nevadans, both in financial terms and in terms of human suffering. In the absence of a good mental health system, people with mental health problems often wind up in emergency rooms, hospitals, and jails -- or, given this latest incident, at least the people who survive often wind up in those places. None of these facilities is equipped to provide the care people need, and all of them cost the public a lot more than appropriate mental health services.
A re-evaluation of our funding priorities in Nevada is urgently needed and long overdue. Let's not do the usual Nevada thing and ignore a problem until the body count starts interfering with tourism.
Soeren Johnson
LAS VEGAS
To the editor:
When is the killing of civilians by cop going to stop? Not as long as they can get by with it.
The top brass condone it and the spineless juries of the coroner just rubber-stamp it as justified. Next it will be the shooting of jaywalkers because they could go through the windshield of an automobile and injure the driver.
The justifications given for cops shooting people are completely out of control. The police need better training, because the use of deadly force is not usually justified. How often do you hear of a cop shooting someone with a gun who could shoot back? Not very often.
This latest killing of a mentally disturbed teenager should totally outrage the community. The coroner jury should find this officer guilty of murder.
Thomas Ziel
LAS VEGAS
