PATRIOT-NEWS: Mental health professionals and the judicial system have formally weighed in. Jared Lee Loughner has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial in the Jan. 8 shooting rampage that killed six people and wounded 13, including Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. Loughner suffers from schizophrenia, delusions and major medical illness. The manifestations of this illness, the experts report, go back at least two or three years.
At the same time, legislators nationwide, at state and federal levels, are considering significant funding cuts to mental health services in an effort to balance budgets.
In Pennsylvania alone, 774 mental health services jobs are targeted for elimination. Ironically, should this budget pass, we can only anticipate a greater financial burden down the road. When did we decide as a society that mental health services are icing on the cake of health care; that they are not vital to healthy individuals, families, school environments and neighborhoods?… (more)
