I watched
“The Situation with Tucker Carlson” last night and was intrigued by Tucker’s discussion with a mental health expert regarding forced medication of mentally ill persons. This interview was the podcast clip of the day, so if you want to listen, go the the link above, scroll down, and look for the pod link.
Firstly, yes--there are identifiable mentally ill people out wandering in the general population. They are straight crazy and if they get hauled in by police or EMS, they will probably be diagnosed and drugged, anyway. If they are homeless, I cannot imagine them keeping up with their medication in their cardboard-box house once they are released, and that’s a problem. Secondly, people that may have violent tendencies are sometimes not recognizable as violent. Have you ever noticed how people commenting on some nut that has gone on a shooting rampage usually say, “He was such a nice, quiet guy. I never thought he’d do something like THAT”? You just don’t know what some people will do until they do it. However, Tucker is right on one point, which is mentally ill people usually don’t know that they have a problem. That crazy hallucination or voice in their head is normal from day to day—this is where a family member or spouse needs to step in, quickly.
On the surface, forced medication for the mentally ill sounds great. But looking deeper, I found a slippery slope of disappearing free will and intrusion into private family matters. Although, I have to say, Andrea Yates’ husband really dropped the ball. I asked my husband why he thought that was. His answer made some sense:
“He was tired of her strange behavior—and he was probably glad to go to work everyday to get away from her. He never thought she’d kill the kids.”
Personally, I think Mr. Yates’ disconnect from his wife was criminal. You would think that a husband would want to know what was going on in his wife’s mind, no matter how creepy it made him feel. Maybe he’s the one that needs medication. Who knows.
Which brings me back to my original thought on this: Yes, some people need medication. Yes, it may stop them from committing violent acts. But in the final analysis, it is a private family or personal decision. I can agree with Tucker from a point of view that a state should have laws that provide free medication to homeless people with mental problems, and they should have laws that provide for the apprehension of someone that may be insane; actually most states do. If you call 911 on someone that is acting crazy, the ambulance will come. And, in the EMS workbook, if you are mentally incompetent of agreeing to treatment, EMS WILL treat you according to their protocols. This includes mentally ill patients. But the linchpin here is that SOMEONE needs to call 911 first—and I don’t know many people that would be willing to do that unless they knew the person who was ill.
Cities and states need to have well-designed protocols for treating the mentally ill. It should include the initial exam and tests to rule out a physical ailment that might be causing mental distress, and it should include extended care for those that have no family members to care for them.
I would suggest to Tucker that he needs to research his state’s laws and treatment protocols for EMS and public hospitals, and see if there isn’t anything missing. Then, if he’s still disturbed by his state’s response, or lack thereof, he needs to make some calls to his representatives, go to city council meetings and voice his concerns. Tucker, you can talk about this problem on TV all you want, and people may or may not listen; but if you choose to involve yourself in local politics, you might actually make a difference. After all, you are still a voter and tax-payer.
