The mentally ill - armed and dangerous? - Fauquier Times-Democrat

Addressing the stigma of mental illness
09/26/2006 - Letter to the Editor

I had to bite my lip and cringe at my son's baseball game when I talked with another parent. He's a volunteer at a local rescue squad, and he proceeded to tell me about a call he received the night before.

He explained that they had responded to a late night call for some "mental guy who was off his medication." The man had fled the scene, and "he didn't want to go looking for him without a gun." I was floored. His sole rationale for needing a gun was that the man was mentally ill.


Mentally ill individuals do commit crimes. And they most often receive front-page, prime-time news coverage. But there is no evidence to support the case that mentally ill persons commit more crimes that the general public. The man was more likely to injure himself than the police or medical personnel.

Fortunately, most police officers receive training to deal with these situations and they can defuse them before they escalate to violence.

Unfortunately, this rescue squad volunteer's knee-jerk reaction is quite common and only accentuates the problem of stigma related to mental illnesses. Somewhere down the line, nobody educated this first responder about how to deal with this type of situation.

Many people still associate mental illness with the homeless or the institutionalized such as those seen in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." In reality, many individuals with mental illness are part of our society and can go about their lives unnoticed.

And medications do remain an important piece of the medical treatment they receive. While it's true that individuals will sometimes go off their medication, it doesn't necessarily mean they will become a threat to society.

Mental illnesses are and will continue to be a part of the society in which we live. Reduced stigma and greater acceptance and understanding will only be reached through increased education.

Doug Harpole

Amissville