On the recordOctober 5, 2013
On Thursday, the Capitol was in lockdown when Miriam Carey led the police on a frightening high- speed chase that sadly resulted in her death. Initial reports say she may have been delusional, paranoid, and had a prescription for schizophrenia medication. The incident shows that a person with untreated or undertreated mental illness does not need a firearm to cause harm. It reminds us of an issue that we've been talking about since the tragedy at Newtown, and even before--the problems with our Nation's mental health system. There were 38,000 suicides in our country recently, 750,000 attempts. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has identified inefficient outpatient and inpatient treatment. State involuntary commitment laws are failing to help those with schizophrenia and paranoid delusions. Community mental health centers are underfunded. Federal privacy laws have problems, and NIMH is woefully underfunded. I will be introducing legislation soon to deal with these mental health issues. I ask my colleagues to help us deal with serious mental illness in a serious way. ____________________
