To the Editors:
I have called every news station-relating to the recent college shooting-all of the programs I have seen-are to inform parents as to how to keep their kids safe & how to lock up the schools! It’s not about the general public locking up-it’s that these mentally ill patients need to be locked up in a mental health facility. All of the states decided to get out of the mental health business (in favor of casinos). The state of Ohio closed Western Reserve Psych. Hospital-Fallsview-Apple Creek-therefore-the result is that these folks have no place to go-they are the street people & that’s why Summit County Jail is over crowded. Mentally ill-should not be in jail!
When the shooter was probated into a psych. Unit – the college stated he was a threat to himself and others-then he was released –stating that he was only a threat to himself. Well-he apparently got a miracle cure-which leads me to believe that he had no health insurance-Believe me if he had an insurance card-the shooter in all likely hood would have been admitted permanently!
No one brings that up!! For instance in Summit county you can have a mental breakdown & go to the crisis center for 24 hours – however if you are not cured by then & need more help-you can go over to St. Thomas Psych. For 3 days (but only if you have insurance)!!! If not even if you are a serial killer – you are released until you harm someone & then you are off to jail!
All of us need to insist that the mentally ill have a long term place to go! That parents have a place to get their kids help (that is not private pay) for the help they need – for longer than 24 hours and/or for a few days.
Students – teachers – parents – police – should not be responsible to deal with these people – they need mental health care professionals!! Let your representatives know!!!
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Theresa Cassidy Reinbolt, Former psych. Nurse at Fallsview – working for five years with the criminally insane |