Excerpt
MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): We turn to the difficulties of getting mental health care to those who need it. It's a subject getting more attention in the wake of the several recent shootings.
It's not known if the gunman in Newtown, Conn., suffered from mental illness. But the man who shot four firefighters in Webster, New York, this week, killing two of them, who were remembered at a procession yesterday, left a disturbing note in which he pledged to burn down the neighborhood and -- quote -- "do what I like doing best, killing people."
Politicians and commentators have used these and prior attacks to call for improved mental health screening and treatment.
But one such program in California has proven hard to implement, as NewsHour correspondent Spencer Michels reports.
AMANDA WILCOX, Mother of murder victim: I wanted the world to know what a wonderful, incredible person she was.
SPENCER MICHELS: For more than a decade, Nick and Amanda Wilcox have been advocating timely treatment and early intervention for the severely mentally ill, in the hopes they won't become violent. Twelve years ago, their 19-year old-daughter, Laura Wilcox, a college sophomore, was murdered while she was working over Christmas break at a mental health clinic in Nevada County, Calif.
No comments:
Post a Comment