President
Barack Obama will highlight the issues faced by Americans with mental
health problems at a White House conference on Monday, following his
promise to start a “national conversation” on the subject after the
shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at a school last year.
The massacre at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut on
December 14 raised awareness of mental issues, although little is known
about the state of mind of the shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who
committed suicide.
Lanza, who has been described as socially awkward and reclusive, also killed his mother.
“Without us knowing if and what Adam Lanza had, we certainly know that
something bad was going on, and that Adam Lanza wasn’t getting the
attention that he needed,” said Harold Koplewicz, president of the Child
Mind Institute, a psychiatric treatment and research center in New York
City.
The conference at the White House is one of the less controversial
milestones for Obama on his politically tough to-do list to address gun
violence in America.
His proposals for new restrictions on guns have stalled in Congress,
foiled by a tough fight from the powerful National Rifle Association and
other groups defending Americans’ constitutional rights to own guns.
But there are signs of bipartisan interest in Congress in taking steps
to deal with the lack of access for mental health services and a lack of
trained professionals in the field, said Koplewicz, whose opinions have
been sought out by Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“Sometimes it takes these terrible national tragedies that capture us,
that hit us in the pit of our stomach, and we say to ourselves: ‘It’s a
wake-up call. Enough. We just have to do something,’” said Koplewicz,
who plans to attend the White House conference.
Monday’s event recalls a similar Clinton White House conference held in
1999 after a mass shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colorado raised concerns about mental health issues.
Koplewicz was at that event too. But he said this time around, awareness
efforts will be bolstered by the Affordable Care Act, which will
dramatically expand insurance coverage for treatment of mental
illnesses, particularly for children.
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