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The Importance of Recognizing Psychiatric Issues

Mental health becomes an important issue for not only family members to recognize and address but for school officials and businesses too. The public is at risk when signs of distress go unheeded. A perfect example of this is the tragic shootings of April 16, 2007 at the Virginia Tech campus.

Seung Hui Cho was clearly a disturbed individual, in need of psychiatric help. A recent report by a Virginia Tech Review panel reveals that there were clear signs of his mental condition that heeded could have avoided the tragedy. It is the responsibility of those who serve the public to protect the public even from members of that public. In the case of Virginia Tech the students and faculty could have been better protected had administrators understood and acted upon the clear signs that were present regarding Seung Hui Cho.

According to the report his mental illness was recognized during child and addressed during his middle and high school years. The safety net disengaged when he attended college due to a lack of understanding regarding local, state and federal privacy laws and the loose gun laws that made it easy for Cho to access the guns used in the shootings.

The issues surrounding privacy laws must be weighted heavily against the need to protect the public. There must be a clear responsibility for psychiatric evaluation whenever there are clear signs of mental instability within our schools and businesses. The need to evaluate someone who is exhibiting the signs of mental illness should be weighted regarding the right to privacy for the individual and the need for public safety.

School administrators must be educated regarding what signs to look for and then they must be given the right to have the individual evaluated regarding mental status. If found that the individual is indeed mentally unstable it is in the best interest of the public to either insist on the individual receiving mental healthcare or have the individual removed from where they could pose harm to the public. These individuals are in need of help and deserve to receive it.

The report uncovers the fact that part of the problem is that information was not shared between the dean of students, the counseling center, the office of judicial affairs, the campus police and Cho's parents. The reason given for this lack of information sharing was that those involved felt compelled to respect privacy laws. It is revealed though that federal laws and state laws do give leeway for the ability to share information in incidents where there could be a potentially dangerous situation if information was not shared.

Apparently Cho purchased two guns in violation of federal law because he had been judged to be a danger to himself and ordered to outpatient treatment in 2005. This fact made him ineligible to purchase a gun under federal law.

Key to protecting the public is understanding psychiatric issues and the need to seek evaluation and help from competent mental healthcare professionals.