Just finished watching the 60 Minutes interview with Creigh Deeds covering the attack on Deeds by his son Gus and the failure for states and insurance companies to cover mental illness.
The tragedy for Deeds was the Republican controlled legislature and governor who cut mental health funding prior to this tragic event.
As hard as the Deeds story was to see, the stories of ordinary citizens was worse. The mother who was told the only way she could be sure her daughter received treatment was to give up all parental rights pretty much summed up the state of mental health treatment in this country in 2014.
Mental health is something long neglected in this country, and in desperate need of being addressed. With a significant percentage of returning Iraq and Afghanistan vets returning home with PTSD, mental health must be addressed.
We can either do the easy way and fund programs now, or do it the hard way and watch yet another generation of vets end up on the streets.
Over the last year we have watched mental illness play out in tragedy after tragedy.
Two years ago a shooter in a school, movie theater, or shopping mall was the exception. Two years later we see shootings in schools, theaters, and shopping malls every week.