We can’t continue to shrug our shoulders at mental illness.

Not long ago, in late fall, a man from rural Maine fell into the abyss of mental illness, the symptoms of which included paranoid delusions and frightening behavior. His worried family alerted the authorities again and again, but no help was forthcoming. There were no resources; any treatment or hospitalization was short-term. Then one day, after escalating aggressive behavior, he killed.

I’m not talking about Robert Card. I’m talking about Justin Butterfield.

After several years of progressively worsening schizophrenia, Justin Butterfield, who was 34 at the time, killed his brother Gabriel Damour November 24, 2022 Thanksgiving morning. In February of this year, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. After the Lewiston shooting, as I learned about Robert Card’s struggle and his family’s efforts to help him, all I could think about was Justin’s case.

The first thing you should know is that “mental illness” is an umbrella phrase that covers a range of conditions and is more common than you think. According to the National Alliance on Mental IllnessOne in five American adults suffer from a mental illness each year (including me!). And for most people with mental illness, a combination of outpatient therapy and medication, and perhaps a brief hospitalization for stabilization, is usually sufficient. And the vast majority of people suffering from mental illness do not pose a danger to anyone around them. But there is a small percentage of people who develop severe and persistent mental illnesses that, if left untreated, can lead to violence.

The key words there are “if left untreated.” By all accounts, Justin Butterfield was a good partner, brother and father while on medication. The same thing happened to Robert Card. They too became victims of their mental illness. They weren’t monsters or movie villains, they were people. Human beings. Mr Card is dead. Mr. Butterfield is in a mental hospital and will likely be there for a long, long time, and even if he is released, he will have to live with the knowledge that he killed the man he loved.

This behavior is not inevitable. We don’t need to jail people with severe mental illness. There were many paths that could have led to different, safer outcomes for these people, including a functional “red flag” law instead of a “yellow flag” law, which is confusing, overly bureaucratic, and difficult to implement in an emergency. Card and Butterfield could refuse treatment as long as they wanted – if the guns were removed from their homes, they would not be able to harm people.

If you or a loved one are unlucky enough to experience chronic mental health issues, you will find that there is no real “system”, just a scattered handful of resources, most of which are underfunded and unconnected. another. The police are usually the first to be called because the police are the first responders to almost everything, especially if someone is acting threatening or perhaps just weird.

Officers then take the person to the emergency room. In the emergency room, they are either stabilized or admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. Such stays are usually short-lived. They shouldn’t be like that. And then, when the severity has sufficiently stabilized, the patient is released. Sometimes follow-up community support is available, but in most cases they receive waiting lists and loved ones who do their best to keep them stable. Can they afford their medications? Who knows. Can they get to the pharmacy to refill it? This is the patient’s problem! The lucky ones survive and recover. The unlucky ones’ condition begins to deteriorate until someone calls the police and the cycle begins again.

The truth is that Maine has no safety net for people with severe, persistent mental illness. You either have the means to pay for private treatment, end up on a waiting list for a month or a year, or end up without one. Psychiatric treatment is expensive and time-consuming, and highly individualized to the patient. A method that works for one person may not work for another, making it difficult to mass produce resources and services.

Additionally, the most severe cases of mental illness often involve anosognosia, or a lack of awareness that a person has a mental illness. Anyone who is unable to understand that he is sick will not seek treatment. Otherwise, they will end up in a cycle of police – emergency room – home. Or cops – emergency room – streets.

As a government and as a society, we have decided that we prefer not to fund services. Violent death from time to time is just the price we pay for low taxes. It is more pleasant for the average citizen to turn away and never have to face the mess of pain, poverty and madness. Dealing with mental illness is not pleasant. Trust me, I feel you in this; I will never forget that first shift at the clinic when a patient came in and told me he was having suicidal thoughts. I have witnessed the police being called for disorderly behavior. No matter how often similar incidents occurred, I never felt confident; I never felt like I knew what I was doing; and I never thought the solutions we offered were good ones.

What happened to Butterfield and Card will happen again if nothing changes and we continue to go about our business with our heads in the sand. Once is a deviation. Twice? Two years in a row? This is a sample. And it won’t be a surprise. After whatever horrific event hits the news, reporters will discover that the perpetrator has had a million and one red flags and has been reported to authorities in the past as a potential danger to themselves or others.

There will be documents indicating that the family asked for help, but found nothing. Experts like me will say: how could they be allowed access to weapons? Politicians will shake their heads and say how tragic it is that mental health care in this country is so underfunded and disrespected, and then come budget time it won’t increase significantly.

Ordinary citizens will shrug and say that some people are just crazy because it is easier to dehumanize a struggling person than to show empathy. And mental health workers like my fiancée will continue to get up every morning, overworked and underpaid, to advocate for their clients.