As a child I read the Scripture about Jesus healing a man possessed by evil spirits (Mark, Chapter 5) many times, and I prayed that Jesus would heal my mentally ill mother as he healed that man in the cemetery. Dealing with the mentally ill is not a new issue for me. I have no doubt the family and adopted families of Nikolas Cruz, the Florida school shooter, prayed earnestly for their son before his horrific acts in February.
Families like mine, as well as psychologists, police and counselors who deal with the mentally ill, face difficult decisions that many of us who live in a “normal” world cannot fathom. As a society, our failure to help care for the mentally ill will continue to haunt us, as Cruz and others have blatantly displayed.
After the shooting, many activists rushed to do something. But, doing “something” is not the same as solving problems. We have the same gun control arguments over and over. Common-sense gun laws are needed; however, during the first murder in recorded history, Cain killed his brother Abel without a gun. Should we also outlaw knives, rocks and sticks? Instead, the focus should be on the common denominator in mass shootings and many murders: mental illness.
Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond frequently discusses the overwhelming number of mentally ill prisoners in our jails because there are no other facilities in which to detain them. The dilemma begs the question: How do we ensure the public is protected from mentally ill citizens who might do harm?
To answer that question, I sought the help of Dr. Larry Thompson. He has spent his entire adult life working in various capacities within mental illness care across Tennessee.