Republicans always say we should focus on "mental illness" after a mass shooting

@Adogslife No one blames the GOP for mental illness. But it pretty hypocritical for Abbott to blame the ENTIRE peroblem on that...........just a month and a half after he and every single Republican state lawmaker in Texas blocked a vote for $211 million to be used to treat mental illness in Texas. That's just stupid on top of stupid. If YOU are the one that refused to treat the mentally ill in your own state.....how to do say a month later "oh a crazy person did this....and there is NOTHING we could have done to stop it."

@anythingoes477 Texas is hard to understand. They’re pretty far to the right on the political spectrum.

I’m from New England and a Republican. The political philosophy is entirely different… thankfully.

@Adogslife To say that even means you are one of the very last actual Republicans that's left. The party you grew up voting for......the values......core principles...........are as dead now as the 19 kids in Texas.

@anythingoes477 That really is true. Being a liberal Republican is like living on an island (now). I’m 62. I don’t ever remember politics being this polarizing, and it’s getting worse by the year.

Even the “news” is polarizing. The concept of tv stations being editorial outlets for a political party is hard to digest. Lying no longer has a consequence.

@Adogslife The greatest asset to the United States---------we once had-----------was opposing ideas from parties that WANTED to share ideas and solutions........and actually govern. That is dead now. Replaced by the Hatfields and McCoys and if you try to even approach one of us to help fix something...OMG we'll make you into the enemy of the United States. And if we can't find anything wrong fundamentally with why you want us to cross that aisle...........then we'll just make up you eat babies and are part of the Deep State...whatever the hell that is. When the GOP died..........government for the people and by the people died too. Now it's a game of power thru lies.......cult mentality.......and even violence as on Jan 6th.

@Adogslife I agree here, but a note. Mental health affects the brain. The brain is in charge of executive function and thought. Therefore, when the brain is ill, a person's actions and choices are [i]not[/i] always their own. This can be physically measured using existing medical equipment.

Insurance does not willingly cover in-patient treatment and barely covers outpatient. Many therapies are considered unnecessary and so also not covered; basic, gold-standard approaches for specific disorders. Often, the only way to get a client covered is to code things differently for re-imbursement even if it's not the client's actual disorder.

No one's saying the government should assess and run all this. But they [i]are [/i]in charge of funding it and for understanding the issue so they can know how to fund it. Or at the bare minimum, getting out of the way of actual professionals.

And this is precisely where the disconnect happens. For all the rhetoric, debate, demands and protests, very few people has anything close toa working understanding of mental illness. You cannot treat or prevent what you refuse to learn about.

We know which measure work and we know which ones don't - we've been studying other countries on this subject for 50 years now. It's not about finding the right path.

It's about wanting to take the trip at all.

@Adogslife you do know how limited any insurance coverage is for mental illness? BTW, you do know that universal medical insurance is not available in the US, and whatever system we do have, has been the target of attack by a certain party since it was first partially enacted during a previous POTUS' administration? That original plan contained much better mental health and public health benefits.

@samueltyler2 Routinely, we have to get approval [i]by the day[/i] for clients to stay in alcohol and drug treatment, both recognized mental health disorders. We have to code in "the neighborhood" of what the actual issue might be because insurance will cover that but not this. It's ridiculous and the reason many therapists wind up burned out.

@Graylight the facts s that the Republicans have always fought against expanding such coverage. The pack of such has also led to a shortage.

@samueltyler2 And all the lip service they pay to the deflection topic of mental illness is completely transparent. They talk about flags, backgrounds, treatment, prevention...and then use words like 'rogue,' 'bad guy,' 'crazy man,' 'monster,' 'evil' when the time comes for reflection on what might have created this situation.

@Graylight they refuse to admit what they stand for, what they would do if eleccted.

@samueltyler2 Difficult to defend the darkness and justify greed to the masses.