Radio Smart Talk: Is there a mental health crisis?

Radio Smart Talk for Tuesday, January 15:

Is there a mental health crisis? Dauphin County Commissioner George Hartwick III thinks so. In fact, Commissioner Hartwick went as far as saying the mental health crisis is “a ticking time bomb” that is fast becoming “a public safety crisis.”

Hartwick and other county officials throughout Pennsylvania are in his words, “in the frontlines of service delivery” and thus in a position to see the impact of budget cuts and society turning a blind eye toward the mentally ill.

Mental illness is getting more attention after the shooting that left 26 children and educators dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut last month. The gunman, Adam Lanza, is reported to have suffered from mental illness.

Many have suggested that the availability of guns and violent video games and movies are other possble factors that contribute to mass shootings. Stricter gun laws are already being considered by the Obama Administration and in several states.

So far though, there hasn’t been much action taken on ways to recognize and improve access to mental health services.

Commissioner Hartwick will appear on Tuesday’s Radio Smart Talk, along with Dauphin County Mental Health/Intellectual Disabilities program administrator Dan Eisenhauer and Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute medical director Dr. Linda Durst.

Listen to the program: {mp3remote}http://witf.vo.llnwd.net/o35/smarttalk/radiosmarttalk/RST_January152013.mp3{/mp3remote}