Anyone with a child like Adam Lanza should

[Sienna86]

Be able to pick up a phone, and secure an immediate physical and psychological assessment, with all ensuing treatment and hospitalization covered for free. This could also serve as a resource for those with family members and friends who are non-compliant with treatment/medication.

[DanM]

1. In every one of these mass shootings . . .

. . . by these criminals, it always ends up that the authorities knew or should have known of the shooter's severe mental problems. It is THEIR JOB to know who is severely mentally ill in their jurisdictions. It is THEIR JOB to ensure these mentally ill people are flagged in the NICS background check database. I am at the end of patience with the ineptness of these bureacrats. FIRE THEM! Replace them with people who care about innocent lives.

[Atypical Liberal]

8. THIS. These crazy people need a goddamn Scarlet Letter!

[Denninmi]

42. I was diagnosed as bipolar in August, spent 3 weeks in a psych day program in Sept.

How about me? Do I deserve a "Scarlet Letter?" How about the modern equivalent, to go on some kind of public registry? What about my job, should I be allowed to keep it? Housing, can I live in the house I bought and paid for and pay taxes on? Driving? Voting?

I'd really like to know how you feel about some random stranger based only on the knowledge he has been diagnosed with a "mental illness."

[Atypical Liberal]

43. Why not? Lots of people want to paint me with one for being a gun owner.

Frankly I think we need to flag a lot more people with mental issues in NICS than just those who have been adjudicated mentally incompetent or those who have been involuntarily committed.

[Denninmi]

44. Nice.

I'll make a deal with you, you work to get me on some damned registry, and I'll work to make sure every last gun in the US is confiscated and melted down.

[Atypical Liberal]

45. OK

[thucythucy]

10. So you're saying the authorities should have had the power

to confiscate the guns his mom kept stockpiled in her home?

Or that background checks should extend to the relatives, families, and friends of those applying for gun ownership? Because that's what would have had to happen to prevent this tragedy.

Run that by the NRA and see what kind of response you get.

[laundry_queen]

49. Who gives a shit about the NRA anymore?

Except you.

[thucythucy]

59. I was responding to DanM, who

seemed to be saying that guns weren't the problem, the problem is "bureaucrats" who didn't see that the shooter needed an intervention.

Personally, I hope the NRA curls up and dies. I hope we pass absolutely stringent gun control laws that apply nation wide, outlawing assault weapons, outlawing multiple-kill magazines, requiring strict licensing of all gun owners and registration of ALL weapons, etc. etc.

So no, I don't give a shit what the NRA thinks. Never did. Never will.

[laundry_queen]

63. okay, I misunderstood. Sorry.

I agree with everything you said.

[sadbear]

12. I suggested this after the August shootings in College Station, TX

But all I heard was that local authorities COULD ONLY respond to immediate threats. I'll see if I can find that post.

[sadbear]

13. Here's one I remember from the August shooting:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021128103#post3

[obamanut2012]

27. So, the cops should have a list of mentally ill people in the area

OMFG

[ElbarDee]

29. What's next?

Genetic testing in the womb and forced abortions for any fetus with 'defective' DNA?


I can't believe a progressive would even say something like this.

[obamanut2012]

57. Some of the suggestions are really disturbing

[Squinch]

55. But they aren't allowed to track guns that are sold between individuals within state lines.

This conversation just keeps getting screwier.

[Fawke Em]

53. This post makes no sense, what-so-ever.

How would the authorities know of said illness? Doctors aren't allowed to release this information as a violation of HIPAA laws and, unless the person with the illness is a minor whose parents put them on said list, there is no way the "authorities" would know - UNLESS the person with the illness TOLD them, which I'm sure rarely happens!

[Squinch]

54. Our laws make it impossible for "these people" to be flagged in the NICS database, because

first, Lanza was never going to be ON the database because the guns were his mother's, and he had no record.

second, he could have bought a gun second hand within-state from a private person and never been subjected to an NICS background check.

The authorities can only do what we authorize them to do. And we haven't authorized them to do what you are saying. Our laws prevent it.

It isn't their ineptness, it's ours. If you really want what you are describing, work for gun control laws.

[NNN0LHI]

2. What happens if the guardian of the child is just as whacked out as the kid is?

As in this case? Whats the answer then?

Don

[lapfog_1]

3. money was not an issue for this family.

his mother was getting at least $12,000 a month in alimony, possibly more.

[WI_DEM]

16. Yes, and I read that dad makes a million dollars per year working for GE

[Bucky]

4. My kid got her nose pierced and is dating a pot head. I'm calling that hot line right now!

She never used to be like this! When she was 12 she was the apple of my eye. But now she's 17 and all defiant... I'll bet she has obstinance-defiance disorder, just like I saw on that episode of Oprah. It's the drugs that do that to 'em, you know. First they start cussing and hanging out with the wrong types and talking about getting a tattoo that'll only be with her for the rest of her life--and what the hell does that Celtic Rune stuff even mean, cause I'm pretty sure those druids did mushrooms or something and practiced infant sacrifice. So before my kid goes further down the road and commits some unspeakable savagry--you never know what perversions those drugs put into our kids' heads--I'm going to call that free psychological "treatment and hospitalization" hotline and get her picked up. Once they deprogram her, she'll be back to being me and the wife's my little darling once again and we can quit being so embarrassed to drag her off to church on Sundays once again.

.

[Marrah_G]

5. This mother had the means to get him help

I have to wonder if she tried.

But you are absolutely spot on with your OP.

[Major Nikon]

9. The 60 minutes story leads me to believe she did

According to 3rd hand accounts, he had Aspergers, but that doesn't explain his violent behavior and very likely had nothing to do with it.

[Catherina]

14. From what I understand she did. If he was on Fanapt, he was getting his prescription from an MD

I'm sure more will come out but this kid was not stable. He was talking a very strong drug, FDA-approved only for treating schizophrenia, called Fanapt that's on record for causing psychosis in many patients. One of it's listed possible side effects is "Mood or behavioral changes, or thoughts of hurting yourself or others."

Now let me tell you a little about Fanapt:

Fanapt: the rise and fall of an antipsychotic


Fanapt is born

Cooked up in the labs of Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Fanapt was intended as a replacement for Clozaril, a true blockbuster with, unfortunately, an expired patent. That meant Clozaril could be sold cheaply, generically, and Novartis could no longer command the high prices they had come to count on. Enter Fanapt.

Fanapt is dumped

During the development process, Novartis ran into problems. Whatever they found, it wasn’t good, because they basically tossed Fanapt into the garbage.

But another pharmaceutical company, Vanda, snatched it up and ran with it - all the way to the FDA.

Vanda goes to the FDA - and loses

In July 2008, the FDA issued a “not approvable” letter on the new drug. (In other words: no dice, Vanda.)


Vanda ignores the FDA - and wins

Vanda did none of those things. Instead, in November, they simply resubmitted the drug to the FDA, using leftover data from the original clinical trials.

It was such a jaw-dropping long shot that Vanda’s investors couldn’t get rid of stock fast enough. Stock prices fell below $1, and the company’s worth plummeted to less than cash on hand. At Vanda, there were layoffs and cutbacks, followed by a proxy fight trying to force Vanda to shut down, sell off its assets, and give any remaining money back to the shareholders.

Then, on May 6, 2009, stock analyst Adam Feuerstein observed something strange: “Hell froze over Wednesday night, right before a squadron of flying pigs took to the sky.”

For reasons only clear to the FDA, the new schizophrenia drug had been approved.

...

http://www.examiner.com/article/fanapt-the-rise-and-fall-of-an-antipsychotic

Since we can't highlight, I'm changing yellow to bold

Fanapt may cause aggressive/violent behavior (frequent).

This drug may also cause the following symptoms that are related to aggressive/violent behavior:

Hyperactivity (uncommon)
Impulse control problems (uncommon)
Mania (uncommon)
Restlessness (uncommon)


Medical Source Information
Yellow highlights indicate symptoms related to aggressive/violent behavior.

Psychiatric side effects including restlessness, aggression, and delusion have been reported frequently. Hostility, decreased libido, paranoia, anorgasmia, confusional state, mania, catatonia, mood swings, panic attack, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa, delirium, polydipsia psychogenic, impulse-control disorder, and major depression have been reported infrequently.

...

http://doublecheckmd.com/EffectsDetail.do?dname=Fanapt&sid=164543&eid=2127

There is no amount of money that can guarantee treatment. You can lug your kid to all the top psychiatrists in your area but as long as Pharma owns our Healthcare system and Wall Street owns our Pharma, these are the results.

That kid probably didn't even realize he was killing children. For all we knew, he could have thought they were invaders from Mars come to destroy earth.

Capitalism, ain't it grand? Everyone needs to make a quick buck of someone and it's the little guys at the bottom, the weakest ones who pay the price. Adam Lanza too, despite his mother's money is one of the little guys at the bottom, who got pumped full of drugs instead of treated, cause that's what our industry does, it pumps our kids full of drugs to mask the symptoms instead of treating anything.

I feel immense sorrow for everyone involved, the children, the mother, the killer, the grieving parents... I have a feeling the mother did all she humanly could.

I hope no one here ever has to deal with this in their children because it can happen to any of us.

[Marrah_G]

17. yikes

[Catherina]

20. Here is something else very sad

Last edited Mon Dec 17, 2012, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)

Men usually develop schizophrenia between the ages of 18–25. This kid was only 20 so if its signs were relatively new, I can understand how the situation could have been very difficult, confusing, and overwhelming for her and for Adam.

I think you know I'm no gun nut but I disagree that guns are killing our kids- Big Pharma and Wall Street are. The guns are just a tool. Get rid of the guns and people having violent, delusional psychotic breaks will find a different way like chaining the exit doors of theaters shut and burning them down.

And not just Big Pharma but also the food industry. As schizophrenia is linked to a defect in the Prefrontal Cortex and brain research indicates that brain development, specifically the development of the prefrontal cortex, is not complete until near the age of 25, then you do the nutritional math of pumping kids full of chemicals instead of nourishing their brains properly. Enter companies like Monsanto who are injecting toxic pesticides into our food and staffing the FDA to approve what many of us are convinced are nutritionally defective foods for our bodies. Researchers can see neurotoxic effects on the cortex so why is no one paying attention to the research that's been done on that link to bad food during pregnancy and our childrens' early years? Instead our government insists on feeding our kids pink slime in schools because no one else will buy it and the meat industry needs a buyer. What kind of madness is this?

It's not that complicated except that we've sold our souls to these criminals.

It's all connected, we HAVE to change the system but when? When will enough be enough?

Like you said, yikes. This makes me terribly sad and I weep for our country.

[No Compromise]

25. so well said

[phone]

[malaise]

35. Great post

Needs its own thread

[DeschutesRiver]

37. I second that this deserves its own thread. nt

[Catherina]

47. Thanks very much to the three of you

but I don't have the energy right now lol. Maybe later today or this week as more information comes out.

After years of talking about those issues, you get kind of tired of dealing with all the pragmatics.

[No Compromise]

18. interesting

as often happens with Big Pharma, the treatment is worse than the original problem....

[hrmjustin]

23. Welcome to DU!

[No Compromise]

19. media is starting to report on this

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/aspergers-is-a-red-herring-to-explain-newtown.html

[Catherina]

21. I hope they run with it and talk about it

because we need to have this conversation.


I'm watching this right now

and about to order the book.

[Uncle Joe]

22. Your post should be its' own thread, Catherina.

[Catherina]

39. Feel free to steal and repost

I don't have the time or the energy right now for the barrage that will come. We just rescued 2 horses and I'm supposed to be helping build a roof on the old stalls. Thanks Joe

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. "if he was on Fanapt" - speculation on your part, or have you a source?

As I've said here, I can't see that in news reports, apart from one which claims another said it - but it didn't.

[Catherina]

33. I watched his uncle state that in a video. n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. There are web rumours that man was lying about being the uncle

eg http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8646646

It's notable that some articles that were said to call 'Jonathan Lanza' his 'uncle' don't say it any more, eg http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nancy-lanza-feared-son-adam-worse-article-1.1221505 or http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4701316/Killer-Lanzas-mum-armed-herself-with-arsenal-after-bitter-divorce.html .

Or this from a Google search for "uncle" "jonathan Lanza":

EXCLUSIVE: Raw Video of Jonathan Lanza - Cousin of Adam ...
www.rep-am.com/aaaaa/doc50ce2ee9ab4f8441433667.txt
14 hours ago – That isn't Jonathan Lanza. Not a relative. He has been on other media as an Uncle. It's Jonathan Lee Riches, who is famous for sueing people.

Connecticut School Shootings - Page 107 - JusticeQuest
www.justicequest.net › ... › It's Criminal › Connecticut Massacre
10 posts - 6 authors - 23 hours ago
Remember someone put up a video of a guy who said he was the uncle of Adam. Jonathan Lanza, iirc. Well I read he is not the uncle at all and in fact he is some ...

I Got Fingered For It
bellasfella.tumblr.com/
... on the Holmies tag where Jonathan Lee Riches punks a bunch of reporters in Sandy Hook and tells them his name is Jonathan Lanza, and he's Adam's uncle.

And that name is connected with a hoax about the Aurora shooting: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/09/aurora_theater_shooting_bizarre_filings_jonathan_lee_riches.php

[Catherina]

46. Interesting.

I don't trust websleuths because they have an agenda to lynch everyone accused of a crime but the resemblance is eerie. Let's see how this develops and thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[hifiguy]

28. Holy crap. That is terrifying.

I have firsthand experience with antidepressants, though not anti-psychotics. The first time I was ever prescribed an antidepressant, it was Xanax. By the second day on it I was having auditory hallucinations and feeling extremely paranoid. I called the doctor's office and was told to stop taking the med immediately and call back if I didn't feel normal in a couple of days. Fortunately the side-effects disappeared within 24 hours.

Sometimes meds are necessary. I have battled clinical depression on and off for 15 years, and am stable and perfectly functional as long as I take my Cymbalta twice a day. Prescribing anything in this line is something of a crapshoot for the physician or psychiatrist. An acquatinance of mine though Xanax was the greatest thing in the world for his issues and he suffered no side-effects. My prescribing psychiatrist told me several years ago that because of variations in brain chemistry what works well for one person can practically be poison to another.

The problem with schizoid disorders is that there in no known way to cure them, so what else is there besides medication?

I can't see how Asperger's is anything but a red herring in this case. I am dx'd Asperger's and have never had a violent impulse in my life. Nor have most Aspies. This Lanza guy had serious organic brain problems that were not correctly diagnosed or treated.

[Catherina]

36. I agree with you that they're sometimes necessary

but they're so over prescribed. It frightens me that we don't even know exactly how they work and it's pretty much a crap shoot of which one will work and for how long.

Aspergers was a total red herring. I couldn't believe anyone even tried to point the finger at it. Soon they'll point the finger at schizophrenia but that's not the problem either- it's these anti-psychotics and lack of quality care.


What else is there? Do you have weeks, months, years to discuss our food supply, the chemicals in our environment and a total breakdown of community? I believe the key is there. Probably not for a cure but for prevention.

We also need to address all the Pharma quakery going on in psychiatric circles right now. Keep Pharma out of medical schools and out of Doctors' Conventions. Keep it out of the FDA and other regulatory agencies too.

[Dems to Win]

38. NO, the mother did NOT do all she humanly could.

She didn't GET RID OF THE GUNS!!!!!

Parents who love their children do not have guns in the house. No exceptions.

[Catherina]

41. Like I'm going to take your screaming assertions over the testimony

of people who knew her and my own intelligence. Lol. Scream as loud as you want because I have no respect for anyone who simplifies such a complex, horrible tragedy to "there were guns in the house". Fail.

[Dems to Win]

48. Simple fact: No guns in Lanza home, no dead bodies at Sandy Woods elementary school

I apologize for the shouting and caps.

I do sympathize with the plight of parents of disturbed children, and agree that it's possible, even probable, that Nancy Lanza did everything she could in trying to help her son with his medical problems.

But she did not do everything humanly possible to avoid this tragedy, and for that, I condemn her. I wish she was alive so I could scream at her. I know that's harsh, but that's how I feel. It's visceral and raw.

The shooter obtained the guns at his own home.

We can speculate that he might have gotten them elsewhere if he really wanted them, but the fact is he didn't need to.

Maybe he would have gotten caught if he tried to use his brothers ID to get them. Maybe he would have gotten caught if he tried to steal them from a neighbor. He didn't have to go through that kind of trouble, because they were in his own home.

Maybe they were in a safe. Big Deal. It didn't work, self-evidently -- the son got them out of there and committed a massacre. No parent can keep control of a key 24/7 (sleep). Any teenager who wants to know mom's passcodes can get them -- guess them, watch mom as she enters them, whatever.

Getting rid of the guns does stop gun deaths. Australians know this and acted accordingly. Brits know this and acted accordingly.

Are Americans as civilized as Aussies? Do we love our children as much as the British do?

Do we?

If so, we should follow their lead and get rid of the guns. And the first step in doing so is recognizing that yes, indeed, guns are the problem. Get rid of the guns, end the gun massacres.

Nancy Lanza did not get rid of her guns. There was a gun massacre at Sandy Woods elementary school using her guns. Because Nancy Lanza did not love her children more than she loved her guns, other parents lost their children to bullets.


Sorry again for the shouting. I appreciated the tweets you posted keeping me up to date on the Egyptian revolution, and should not have been rude to you. I'm really sorry.

[Catherina]

60. Damn you lol

Last edited Mon Dec 17, 2012, 07:17 PM - Edit history (1)

for pre-empting my extremely clever retort.

I'll just say this. Years ago when I was living in a red state desert, a man tried to break into my home hours after I'd been sunbathing in the backyard. The next morning I went out and bought 2 guns to kill any such horrible intruder as mercilessly as I kill the mice who dare enter my home. I have nothing against guns for self defense and I'm not very concerned about people who use them for *sport* even though I find the concept of it being any kind of *sport* ludicrous.

I understand your anger, and even empathize with it because there are 20 innocent kids who won't ever see another *sporting* sunshine but we don't know any details here.

For all we know, those guns were locked up and under triple lock. We have no idea. She was butchered in cold blood and can't tell us what extremes she went through to keep her guns away from a child she realized was becoming a frightening stranger.

I prefer a US with no guns and support fun legislation but first I support creating a society where people don't feel they need those guns (like I did because it took the police almost an hour to get to my home while my neighbor pinned that scum for the eternity before they arrived) but I believe our problem is a LOT deeper than guns vs no guns.

What is it in our society that makes men think they can just break into a woman's home to rape her (or worse)? What is it that makes our classrooms so large and our teachers so disrespected that they can barely weigh in on any problems their students are having? And even when those teachers manage, they're ignored?

Bright children like Adam Lanza, Dylan Klebold, Luka Magnotta, James Holmes are falling through the cracks while given chemical concoctions we don't even understand to "save" them. Only they don't save them and the problem is exacerbated as the pile of corpses just grows higher.

That's where I'm coming from.

Maybe if she hadn't taken him to the range and she didn;t have guns in the house, he would only have have 1-5 victims but that's not a solution, just a reduction of effect.

We have no idea where those guns were or what the last few hours in that home were.

It's even possible she told him she loved him but he was losing it right before the murders as she slept with the keys to the gun cabinet under her pillow so he shot her to get at them. We will never know unless forensics is damn good and shares with us.

I agree that having guns in the house did NOT help but I don't agree they were the problem. I think the problem is much deeper than that and that we need to look at ourselves quickly and answer some very hard questions because as the economic situation here gets worse, these crimes are going to keep increasing and before you know it, or I know it, the perpetrator will be someone we know or love.

(No worries about the shouting.)

There's one other thing I'm going to say here and it has little to do with our exchange but I really want to get it off my chest because it hurts, Hurts, HURTS!

America. We slay so many children around the world. Our military is now officially allowed to kill children and we expect psychotics in our society to respect kids here just because they're "ours"? How can they when someone as sane as I can't understand this double standard? I think a little respect for other lives and our own lives would go a hell of a fucking long way. America, your hypocrisy breaks my heart.

[uppityperson]

62. There is not credible source that he was on fanapt. Every page sources back to 1 place that has pull

pulled the rumor. No source.

Article that says he was (http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/aspergers-is-a-red-herring-to-explain-newtown.html) links their source as http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nancy-lanza-feared-son-adam-worse-article-1.1221505 which has nothing about fanapt or an uncle.

[LWolf]

6. I just met with a parent

last week who is trying to find funding to get help for a student diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and severe depression.

It's frustrating to watch as treatment is delayed because of money, and to see a family looking at having to give up their home and move in with relatives in order to fund treatment.

[jeff47]

7. Doesn't work for adult children

There's no mechanism for a parent to force their adult child, such as Adam Lanza, to get treatment. And there's no place to send them anyway - Reagan dismantled the mental health system because it was expensive.

[thucythucy]

11. Anyone with a child like AL shouldn't keep guns stockpiled

in her home, and definitely should NOT train that child how to shoot them.

[WI_DEM]

15. Anyone with a child like Adam Lanza shouldn't be taking him to firing ranges

and teaching him how to shoot either. But I do agree with you that we need to make sure that people get the help they need in this country. Certainly, however, his parents could have paid for very good psychiatric help. But there are many who can't.

[HockeyMom]

31. I would love to see his school records

His mother took him out of school in 10th grade to home school him. Why? Reportledly, she it was because she didn't like how the school was treating him? Was he receiving services in school? She didn't want that or like what was being done? Or was it because they thought he NEEDED services and she refused them?

Too many unanswered questions here.

[Squinch]

52. ^^^^^Exactly!^^^^

[blm]

26. Agree 100%.

.

[SoCalDem]

30. "Odd/different" people have always existed, BUT

they used to be more "shielded" by their families, and perhaps tended-to by family members so they were not in the "general public".

The desire to mainstream and make them "normal", may (in SOME individuals) only serve to show them up close & personal, just HOW different they are, and might even lead them to more distress & anxiety.

Modern families often do not have the extended family..aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins etc, all living close together and who can always be counted on to help out with difficult children.

[demosincebirth]

32. Mental illness is predictable.

[kestrel91316]

34. AND anyone with a child like him should either keep their dangerous toys locked up

tight so it's impossible for them to play with them, or not own such dangerous toys in the first place.

[ancianita]

50. Shoulda/woulda/coulda. She didn't. That's the reality of a lot of gun owners. AND these people have

the constitutional right to privacy so that no one can MAKE them, either.

[Squinch]

51. This family had enough money to get any mental health assistance they wanted.

They DID have the ability to pick up the phone and secure an immediate physical and psychological assessment and treatment.

[MineralMan]

56. Not after he's 18. He's an adult, and a parent

cannot force any health care on him unless he agrees. Laws. Sometimes they protect. Sometimes they act as a shield against what should be done, but they are laws. It that weren't the case, we'd be going back to the 1960s and 70s, when parents used to ship their unruly, rebellious late adolescents off to a mental hospital so they'd be less of a problem to them.

It's a lot harder to do that, today, with anyone over 18.

[Squinch]

58. But I mean that any government-provided free or accessible mental health service wouldn't have

made a difference here. The availability of mental health services was not the issue. Whether he used them is another story, and I don't think we have the answer on that. I have heard reports that say he did, and others that say he didn't.

[Catherina]

61. When you make a cool million

and your child has a mental disease, you'll sing a different tune. Mental disease is like any other disease, sometimes physicians can help and sometimes they just damn can't- especially not in a country where healthcare is as fucked up as it is in the US. That part of the equation works just like cancer or any other debilitating disease.

You have NO idea what they did and by all accounts I read they did a LOT more than pick up the phone.

Wow. Just fucking wow.

[Squinch]

64. The original post is saying that QUOTE: "any family with a child like Adam Lanza should be able to

pick up a phone, and secure an immediate physical and psychological assessment, with all ensuing treatment and hospitalization covered for free." END QUOTE.

The OP is calling for a program to provide this. I am simply pointing out that due to their wealth, assessment, treatment and hospitalization were fully available to this family. They didn't need such a program to be provided to them for free, because they already had access to assessment, treatment and hospitalization if they chose it. And even though that was available to this family, its availability didn't prevent this slaughter.

No, I don't have any idea what they did, and yes, I know that sometimes physicians can help and sometimes they can't. And yes, I also get the impression that they did a lot more than pick up the phone.

I don't think we are disagreeing: what the OP is calling for, ready access to mental health care, WAS available to this family. Ready access to mental health care, for a myriad of reasons, would not necessarily - and in this case DID NOT - prevent this tragedy.

So no, I don't think I will sing a different tune.