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Lynne Randolph, Program Development Coordinator, The Carter Center Mental Health Program, kindly passed on this information to me in response to my questions regarding student access to mental health resources in light of the tragic shootings and suicide at Virginia Tech.
I would request that the media probe the questions concerning the troubled gun man from the perspective of a person with an illness who failed, for whatever reasons, to receive the health care he needed. That was a failure of the mental health and larger health care system, and is reflective of a wider societal,
socio-economic, cultural, moral, and political problem in the United States.
I would also request that the media, respectfully, report material facts and refrain from engaging in pseudo-analysis based on incomplete and amateur analysis. That job is better left to mental health advocates and experts, such as those from the Carter Center.
We should also be appreciative that our nation's former First Lady, Rosalyn Carter, has been working to improve mental health in the United States and throughout the world. I for one am appreciative of Mrs. Carter's compassion, dedication, and work.
