Chris Harper Mercer was not the first person alleged to have serious mental illness to go on a shooting rampage. Before Mr. Mercer killed nine people in Oregon, a review of all mass shootings since 1982 found an estimated 58 percent of the 72 were by someone with mental illness. There have been at least three since I started investigating the nation’s mental health system after the massacre at Newtown as chair of the House Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
But while high-profile acts of mass violence by people with untreated serious mental illness captures public attention, it was the pain and suffering of those with untreated serious mental illness and their families that stunned my committee. We found that in spite of 112 programs spending $130 billion annually on mental health, at least 164,000 of the most seriously mentally ill are homeless, 365,000 are incarcerated, 770,000 are on probation or parole and 95,000 are regularly denied a hospital bed because of the bed shortage. Of the 41,000 who die by suicide, more than 90 percent have a mentall illness. We also found people with a serious mental illness are more likely to be victimized and die earlier. For the full article click here
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