On the afternoon of Feb. 14, 2018, a young man, too young to buy a bottle of Budweiser at a convenience store, carrying an AR-15-style assault weapon that he had purchased legally allegedly walked into the local high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and killed 17 people. According to Time magazine, the rifle used was made by American Outdoor Brands, the company that owns Smith & Wesson. The Smith & Wesson M&P sport is probably the most basic, and least expensive AR-15-style rifle on the market today, with a suggested retail price of $739 although the actual selling price is frequently discounted.
When President Donald J. Trump spoke about the shooting, he continued a tradition that included his 2017 Holocaust Remembrance Day speech which had no mention of Jews (his 2018 speech did mention Jews), and a World AIDS Day proclamation that didn’t mention Gays, or any other members of the LGBTQ community. When he spoke about the shooting in Parkland Florida he promised protection, “No parent should ever have to fear for their sons and daughters when they kiss them goodbye in the morning,” but the only mention of specifics was mental health. It was not an effective way to change the subject.
Mental health is a challenging subject, a collection of disciplines including medicine, psychology, education, social work and others – and diagnosis is commonly a matter of opinion. In some cases, mental health problems are directly linked to physical or neurologic problems, with one condition causing another. A 2007 report in The Lancet states that about 14% of physical disease can be linked to neuropsychiatric disorders and states “… (these) estimates have drawn attention to the importance of mental disorders for public health. However, because they stress the separate contributions of mental and physical disorders to disability and mortality, they might have entrenched the alienation of mental health from mainstream efforts to improve health and reduce poverty.”
A stressful environments, with stressors including poverty, trauma and exposure to violence, have been reported as the cause of obesity, cardiac disease, diabetes, and mental illness. A number of studies have reported that different aspects of the social safety net have gone a long way to relieve the emotional stress associated with poverty and as a result reducing the mental health problems associated with poverty.
While some studies have shown that people are distressed by the need to apply for public assistance, this distress is more than compensated for by relief of, as in the case of food stamps, the effects of food insecurity. A 2006 paper from the University of Kentucky, reported, “We find that food insufficiency has a sizable deleterious effect on the level of emotional distress, as does participation in the Food Stamp Program. However, we also find that participation in the Food Stamp Program among food insufficient households nearly eliminates the deleterious effect of food insufficiency on emotional health, suggesting that the program is well targeted to those in need of food assistance and improved mental health.”
A 2012 report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that safety net programs were more effective than previously thought, while another study from this group reported that amelioration of childhood poverty led to long term benefits including more education and increased income as an adult.
This is significant in terms of President Trump’s budget proposals and the overall evidence of GOP priorities. A CBPP report begins, “Less than two months after signing massive tax cuts that largely benefit those at the top of the economic ladder, President Trump has put forward a 2019 budget that cuts basic assistance that millions of families struggling to get by need to help pay the rent, put food on the table, and get health care. The cuts would affect a broad range of low- and moderate-income people, including parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities.”
The Trump budget cuts Medicaid, the health program for the poor, and largely eliminates the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, which, for a few years, made private health insurance available to low income families. These are programs, whether related to health or poverty relief, that may reduce the frequency of mental health problems, and help diagnose and treat these conditions.
In past years, after a mass shooting, the NRA/GOP strategy has been to offer prayers, then say that it’s too soon to discuss the tragedy, and finally, if the problem hasn’t gone away, blame it on mental health, not guns. This time, though, the GOP has already taken mental health off the table – so could we please have a discussion of guns?
Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living in New York. Email sdu01@outlook.com.
From The Progressive Populist, March 15, 2018
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