Tackling mental illness

I broadly agree with the core message of this piece, Mental Health Crisis by John Stossel.

Mass shootings, homelessness, substance abuse, suicide - these are all related to mental illness. "Solve" mental illness and many downstream conditions ameliorate. The sticking point is that it is well-and-good to "solve" mental illness but our diagnostic, treatment and forecasting in the field are still nascent. We are still not very good at it. And even when we begin to get good at it, it almost certainly will be very expensive. But far better to try and tackle a real root cause rather than rail about non-material issues such as favored ideological convictions with no empirical support or basis for the belief.


Double click to enlarge.

I especially regard with disdain the inclination of advocates to pursue solutions which are misdirected and damaging, all because of ideological blinkers.