Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Reports Depict Failed Mental Health System
The Denver Post: A Broken Mental Health System
Dee Fleming tried to protect her son from the voices in his head, the ones that told him he should die. One day last April, when he was oddly quiet and confused, almost catatonic, Fleming took him to Swedish Medical Center’s emergency room and told doctors he was suicidal. They sent him home. Two days later, Fleming’s son downed dozens of prescription medications and household cleaning supplies, doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in her front yard. He lived only because a neighbor called 911 to report something smoldering on the lawn. A police officer who knew him kept him conscious until an ambulance arrived. What came next for the Fleming family was almost as shocking, a battle for treatment that epitomizes the massive breakdown in care for mental illness in Colorado and the nation. (Brown, 11/22)
The Wall Street Journal: Report On Newtown Shooter Adam Lanza Cites Unaddressed Signs Of Trouble
The parents of Adam Lanza failed to comprehend and address the depths of his mental illness even as his Connecticut schools, pediatricians and psychiatrists struggled to coordinate their increasingly fraught efforts to help him, according to a report released Friday. In December 2012, Mr. Lanza shot and killed 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown before committing suicide. (De Avila, 11/21)
Los Angeles Times: New Report On Lanza: Parental Denial, Breakdowns, Missed Opportunities
A report released Friday by the Office of the Child Advocate pointed to the Yale episode as one of dozens of red flags, squandered opportunities, blatant family denial and disturbing failures by pediatricians, educators and mental health professionals to see a complete picture of Adam Lanza's "crippling" social and emotional disabilities. Although the report does not draw a line between the events in Adam Lanza's young life and the massacre, it points out repeated examples in which the profound anxiety and rage simmering inside Lanza was not explored in favor of attempts to manage his symptoms. (Griffin and Kovar, 11/21)
USA Today: Sandy Hook Killer Carefully Planned Attack, Study Says
The investigation delved deeply into Lanza's past, noting that his mental condition had gotten worse in his 10th grade, when he withdrew from most classes. It said he "progressively deteriorated in the last years of his life, eventually living in virtual social isolation." At the time of his death, the 6-foot tall Lanza was anorexic, weighing only 112 pounds, the report said. (Stanglin and Bello, 11/21)
