ABSTRACT
Soon after shots rang out in Tucson, Arizona, on January 8, 2011, the state of mental health care in America was, once again, back under the microscope. As the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords hung in the balance, any number of pundits and armchair psychiatrists had already offered a diagnosis of the perpetrator and touted simple remedies for a troubling and complex situation. For those who have spent their careers in the field, this was but another chapter in a sad, but oft repeated tale. Mental illness is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind phenomenon for most policymakers and only seems to enter the consciousness of the general public when it is jolted by such tragedies. What follows is painfully predictable. There is the normal hunt for a scapegoat, those challenged by mental illnesses will be largely painted with a broad brush, and the purported inadequacies of the system and commitment laws will be, for a moment, a popular radio and television topic. Yet, time will pass, the crisis will fade from memory, and mental health concerns will recede into the background once more.
