What really is the correlation of mental health and gun violence?

People across the United States are constantly asking questions about why mass school shootings happen.  Some think the answer is that the gunman was mentally ill. Is this really the answer?

 

According to the American Psychiatric Association, in 2016 reported, Mass shootings committed by people with serious diagnosed  mental illness were overall 1% each year.

 

Furthermore, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, fewer than 5% of the 120,000 related gun killings in the U.S. between 2001 and 2010, were carried out by those with a diagnosed mental illness.

 

Since 2000 nearly 70 people have been killed in mass school shootings. Many people argue that the one thing that could have prevented these shootings, is access to guns. While, others argue that the gunman suffered from mental illness and that was the cause.

 

The discussion around gun violence in schools seems to be never ending. Unfortunately, the topic continues to cross our news intake quite often.  

 

The day of the Chardon High School shooting, Nicolle Hetrick, a Chardon High School guidance counselor, went to work on what she would have normally considered to be any average day.  As she left with other faculty to their middle school, she received word that shots had been fired at the high school.

 

Reportedly,  shots were initially fired at 7:38 a.m. the gunman, Thomas, T.J. Lane, ran outside and turned himself into bystanders in Chardon Township.  

 

“My role became very different than it would have been had I been in the building. Literally, I was walking to the middle school at the time,” Hetrick said.  “It’s strange how it worked out. I think my biggest perspective for me goes back to that my daughter was a student here at the time. That was a big chunk of my concern, ‘where is she, is she okay, what’s happening with her?’ that kind of thing.”

 

Hetrick received texts from her daughter, a student at the high school, saying she was scared, but Hetrick was off campus and had to work to get students to safety to the best of her ability.

Hetrick described the experience as chaotic.  She worked with the other faculty members to focus on the safety and security of the students in order to get them home and reunited with parents.

 

“There was shock, you were just really going through the motions to get through more than anything else.  It was later on when things started to set in and hit you,” Hetrick said.

 

Hours after the tragic incident Hetrick said the staff re-grouped at one of the elementary schools and they just sat there in disbelief.

 

A Chardon student, Evan Erasmus, told Cleveland NewsChannel5 that a student tweeted that he was going to bring a gun to school but no one took him seriously.  

 

“The main common denominator of people who die by suicide or that cause harm to others is that they tell someone they are going to do it,” said Karyn Hall, The Portage County Mental Health Board,  Director of Community Relations.

 

Social media was prevalent in 2012, however at the time of the Chardon shooting, Hetrick felt that the student’s were just not as aware of the importance to say something if they saw a fellow student say or do something that could potentially be dangerous.  

 

“Even back then we were alerted to social media posts, but kids weren’t as heightened to it at the time.  They weren’t as far as paying attention to it, if they saw a post to say something. And to report it,” Hetrick said.  “That is the key difference. Now, if someone posts something we hear about it almost immediately. I think that’s one of the key differences to it all.  We have since educated kids better on that kind of stuff too.”

 

Some of the signs that can start to show potentially dangerous behavior in an individual are not always obvious, but they can be seen.  

 

“Withdrawing, a big change in their personality or who they surround themselves with.  We as society have to reach out to others and remind them that it’s okay to ask someone how they are feeling,” Hall said.

 

September Sloane, a licensed independent clinical social worker with the Kent Psychological Associates LLC, emphasized these points as well.  

 

“People who are socially isolated, socially not connected, people who do not have a good support system, a lack of connectedness overall,” Sloane said.   

 

According to Sloane, Those who experience gun violence usually experience flashbacks, nightmares and hyper vigilance, meaning that they are constantly on guard.  As well as, irritability, loss of interest in things they once enjoyed, being emotionally numb and disconnected from other people.

 

“Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression almost always appear together in victims suffering from this. They often go hand in hand. It’s rare that they would have PTSD and not any depression or anxiety symptoms,” Sloane said.