Call for “Mentally Ill Database” Worries Local Psychiatrist
Friday morning, the head of the National Rifle Association called for a federal database to track the “mentally ill.”
The rhetoric comes in the wake of last week’s school shooting in Connecticut that killed dozens of elementary students.
But such a call has Dr. Ray Kotwicki calling for extra care in how we discuss the issue.
“I’m really worried about the connection between this idea that people who are mentally ill are dangerous,” said Kotwicki.
Dr. Kotwicki is the Chief Medical Officer at Skyland Trail, a local mental health treatment facility. He’s also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Emory.
Kotwicki said a database of those diagnosed with a mental illness is problematic because there’s no concrete, universally-agreed upon definition of what that is.
For example, would phobias be included?
“This would most certainly further stigmatize mental illness and also pose an additional barrier for people to acknowledge they need mental health help and secure it,” said Kotwicki. “Stigma is really an important barrier.”
In addition to the call for a database of the mentally-ill, the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre said every school in America should have armed police officers to protect students.
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