How Federal Regulations Kill In Mass

Special Ops sniper, Chris Kyle

This weekend a great former soldier was killed by another former soldier.

Chris Kyle was volunteering to work with some of our most difficult Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder sufferers, at a ranch just south of Dallas, TX. The gunman evidently snapped and killed Kyle and another individual, then fled the scene in Kyle's car. 

Eddie Routh was taken into custody after a police chase ended in a crash. 

• How bad was Eddie's condition? 
• How dangerous was Adam Lanza, from Newtown, CT.? 
• How unstable was James Holmes, of Aurora, CO?

The Federal HEPA law had an overlooked flaw, in it's design. Medical professionals have been threatened with career-ending prosecution and massive fines for any unauthorized disclosure of a mental health public safety concern. Too many spouses and children are left out in the dark regarding a parent's difficulty in returning to civilian life after military service in wartime combat zones.

The problem is much larger than PTSD and military veterans. Psychiatric professionals are heavily discouraged from talking to any family members when an acute crisis exists. I've heard first-hand accounts of suicides that resulted when overloaded hospitals discharged mental health patients without notifying any family or friends. Loved one's have gone to hospitals to visit, only to find that the patient was checked out and left. Scared, alone, and suffering delusions, the patient ended it all.

• Children have been put into the care of dangerous parents.
• Coworkers have been killed in workplace massacres.
• Parents have been executed by orders of an imagined voice, in the mind of a schizophrenic youth.

Millions of marriages have had their vows rewritten by federal edict. The HEPA restrictions nullify a whole host of assumed spousal rights, and only a prenuptial agreement could have served as a counter-measure. 

Healthcare statistics estimate that 90% of marriages fail when a spouse has bipolar mania or other delusional mood disorders. Federal policy assumes that the family unit is untrustworthy and dangerous to a mental health case. This policy has to change. There has to be a way to restore spousal rights without filing for divorce and renegotiating a lifelong commitment in the wake of a painful, vulnerable, and confusing readjustment to life with mental health disability.