We don’t do that and, indeed, many health plans limit access to mental health professionals. But the mental health status of African Americans too often collides with the law enforcement system when “erratic” behavior on the part of some African Americans is seen as simply criminal. People who are mentally ill and need help are too often incarcerated or killed because some police forces lack the tools to manage a mental health crisis that is likely growing.
Consider the case of Anthony Hill, a naked and unarmed Atlanta Air Force veteran who was acting erratically in his apartment complex in early March. Someone called 911, because a naked man was knocking on doors and “acting deranged.” When DeKalb police officer Robert Olsen encountered Hill, he asked him to stop, and when he did not, he was shot twice. Mr. Hill didn’t have a weapon, and anybody who is hanging out naked is clearly mentally impaired. Meanwhile, Officer Olsen had a Taser, but he chose to use his gun, but he chose to use his gun against a naked, weaponless man.
Olsen was charged with murder and indicted and, in October, was ordered to stand trial. The trial may begin late this year or early next year. Meanwhile, it is significant to note that Anthony Hill was believed to be bipolar, and suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome. He served our country in Afghanistan, and tried unsuccessfully to get an appointment, and some help, from the veteran affairs hospital in Atlanta. Might the outcome of his erratic episode have been different if mental health professionals, not a trigger-happy officer, were deployed to intervene?
Should mental illness be a death sentence? It was for Anthony Hill, and for many others who don’t get the help they need. Even as the incoming President attempts to reverse some aspects of the Affordable Care Act, conscious health advocates must insist that mental health coverage is as important as physical health coverage. It is disgraceful that a veteran should be shot, because his mental illness got the better of him. It is disgusting that dozens of others who are unarmed and mentally ill are shot, because people untrained to manage mental illness are sent to communities, gun ready, and oblivious to alternatives.
And it is disturbing that Kanye West is melting down in plain sight, drowning his pain in angry vitriol. When can we, African Americans, talk about the mental health crisis that exists in our community? It isn’t going to get better, as hate crime escalates and swastikas begin to adorn our city walls. Some of us will want to fight, and others will be driven to despair. We must speak of mental health and healing, and we must speak of it often. One of Kanye West’s colleagues, 9th Wonder said, “Been knowing the brother upwards of 13 years. Mental healing is a serious thing, no matter what. Stay strong Kanye West.” Ashe’.
(Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. For more info visit www.juliannemalveaux.com.)
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