Mental Health After Deeds Stabbing: What’s the Fix in Virginia?

By Greg Hambrick

Gus Deeds took his own life Tuesday after stabbing his father, state Sen. Creigh Deeds, according to Virginia State Police. It leaves the commonwealth, once again, struggling to address mental health failings.

Gus Deeds was reportedly given an emergency psychiatric exam just a day before the tragedy—but a bed could not be found in a mental health facility near the family’s Bath County home, and Gus Deeds was released.

Since that initial account, several hospitals have said they had a bed available but were never contacted, and now the state inspector general is looking into the matter, according to the Washington Post.

The Washington Post has reported dozens of similar cases ofmental health patients released due to a lack of beds in just a 90-day period.

So, politicians and state officials will now struggle with mental health questions that are not new to this state.

The phrase “slipped through the cracks” has been used many times to describe the mental health system failing Seung-Hui Cho in 2007. Cho killed 32 people and injured 17 at Virginia Techbefore turning a gun on himself.

If there are lessons to be learned from these tragedies, what are they? One change won’t fix a broken system, but what do we need to get right, first, to address the problems in mental health care? 

Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

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