In 2018 alone, there have been 26 school shootings with the Parkland, Florida high school shooting gaining the most national attention. 17 people are dead after the Parkland High School shooting and there were lots of statements made by politicians about mental and help and mass shootings. One statement was made by Paul Ryan saying, “Mental health is often a big problem underlying these tragedies.” House Speaker Paul Ryan’s claim reflects a common misconception that nearly half of Americans believe. But that conclusion is not shared by experts. In an analysis of the 235 mass killings, most which were carried out with guns, only 22 percent of the perpetrators could be considered mentally ill (Qiu & Bank, 2018). There may be a link between mass shootings and mental illness, but mentally ill people should not be blamed and deemed …show more content…
Some of the ways they try to break down mental illness barriers are by participating in fairs, provide presentations on mental illnesses, provide educational classes to families, and provide Crisis Intervention Training for law enforcement. One of the presentations NAMI York County offers is called “Hearing Distressing Voices” and Ms. Hein described it as “an exercise to simulate what an individual with schizophrenia experiences”. NAMI’s organization has had to face the issues of The President making comments about mentally ill people, which creates barriers NAMI is trying to break down. They released a statement on February 22, 2018, regarding President Trump’s comments on mental health