Some blamed mentally ill individuals for gun deaths such as Anne Coulter who says, “Guns don’t kill people - the mentally ill do” (Metzl and MacLeish, 240). This negative portrayal is also played out on media reports. An example is the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting by Adam Lanza, believed to have a history of schizophrenia (Metzl and MacLeish, 240). They, in addition to other groups such as the National Rifle Association (NRA), establish a causal relationship between being mentally ill and committing gun violence. The NRA has greater influence than public opinion on firearm policies, and called for the creation of a national database of individuals with mental illness (Swanson et al., 366). This one-sided view of the relationship
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The existing mental health system in the United States is fairly new with less structure on standards of care such as with empirically validated treatments or primary prevention models (Behbehani et al., 155). The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), were designed to extend insurance for individuals with mental illnesses who were unable to before (Health Insurance, n.d.). However, problems still exist with these legislative actions. For example, there is a 190-day lifetime limit for inpatient admissions to psychiatric units (Behbehani et al., 176). Limiting the extent to what costs insurance will help cover hinders the ability for people to maintain their care. Specifically individuals with severe forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia, would have difficulties managing care and fall off the radar for …show more content…
We will study whether the changes in the mental health spending of states from 2004-2013 affect the number of gun-related deaths. Our focus is on the United States as a nation, and we will use state data as our unit of analysis. The significance in our findings will help determine whether increased spending is benefiting individuals seeking mental health treatment. Knowing the effects of spending is especially helpful with President Obama’s proposal in January 2016 of investing $500 million towards access to care and treatment services (Grinberg, 2016). This research proposal is divided into three additional sections. The second section outlines the literature review of similar studies on the subject and our contribution to existing knowledge. The third section discusses datasets used in our analysis with identification of key variables. Our fourth section describes our methodological approach to answering our research question with an overview of controls and validity
The existing mental health system in the United States is fairly new with less structure on standards of care such as with empirically validated treatments or primary prevention models (Behbehani et al., 155). The 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) and the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), were designed to extend insurance for individuals with mental illnesses who were unable to before (Health Insurance, n.d.). However, problems still exist with these legislative actions. For example, there is a 190-day lifetime limit for inpatient admissions to psychiatric units (Behbehani et al., 176). Limiting the extent to what costs insurance will help cover hinders the ability for people to maintain their care. Specifically individuals with severe forms of mental illness, such as schizophrenia, would have difficulties managing care and fall off the radar for …show more content…
We will study whether the changes in the mental health spending of states from 2004-2013 affect the number of gun-related deaths. Our focus is on the United States as a nation, and we will use state data as our unit of analysis. The significance in our findings will help determine whether increased spending is benefiting individuals seeking mental health treatment. Knowing the effects of spending is especially helpful with President Obama’s proposal in January 2016 of investing $500 million towards access to care and treatment services (Grinberg, 2016). This research proposal is divided into three additional sections. The second section outlines the literature review of similar studies on the subject and our contribution to existing knowledge. The third section discusses datasets used in our analysis with identification of key variables. Our fourth section describes our methodological approach to answering our research question with an overview of controls and validity