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Gun Violence and Mental Illness

Gun Violence and Mental Illness

by RobertI.Simon (Editor), LizaH.Gold (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 2016

    $63.32
Synopsis

Perhaps never before has an objective, evidence-based review of the intersection between gun violence and mental illness been more sorely needed or more timely. Gun Violence and Mental Illness, written by a multidisciplinary roster of authors who are leaders in the fields of mental health, public health, and public policy, is a practical guide to the issues surrounding the relation between firearms deaths and mental illness. Tragic mass shootings that capture headlines reinforce the mistaken beliefs that people with mental illness are violent and responsible for much of the gun violence in the United States. This misconception stigmatizes individuals with mental illness and distracts us from the awareness that approximately 65% of all firearm deaths each year are suicides. This book is an apolitical exploration of the misperceptions and realities that attend gun violence and mental illness. The authors frame both pressing social issues as public health problems subject to a variety of interventions on individual and collective levels, including utilization of a novel perspective: evidence-based interventions focusing on assessments and indicators of dangerousness, with or without indications of mental illness. Reader-friendly, well-structured, and accessible to professional and lay audiences, the book: Reviews the epidemiology of gun violence and its relationship to mental illness, exploring what we know about those who perpetrate mass shootings and school shootings. Examines the current legal provisions for prohibiting access to firearms for those with mental illness and whether these provisions and new mandated reporting interventions are effective or whether they reinforce negative stereotypes associated with mental illness. Discusses the issues raised in accessing mental health treatment in regard to diminished treatment resources, barriers to access, and involuntary commitment. Explores novel interventions for addressing these issues from a multilevel and multidisciplinary public health perspective that does not stigmatize people with mental illness. This includes reviews of suicide risk assessment; increasing treatment engagement; legal, social, and psychiatric means of restricting access to firearms when people are in crisis; and, when appropriate, restoration of firearm rights. Mental health clinicians and trainees will especially appreciate the risk assessment strategies presented here, and mental health, public health, and public policy researchers will find Gun Violence and Mental Illness a thoughtful and thought-provoking volume that eschews sensationalism and embraces serious scholarship.

$63.32

Quantity

4 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 480
 Edition: 1
 Publisher: American Psychiatric Publishing
Published: 24 Feb 2016
ISBN 10: 1585624985
ISBN 13: 9781585624980

Media Reviews
Gun Violence and Mental Illness looks beyond the inflammatory social and political rhetoric that all too often surrounds discussions of gun violence in the United States. This important, multidisciplinary volume presents evidence-based analyses and risk assessment strategies for mental health clinicians, trainees, and those interested in finding more effective interventions to decrease the costs of the serious public health problems of gun violence and mental illness. -- Jason Matejkowski
Readers of this text will learn that commonly held beliefs about the relationship between mental illness and gun violence are overstated or simply wrong. Following high profile mass shooting events, there is a rush to develop policies aimed at preventing these tragic events from recurring. Gold and Simon's assemblage points out that this expediency belies the fact that much remains to be discovered about which (if any) practices and policies can effectively prevent such events. Firearm violence committed by people with mental illness and mass shootings are such rare events that current research methods preclude effective identification and testing of interventions. The text highlights the potential of prevention efforts at the individual, community, and broader national policy levels that have been tested outside the United States or, on a limited basis, within the United States. -- Jason Matejkowski * PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 61, No. 19, Article 2 *
This book is a major achievement edited by two leading and well respected forensic psychiatrists. It was copyrighted in 2016 and is an excellent compendium of the current state of our knowledge in the area of the relationship of gun violence and mental illness. The playing field is ever changing. I hope that new editions will be issued with regularity. The questions it addresses are complex, difficult, and emotionally charged, but critical. This book is also an invaluable resource for all mental health professionals, general physicians, public health officials, politicians, reporters, and others, in understanding the complex connection of mental illness and gun violence. It is a very timely analysis of these subjects. -- Elissa P. Benedek, M.D. * Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online *
Dr. Gold and her coeditor Dr. Simon have produced a wonderful reference that summarizes (largely statistical) information already well known to many mental health and law enforcement professionals, but far too often ignored by politicians, the media, bloggers, and Internet trolls. The book is a fine addition to the professional literature, a well-written and well-organized arrow for the quivers of psychologists and psychiatrists who strive to place our patients in an accurate context amid public clamoring for scapegoats and easy targets. -- William H. Reid, M.D., MPH * Journal of Psychiatric Practice Vol. 23, No. 1 *
Author Bio
Liza H. Gold, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. Robert I. Simon, M.D., is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.