A U.S. Army psychiatrist goes bonkers and kills thirteen people, wounding dozens others. U.S. soldiers suffer grievous mental trauma, and when they find mental health care, the mental health professional they see is increasingly likely to suffer therapy-induced stress disorders. Perhaps the healers help the sick; but the healers themselves all too often end up needing treatment. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Every act of violence against civilians creates traumas which may or may not be treated. If there are not enough mental health professionals in the U.S. military to care for military personnel in need without traumatizing the caregivers, imagine what the cost among the civilian population is and globalize it. Iraq. Afghanistan. Pakistan. India. Sudan. Myanmar. Iran. China. Indonesia. Ireland. Colombia. Mexico. Korea. Syria. Lebanon. Palestine. Zimbabwe. Israel. Egypt.
Bring it home and look at the domestic costs of violence in our cities. Chicago, where a schoolchild is shot every day and one dies of gunshot wounds every two weeks. We count the soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan one by one, but school-age children being shot by the dozen doesn't make the national news on a regular basis. The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and This Week with George Stephanopoulos don't give us a moment of silence with pictures and ages for schoolchildren who die while doing their duty to build America's future.
The Army has 408 mental health professionals for 553,000 personnel, or one caregiver for every 1,355 soldiers. That ratio is close to what the general population has, where the American public finds about 1 specialist for every 1,115 people. Those numbers suggest that there aren't enough health professionals to treat the cases of human-induced traumas, after factoring in data across the United States for assault, gunshot wounds, domestic violence, disease and other incidents that result in trauma needing mental health treatment. Violence seems to be winning. We're left without much in reserve to help when natural disasters disrupt thousands of lives instantly, and sometimes permanently. In the Army's case they clearly don't have enough resources: soldiers suffer trauma at a far higher rate than the average civilian.
The developing world is a mess. One example: Pakistan, a country in which we claim to have vital interests, has some 1,455 mental health professionals for a population of roughly 158 million, or 1 for every 108,000 people. Factor in the prejudice against acknowledging mental distress and seeking help, and the situation is dire. According to the World Health Organization, Afghanistan is in even worse condition, with only 1 provider for every 300,000 people. Yet these countries have dislocation and refugee problems; research shows that as many as one-quarter of the population is suffering some form of mental distress. In Canada, by contrast, there are over 50,000 mental health professionals for a population of about 32 million, a ration of 1 to every 630 people, nearly twice as many as in the United States.
There's something to be said about national health care and what it means for people to have access to the help they need. When we treat other people as a means to an end, and push American soldiers back into battle repeatedly or sacrifice human rights concerns for civilian populations in countries that are decimated by war or despotism, we sow the seeds of future tragedies, and do not advance the cause of peace or the best American ideals of liberty and justice for all.
