Why therapists can’t prevent violence

via Wikimedia Commons[Originally published May 2014.] Last week in Isla Vista, California, Elliot Rodger killed six people before taking his own life. His family says he was seeing multiple therapists. Meanwhile, in the California legislature, discussion of a bill that would mandate additional suicide prevention training for therapists has focused on research showing that more than 30% of those who commit suicide had seen a mental health professional within the past year. Why can’t therapists do more to stop violence among our own clients?

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How President Trump will impact US mental health care

Future President Trump // Photo credit: Gage Skidmore [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia CommonsDonald Trump was elected President of the United States yesterday in what has been labeled a stunning upset. While much of the broader social discussion today will focus on how Trump’s victory happened, as psychotherapists we now must consider how President Trump will impact our profession.

Mental health is not mentioned in Trump’s health care reform paper or on the health care page of his campaign web site. So for this post, we look to his other stated policy goals to see how mental health care would be impacted.

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