Jared Loughner's behavior never reported to mental health authorities (What did the sheriff know?)

washington post ^ | 1/10/2011 | By Brigid Schulte

[tobyhill]

Despite mounting concerns about his bizarre and disturbing behavior, local mental health authorities in Pima County, Ariz. said Monday that no one reported any concerns to them about Tucson mass shooting suspect Jared Lee Loughner.

Loughner is accused of shooting 20 people on Saturday, killing six and wounding 14, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D).

"To the best of our knowledge, he was never and is currently not enrolled in our system," said Neal Cash, president of the Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, the organization that provides mental health services to Tucson and Pima County for the state.

The majority of the people they serve are on Medicare, Cash said, but anyone diagnosed with a serious mental illness would be in their system and eligible for services. Despite severe cutbacks in the state mental health budget as a result of the foreclosure crisis and recession - Cash estimates around $50 million has been cut in the last two fiscal years - he said that no one diagnosed seriously mentally ill has been turned down for services.

[savage woman]

I agree - but that takes time...alot of time....
and they get realeased before they can reach that point
of understanding that they are sick...
What we take for granted(THE PROCESS OF UNDERSTANDING)
these people who are ill do not have it...

[azishot]

Thanks, seekthetruth. Here’s another one to read. Heard it mentioned on local (Phoenix) radio this morning.

http://thechollajumps.wordpress.com/

I STILL can’t believe the drivel that came out of Dupnik’s mouth this weekend.

[azishot]

Can you believe it?!?!?! I haven’t been on FR since this morning but I could swear I read that here this A.M. Whatever we know will be because of the great FR sleuths. The media can’t even vet a presidential candidate. Why should we trust them to do their job and dig for information?

[seekthetruth]

What is so very disturbing to me is the fact that the killer had threatened others previously and those threats were reported to the Sheriff's Dept and they did nothing! The killer should have been arrested previously for threats he made, and placed under surveillance.

[azishot]

EXACTLY! However, that bit of logic has escaped Dupnik. I’m so glad we don;t live in his county.

[Fire_on_High]

Huh, now that one’s definitely non-obvious...I would have guessed Loff or even Loth, but not Lock.

(We had a Loughridge family around here that pronounced it “Loth-ridge”, which is where that guess comes from..)

[Beaten Valve]

*

[ccmay]

CPSA is the big dog down here for for mental health funding. They oversee everything from the mental health agencies to substance abuse and methadone clinics. They answer directly to the state and handle all appeals within the system.

Yup, and they have a 24 hour crisis line as well as an on-call "flying squad" that is available to law enforcement agencies and hospitals in case of mental health emergencies. This tragedy might have been averted with a single phone call.

[crz]

Finally got this PC working again..

Anyway, the police had several contacts with this kid and they could have taking him in under a title 19/35...wife cant remember which it was since its been a while (3years) since she worked in AZ in the mental health field. This type of mental illness often does not manifest itself until their later teens or early 20s. So even the parents may not have understood what the hell was going on with him-yet they should have, to that I agree. My wife diagnosed the guy within hours of the tragedy. He was not only paranoid, but has grand delusions, which she said explains his smiling on the mug shot. He wants to be famous and has become infamous.
As to the rest of your reply..I dont know. Pure speculation at this point unless something has come up since. I have tuned out for a while especially since the pep rally last night.