Virginia College shootings highlight problems of mental health treatment

May 7 2007

Media reports in the U.S. are suggesting that Seung-Hui Cho, the young man who gunned down 32 people at a Virginia college never received the mental health treatment ordered by a court.

Apparently in December 2005 a judge declared Seung-Hui Cho to be mentally ill and in need of hospitalization because he was an imminent threat to himself and others.

Though the judge ordered him into involuntary outpatient treatment neither the court nor community mental health officials ensured the judge's order was carried out and Cho did not receive the treatment he needed.

Experts who have been studying the state mental health system, say it does not work.

Officials at all levels involved with the case say they were not privy to information regarding the delivery of treatment and the college too has yet to comment.

It also appears that the panel appointed to look into the massacre has yet to meet and has also not received any information.

The panel of eight will meet for the first time this week, when it expects to get a confidential briefing from the state police.

When Cho e-mailed a roommate at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on December 13th 2005 saying that he might as well commit suicide the police were summoned and they took Cho to the area's mental health agency, the New River Valley Community Services Board.

Cho was subsequently detained temporarily at Carilion St. Albans Behavioral Health Clinic in Christiansburg, a few miles from campus, until a special justice could review his case in a commitment hearing.

The following day on the judge found that Cho was an imminent danger to himself and ordered him into involuntary outpatient treatment.

Lawyers say the most likely outcome would have been a referral for treatment at Virginia Tech's Cook Counseling Center.

However the court has no authority to check that orders have been carried out and the college is prevented from discussing Cho's case because of privacy laws.

The case serves to highlight the problem of dealing with the mentally ill in the community and ensuring they receive the treatment they need without transgressing their individual rights.

There have been many reports from other students and from the college that Cho's behaviour had been a worry for some time; his family had tried it seems for some time to access treatment for him without success.