Congress debated whether to increase gun restrictions after shootings in Uvalde, Texas, Buffalo, New York, and Highland Park, Illinois. While the left wants to tighten gun-buying regulations, many on the right oppose red-flag measures.
Republicans and Democrats will continue to battle to compromise on this topic, but both admit a mental health crisis drives many mass shootings. Congress will likely pass laws allocating money to mental-health programs like the federal Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program implemented in American schools to boost student mental health. Why?
Grants for mental health
The Now Is the Time Initiative focused on mental health in 2014. The Mental Health First Aid program earned $15 million in federal subsidies to launch in classrooms. Obama handed the charity $15 million and pledged annual funding a year later.
MHFA trained students and teachers to recognize, diagnose, and report mental diseases to skilled experts to prevent future tragedies. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., told the Washington Post, “To be effective, we’ve got to go to where kids are with mental health, emotional health resources, and that means going into the schools.” Early spotting is MHFA’s goal.
MHFA's progress is uncertain. MHFA training doesn't enhance students' mental health, according to research. In certain research, MHFA decreased pupils' mental health.
Research: These programs are bad
In a Manhattan Institute paper, MHFA study results were compiled into a table illustrating program ineffectiveness. 13 impact case studies were from the MHFA website, 14 used a randomized control trial design, 7 assessed beneficiary outcomes, and 16 were performed by a program creator. In all situations, MHFA programs had negative effects.
Some case studies examined MHFA programs at colleges. In one experiment, half of college resident advisers received MHFA training and the other half didn't. Surprisingly, there was not only no indication that MHFA helped students' mental health in trained resident advisors' halls, but research showed they had poorer results.
The MHFA website rejects these data, praising their program with success stories and studies. But their figures and experiences are from program attendees, not the intended audience.
According to a Manhattan Institute research indicates “that of 181 articles on MHFA, 90% focused on the educational benefits for trainees, and none focused on the effectiveness of patient help-seeking behavior. Two trainee benefits that are often promoted include self-reported confidence in the ability to help and improved mental health literacy. Research does not suggest that these outcomes translate into better outcomes for intended beneficiaries.”
Overdiagnosis
MHFA also generates an overdiagnosis dilemma: individuals trained to spot mental illness are more likely to do so. This may lead to perfectly healthy students with occasional mental disturbance receiving needless or detrimental treatment that could have gone to a student in need.
The student mental-health issue is worsening, but government measures are not helping. Despite MHFA's excellent intentions, the findings question its usefulness.
Mass shootings won't be solved by Mental Health First Aid, so funding it will be a waste. Gun violence is horrible and requires effective responses.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on The Federalist.
