Here at the AMHCA national office a quiet grieving has set in since Sunday’s events in Orlando where a deadly mass shooting claimed the lives of 49 people and as many as 55 people were wounded. Details are still unfolding as law enforcement agencies continue their investigation. Unfortunately, mass shootings here in the U.S. have become commonplace; they're no longer surprising, but they're just as upsetting every time. We don't know what to think or do or say in the wake of such horror. Among typical responses and the usual angst about the need for gun control and background checks and increased mental health funding, we also know that Congress in the end will do nothing about this growing public health crisis – and it is a public health crisis (there have been 140 mass murders in the U.S this year.)
Clinical mental health counselors and AMHCA members stand ready to help people during this period. The most important thing we need to do is to send compassion to the affected families. From a mental health perspective, all we can do is help people process this devastating event and try to address the collective grief.
As a parent, you can start by reassuring yourself that you are safe and loved and extend that assurance to anyone in your life who is sensitive or feels vulnerable, especially children. This kind of senseless loss is one of the hardest to manage, and it's vital that people allow themselves to fully grieve, with compassion, each time the grief and helplessness over the loss comes up.
If you feel a desire to speak out or take action, remember that others might not have found that calm in the center of the emotional storm. So keep the volume low and we must be able to connect during these times in positive ways. Whenever people conduct heinous actions or bad things happen in the world, it is important to remind yourself that there are also millions upon millions of acts of kindness that we will probably never hear about, and that there is still plenty of goodness happening in the world too.
We may never know or understand what compels someone to commit an act of such horror that occurred in Orlando. We may never be able to put ourselves in their shoes for what would possess them to take so many lives. But that does not mean we’re helpless. That does not mean we must live in fear.
While issues like gun control and access to mental health care are hugely important — we're not going to solve the issue of mass violence until we come together to address what has truly become an epidemic: bigotry, hatred toward people who do not share one’s beliefs or faith, and yes… a country full of lonely people with illnesses – some very serious – who are isolated and need help.
It must be seen as a collective public health crisis and, therefore, addressed in a united way. Not let it tear us apart.