Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

America's "other" public-health crisis claims another life

Politician's son is turned away from mental health care for lack of beds. Now he's dead.

If you'll recall the aftermath of the 2012 Newtown massacre (more anniversary journalism, coming soon), even even those who claimed that sane gun laws won't stop the epidemic of mass shooting seemed to agreee that, yes, American society should do something about mental health.

We all know what happened with guns (hint: it starts with "n" and ends with "othing"), but what about the other side of the equation?

This week, lack of adequate mental health played a key role in yet another senseless death:

Dennis Cropper, executive director of the Rockbridge County Community Services Board, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the emergency custody order, or ECO, allowed Gus Deeds to be held as long as four hours to determine whether he should be kept longer, up to 48 hours, under a temporary detention order.

The son was evaluated Monday at Bath Community Hospital, Cropper said, but was released because no psychiatric bed could be located across a wide area of western Virginia.

At the news conference, state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Gus Deeds, 24, was found inside the family's residence in rural Millboro with a gunshot wound, and died at the scene.  Geller said authorities are not looking for other suspects.