The Nuances Of The Navy Yard Shooter's Mental Problems
Walter Olson blogs at Overlawyered as I have here about how HP/The Experts, Alexis' employer, knew about his "increasingly florid symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia."
Olson quotes the piece by The New York Times' Serge F. Kovaleski, who relates how Alexis' mother told The Experts of his previous paranoid behavior, advising that he "likely needed to see a therapist." After a meeting of "senior-level employees," it was concluded that he could be sent back to work:
In an e-mail message, the Experts said that a Hewlett-Packard manager in Newport said she was "comfortable" having Mr. Alexis come back to work after he reported hearing voices.Hewlett-Packard said its manager in Newport was a low-level employee who was not given full details by the Experts about Mr. Alexis' problems. The company said it has placed that manager on administrative leave.
Olson makes a point not seen other places:
The missing angle is: what if any role was played by the legal constraints on the various entities that directly or indirectly employed Mr. Alexis? Severe mental illness is a protected condition under the ADA, and employers may not be free to take workers off their duties unless and until they can assemble evidence that would stand up in court documenting a "direct threat," "undue hardship" or other adequate reason for removal; the law places limits on the employer's right to demand medical exams to evaluate the exact contours of disability; and privacy rules limit sharing of medically relevant information between different entities, as we saw in the Seung-Hui Cho/Virginia Tech case. All these rules apply to ordinary larger private businesses, but some come in especially stringent form when applied to federal contractors.
From the New York Times:
Hearing voices doesn't make someone crazy. It's the unquestioning acceptance that they're hearing voices that determines if someone is crazy.
Patrick at October 9, 2013 12:57 AM
Yes, but there are billions of people that hear voices. It is considered a good thing to accept it for them. They are a special group too, we even have a name for them... Religious people.
Yeah, yeah I know how derogatory that sounds but listen. When it is some cute fluffy message from their god, gods messiah or messiahs it is good and they are holy but when another hears that they should kill their kids, well, they must have mental issues. How can we separate that? Both are "hearing voices"® after all.
NakkiNyan at October 9, 2013 11:40 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/10/the-nuances-of-1.html#comment-3966994">comment from NakkiNyanI sometimes hear voices, but it's generally because a guy who moved in to the apartment building next door is being a loud asshole.
Amy Alkon
at October 9, 2013 1:02 PM
"All these rules apply to ordinary larger private businesses, but some come in especially stringent form when applied to federal contractors."
The employer is in a catch-22 here. The laws governing the issuing of security clearances makes this a mandatory reporting event. Yet the medical privacy laws prohibit making that report. There is no way to be in compliance.
Cousin Dave at October 9, 2013 1:32 PM
I remember once I had to pass a mental health evaluation to get my license in massage therapy. I had to pay 500 dollars for this exam, which was a total rip-off. The psychiatrist read the questions off a laptop screen and typed down my answers.
Why was I paying a psychiatrist for something that only required a literate typist.
And the questions...you would not only have to be insane, but completely stupid, not to know the answers they needed for you to pass this evaluation.
When she asked me, "Do you hear voices?" I so wanted to say something like, "Just the one that's telling me to bury an axe in your head right now. No, mother, stop telling me to do that. No, I won't do it, mother! No, I won't, mother! Stop it, mother!"
But I decided I was paying too much money and already paid for my schooling to jeopardize my chances like that.
Patrick at October 9, 2013 4:35 PM
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