No 'instant' answers to hard questions

In a society that demands instant gratification, it comes as little surprise that it also demands instant solutions to complex problems -- especially in an election year.

The shootings at Northern Illinois University last week already have generated all manner of expected demands to keep our children safe, including more gun bans and better campus security. What is unsettling, however, is legislation that would throw open our medical records to public scrutiny and red-flag anyone who had ever sought counseling in a moment of anger or duress.

If that instant threat to privacy in exchange for a dubious "safer" society doesn't make one pause, nothing likely will.

Before legislation sponsored by state Sen. Dan Kotowski is passed, we might want to consider whether we are prepared to "out" a new mother suffering from post-partum depression, a man broken-hearted by an impending divorce or a family grief-stricken by the loss of a family member to an accident caused by a drunken driver.

Any or all of those events could cause someone to seek counseling or use an employee assistance program that is designed to both assist and protect. Current law requires health officials to notify state officials about patients who are institutionalized, but under Kotowski's legislation, health officials would be required to inform state authorities of anyone who displays violent, suicidal or threatening behavior. And any of those circumstances previously mentioned could prompt anger and depression enough to do so, at least in initial sessions.

Beyond demolishing the confidentiality of doctor/patient relationships and employee assistance programs, the tendency to assume this will make us safer is a strong one. But it is, at best, questionable.

The human instinct for self-preservation is such that fewer people would seek treatment if doing so exposes them to their employers, future insurers and their neighbors. That means people who need assistance won't get it, leading to more troubled people, not fewer.

And unless we are prepared to lock up anyone with a mental health issue and throw away the key, pointing blame at college officials or mental health professionals is just as unproductive and self-deluding.

Unless there's a direct threat to themselves or others, we cannot just put people away without a possible lawsuit. And how to keep patients taking their medications once they are healthy enough to live independently is a longstanding mental health problem. Unless we are prepared to force the pills down their throats, we can't. Yes, it is imperative that mental health profession be able to discern behavior patterns that might identify potential shooters and how to intervene, but that is not a job for vote-seeking politicians.

So let us be careful what we demand lest we discover consequences we never imagined and results so minimal that we regret having made those demands in the end.