Mental Health Expert On Church Shooting: 'That Person, With Or Without A Gun, Is Going To Kill'
NORTH TEXAS (CBS11) - In trying to explain the country's latest mass shooting, first President Donald Trump weighed in, not on Devin Kelley's guns, but his mental state.
"We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries," he said. "But this isn't a guns situation."
The in an interview on CBS This Morning, it was Governor Greg Abbott.
"This is a man who had some mental health issues apparently, long before this," he said.
Mental health professionals in North Texas, said that's the right place to start the discussion.
"I think it's a mental health issue first," said Dallas counselor Elizabeth Scrivner. "That person, with or without a gun, is going to kill."
Mental health professionals in North Texas said Monday that with each mass killing, there is more awareness of the role mental health plays. However, there is still a stigma to acknowledging signs and seeking treatment.
"Even just from mild cases of anxiety, and depression, which are all very treatable," Scrivner said.
Patsy Thomas with Mental Health Connection of Tarrant County, said communities are working on what she called a chronic illness just like diabetes, or heart disease. Getting early recognition though is still a challenge.
"We have a lot or work to do because depending on what the illness is, it may look like different things to different people," she said.
But professionals told us there is still work to be done making it easy for people to find answers, to a question politicians and people, are asking more often.