(Aug. 25, 2015) Last April, Oklahoma State Labor Commissioner Mark Costello thanked mental health advocates for the help they gave his family. Now, a little over four months later, Costello is dead—allegedly stabbed to death by his mentally ill son (“Mark Costello had spoken about need for better mental health care in Oklahoma,” the Oklahoman, Aug. 24.)
During his speech, Costello urged the audience "…we must be understanding and understand that society cannot ignore this problem, and if it does so, it does so at its peril.”
The Costello family had struggled for more than five years to find consistent mental health treatment for 26-year-old Christian Costello, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered from paranoid thoughts about his parents, according to a family spokesman. Christian also had multiple run-ins with law enforcement since 2010, according to police records.
But mental health treatment was, and still is, hard to come by in Oklahoma.
For now, Christian remains in jail, with the scores of other people with mental illness who were also unable to receive treatment.
With just 10.7 public psychiatric beds per 100,000 people, Oklahoma fails to meet the 50 bed minimum standard considered necessary to provide adequate treatment for individuals with severe mental illness.
This is especially concerning, since Oklahoma ranks second in the nation for the highest rates of adults with serious mental illnesses, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Tragedies like this will undoubtedly continue until policy makers, lawmakers and society at large recognizes the peril that is caused when consistent, quality mental health treatment is not made readily available for those with the most severe psychiatric illnesses.
Read the Treatment Advocacy Center report “No Room at the Inn: Trends and Consequences of Closing Public Psychiatric Hospitals” to learn more.
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