To the Editor:

Here we are again with another tragedy in Texas, Las Vegas before that, and everyone is looking for a motive.

I speak from being on a board of mental illness and being trained by the 12-week family-to-family program at Nami-RI.

Mental illness is a sickness within the brain that can be diagnosed but has many variations and can change at any time. Your mind has many chemical reactions going on that no one can see. No motive is needed to take action.

I am very saddened to see what is happening and continue to write these articles, but there seems to be no response from the public. I guess we will just wait to see what happens.

The laws today prevent us from preventing these tragedies. HIPPA and state laws prevent us from reporting unstable individuals without hard evidence. Most of the time they have all the characteristics, but the police cannot take action. Laws and education need to be put in place immediately before it happens again.

One program can be brought into the community and that is called Mental Health First Aide. I hope the community would look into this and invite the public for community sessions.

Louis J. Spremulli

Johnston