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Submitted 12:44 p.m. EDT
08.17.2015
Letter to the Editor

Why isn’t there more of an effort to try and use the therapeutic/mental health industry to perform diagnostic examinations?”

John C. Woodson of Phoenix, Ariz.

After reading this article, the main question that comes to mind is why isn’t there more of an effort to try and use the therapeutic/mental health industry to perform diagnostic examinations at the time when a person is initially arrested for the very first time. This would then allow a mental health professional’s diagnosis of the situation to be put “on the record” for examining what problems led to the arrest. This could then lead to the person arrested being assigned the specific type of therapist/mental health professional needed to help him/her work out the problems which led him/her to get arrested for the first time. This, to me, seems like a simple “common sense” way to try and help prevent recidivism by making an effort to “nip at the bud” what problems led to the first arrest. This, in turn, is why I also believe common sense should be dictating that actual case history files of a person’s mental health problems be made available by a mental health professional at the time when a person is about to potentially be sentenced to either spending time in jail or a rehabilitation center. In the long run, this will have the potential to be the most accurate and most professional way to help diagnose what each particular individual needs to have more help in dealing with.

A little over a year ago, I started to study the field of emotional intelligence in a manner not geared towards trying to use it as a tool to learn how to run a business more effectively, but in a manner where new programs are now being taught to young children/adults to help them learn how to not bully each other. I believe it would be wise to try and explore how the use of empathy training via the emotional intelligence field of study could also be used as another important diagnostic tool to help prevent a person from potentially being arrested for various reasons.

 
These letters written in response to