The deaths of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner, allegedly at the hands of their son Nick, have renewed conversations about mental illness and addiction across the country. Nick Reiner had struggled publicly over the years with serious health crises, repeated treatments for substance use, and recent reports suggested he was being treated for schizophrenia. Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds knows intimately how these challenges can devastate families. In 2013, his 24-year-old son Gus, who had struggled with bipolar disorder for years, attacked his father before taking his own life.
Deeds emphasized that while people struggling with mental illness are not inherently violent, families often face immense obstacles in securing help for adult children. Once a person turns 18, parents lose legal authority over medical decisions due to privacy laws. Deeds described his own struggle with his son: “We struggled to get him to acknowledge the problems and acknowledge that he needed care… he was just ill and delusional and he would not accept care.”
Virginia’s Response and Ongoing Challenges
After his family’s tragedy, Deeds worked on a commission to examine gaps in Virginia’s mental health care. Over its eight or nine years of operation, the Virginia Behavioral Health Commission created a permanent, staffed research body. Virginia added “several hundred million dollars a year” to its public mental health system and expanded the list of mandated services from public mental health providers from two to nine services. These efforts focus on keeping people out of crisis.
However, Deeds acknowledged the work remains incomplete. He pointed to stigma as a persistent barrier, noting that about 70 percent of people with serious mental illness first experience a crisis between ages 14 and 24. Virginia incorporated mental health awareness into its public school health curriculum for eighth and ninth graders to build knowledge among vulnerable young people.
Deeds urged a shift in how society discusses mental illness. “The brain is part of the body. Mental health care is health care,” he stressed. He called for tearing down walls of stigma by changing the language used around mental health and ensuring people have access to treatment in their communities.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/reiner-deaths-renew-conversations-for-families-struggling-with-mental-illness-addiction