‘Last Week Tonight’ Explains Why the US Mental Healthcare System Needs a ‘Massive Overhaul’

In light of last week’s mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, many politicians have yet again tried to shift the national conversation from gun control to mental health, and last night’s Last Week Tonight called out those politicians through a great segment on how mental health is treated in the United States, where many mentally ill people are housed in nursing homes, jails, even Greyhound buses – pretty much anything but something that resembles a legitimate and humane therapeutic mental health care center. Presidential hopefuls like Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Mike Huckabee have all claimed to support the idea of a mental healthcare system overhaul since last week’s shooting, so John Oliver offers a reasonable response: “Okay, fine. Do it then. Because if we’re going to constantly use mentally ill people to dodge conversations about gun control, then the very least we owe them is a fucking plan.�