LOS ANGELES – Dayton, Ohio; El Paso, Texas are just some of the recent mass shootings that have taken place nationwide.

The ongoing threat of mass shootings is leading some to wonder what role mental health can play in preventing the next one.

“Just because someone has a mental illness does not mean they are going to become violent and all people that become violent are not necessarily mentally ill,” Dr. Nicolas Beliz said.

Dr. Beliz is a clinical psychologist that works with college students and high school students who have had homicidal or suicidal thoughts. He says there are common experiences that can impact a student’s mental health.

“The commonalities in these cases is somebody who is going through multiple life stressors at one time and they’ve been through a horrible history of violence, sometimes a history of abuse,” Dr. Beliz said.

It’s been about a week since Connor Betts, a 24-year-old in Dayton, Ohio killed nine people including his sister and left dozens injured in a mass shooting.

His former classmates say he had a hit list and rape list prepared and showed signs that were reported to police about 10 years ago.

Dr. Beliz hopes L.A. County’s Mental Health School Threat Assessment and Response Team, known as START, will be able to prevent school mass shootings in L.A. County by having people report any signs, early. 

“If someone says, 'I want to go to school tomorrow and shoot somebody,' are they acquiring weapons? Are they writing down that hit list? Are they researching online what exits there are in the school? Do they have blueprints to the school, that type of stuff? Anything that’s behaviorally oriented,” Dr. Beliz said.

But as these mass shootings have become more common, the team is also expanding from 10 mental health workers to about 40 to work with students and law enforcement throughout the county.

“There’s something that’s really scary for these individuals about graduating, about going on to the next point in their life and if we could get them through that moment, a lot of times they will look back and feel thankful, but also that might be the only time in their life where they become homicidal or suicidal and they can become very successful in the long-term,” Dr. Beliz said.

Dr. Beliz says he hopes the expansion will help connect people with needed mental health resources by helping each person see that violence is not the answer.

The team focuses on intervention and long-term case management.

START members are asking that anyone with concerns of a student in L.A. County fill out their referral form on the START website.