A proposed task force that would study criteria for determining if someone could be involuntarily committed to a mental health treatment facility must take a Solomon-like approach to its affairs.
There have been a number of regrettable incidents in this community in which family members have sought to have mentally ill relatives involuntarily committed to treatment but they have been thwarted in their attempts because they could not offer sufficient evidence of "immediate" danger. Furthermore, the law prevented them from admitting at hearings evidence of the individual's history of treatment compliance or threatening behaviors.
When that legal standard could not be met, some mentally ill people have deteriorated to the point that they have become a danger to themselves and, in some cases, a danger to others.
Consider the case of Leonard Gall, who is accused of killing his mother with an ax during the worst throes of a bipolar disorder last December. Reportedly, he had for eight months stopped taking prescribed psychotropic drugs that stemmed his psychotic episodes.
Sadly, family members could not convince Gall to resume treatment and the law could not force him to take medications. According to family friends, Gall was too delusional to seek out help on his own.
While some would contend that the obvious answer is to amend the involuntary commitment standards, a legislative task force envisioned under SB77 will need to carefully study all ramifications of such proposed changes in the law. This body of law is intended to protect the rights of the mentally ill and prevent the state from taking someone into custody capriciously. Protecting individual rights must be a central point of these discussions.
Suppose for the sake of argument that the task force recommends that the Legislature alter the existing involuntary commitment laws. What then?
Advocates on both sides of the commitment law debate agree that there are inadequate community resources to meet the needs of people who now need mental health treatment, let alone the capacity to address any possible influx that could result from a change in laws on commitment and medication. Changing the standard without providing the resources to address the outcomes would be but a partial solution.
Sen. Leonard Blackham, R-Moroni, is to be commended for sponsoring this legislation, which proposes thorough study of these very complex issues. It would serve no one's interests to attempt to rush through this process during an abbreviated legislative session.
There are some occasions when legislative task forces are no more than stall tactics or feel-good exercises that have no substantive outcomes. This proposed task force has the opportunity to take a broad-spectrum examination of the issues affecting families, communities and people with mental illness. It can develop meaningful strategies to begin to address inadequacies in the availability of resources and the barriers that prevent people with mental illness from receiving the help they need or hamstring families who want to assist loved ones who are too ill to help themselves.
The first step is the passage of SB77.