Illinois Is Considering Broadening Its Commitment Law
What’s going on in Illinois – an attempt to loosen the commitment laws to make it easier to lock people up – reminds me of what philosopher and poet George Santayana famously said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
In 1987, when Pennsylvania legislators were pondering a similar change in the Commonwealth’s commitment law, they had the benefit of history in the testimony of Professor Mary L. Durham of the University of Washington. She and a co-author had done a five-year study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, of a 1979 revision in Washington’s Involuntary Treatment Act. The revision had made it easier to commit people by changing the standard to include anyone who “manifests severe deterioration in routine functioning evidenced by repeated and escalating loss of cognitive or volitional control over his or her actions and is not receiving such care as is essential for his or her health or safety.”
The results were disastrous. According to Durham’s written testimony, “Broadening involuntary commitment laws did NOT protect the community from dangerous people, it did NOT solve problems of homelessness, it WASTED previous resources and it created a dependency on the involuntary commitment system that brought people back to it again and again” (original emphasis). At least partly as a result of Durham’s testimony – which was also quoted in an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer, thanks to our providing them with it – cooler heads prevailed, and the attempt to broaden the commitment laws was defeated.
Although Durham’s testimony is 20 years old, it still seems relevant. If you would like to receive a copy, please e-mail me at srogers@mhasp.org and provide your fax number or U.S. Postal Service address.
Source: “Mental care reform eyed: Plan may aid those who don’t know they need it,” Chicago Tribune, 4/8/07
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0704070306apr08,1,1877531,print.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed&ctrack=2&cset=true
Posted by Susan Rogers
In 1987, when Pennsylvania legislators were pondering a similar change in the Commonwealth’s commitment law, they had the benefit of history in the testimony of Professor Mary L. Durham of the University of Washington. She and a co-author had done a five-year study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, of a 1979 revision in Washington’s Involuntary Treatment Act. The revision had made it easier to commit people by changing the standard to include anyone who “manifests severe deterioration in routine functioning evidenced by repeated and escalating loss of cognitive or volitional control over his or her actions and is not receiving such care as is essential for his or her health or safety.”
The results were disastrous. According to Durham’s written testimony, “Broadening involuntary commitment laws did NOT protect the community from dangerous people, it did NOT solve problems of homelessness, it WASTED previous resources and it created a dependency on the involuntary commitment system that brought people back to it again and again” (original emphasis). At least partly as a result of Durham’s testimony – which was also quoted in an editorial in the Philadelphia Inquirer, thanks to our providing them with it – cooler heads prevailed, and the attempt to broaden the commitment laws was defeated.
Although Durham’s testimony is 20 years old, it still seems relevant. If you would like to receive a copy, please e-mail me at srogers@mhasp.org and provide your fax number or U.S. Postal Service address.
Source: “Mental care reform eyed: Plan may aid those who don’t know they need it,” Chicago Tribune, 4/8/07
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0704070306apr08,1,1877531,print.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed&ctrack=2&cset=true
Posted by Susan Rogers
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home