Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Virginia advocate for mentally ill dies at 37
AP story at HamptonRoads.com on the death of Caitlin Wright Binning, who "played a pivotal role in exposing abuse and neglect in the state's mental-health system." Binning was a former director of research at the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Virginia, and spurred a federal investigation after documenting a death in Central State Hospital in 1996. She also helped create the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy and worked to change the law "so that Virginia no longer would indefinitely institutionalize mentally ill people who pleaded guilty to minor crimes because of insanity."