Monday, January 24, 2005

Outpatient Commitment Garners Broad Support Psychiatric News story - "Michigan has joined 24 other states in giving courts, police officers, psychiatrists, mental health professionals, and families with a means of forcing people with mental illness into treatment rather than jail. ... Since the nationwide closing of psychiatric hospitals beginning in the 1970s, states have had little power to mandate mental health care, unless someone is dangerous or convicted of a crime. Family members and advocates for mentally ill individuals in Michigan have pushed for Kevin's Law since 2001. Public awareness that the state's mental health care system is broken helped create a consensus for the bill this year."  
  

Mental health system may see more changes (Texas) Houston Chronicle story - "House Bill 2292 has changed the way mental health services are delivered in Harris County. But it's just the beginning. State Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, has filed a bill that would regionalize state-funded programs for mental health, mental retardation, substance abuse, aging and services for the disabled. Among other things, it would prohibit agencies from both overseeing services and providing them, as the Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority of Harris County now does." See also the related story at the same source, In the shadow of a crisis.