NEED FOR TREATMENT LAW

A Need for Treatment Law for New Jersey

January 2008

The law that would establishes involuntary outpatient commitment to treatment that narrowly missed passage in the past legislative session has been reintroduced. A1618/S735 would permit persons in need of involuntary commitment to be committed and assigned to an outpatient treatment. The bill(s) now resume the legislative beginning with hearings in the Assembly and Senate Human Services Committees. It is now time to build support for this legislation by asking our legislators to become co-sponsors of A1618/S735.

This bill amends the State's civil commitment laws (N.J.S.A.30:4-27.1 et seq.) to allow for involuntary commitment to outpatient treatment of persons defined as "an adult with mental illness, whose mental illness causes the person to be dangerous to self or dangerous to others or property in the reasonably foreseeable future and who is unwilling to accept appropriate treatment voluntarily after it has been offered, needs outpatient treatment because other services are not appropriate or available to meet the person's mental health care needs." The bill also adds that the determination of dangerousness shall take into account a person's "serious psychiatric deterioration."

As the treatment for people with mental illness has advanced, many successful treatments are entirely outpatient. For this reason and others, the bill shifts the sense of involuntary commitment from commitment to an inpatient facility to commitment to clinically appropriate treatment, which may be inpatient care, outpatient care, or a combination of inpatient and outpatient care. The finding that a person is in need of involuntary commitment to treatment, then, will result in an order of commitment to appropriate treatment, rather than commitment to a facility.

The treatment provided after the entry of an order of involuntary commitment to treatment will be governed by the principle of least restrictive environment. The commitment process, then, will have two steps: it will first be determined whether by clear and convincing evidence a person's condition meets the dangerousness standard; then the treatment to which the person is committed will be determined by considering the least restrictive treatment setting appropriate to ameliorate the danger presented and appropriate to provide services directed to the wellness and recovery of the person.

ACTION NEEDED

The Legislature has begun its new legislative session following the November election. It is now time to ask our assemblypersons to take action. Advocates are urged to contact their Assembly representatives and ask for their support of A1618/S735 that would establish involuntary outpatient commitment. You can find contact information for your Assemblyperson by calling the Office of Legislative Services 800-792-8630 or on the web at www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp.
 

NAMI NEW JERSEY is a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families who are affected by mental illness.