OUTPATIENT TREATMENT
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Star Ledger
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
HELP FOR THE MENTALLY ILL
http://www.nj.com/opinion/ledger/forums/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1125380055101670.xml&coll=1
Thank you for your Aug. 15 editorial on the assisted outpatient
treatment debate. In addition to beleaguered family members,
two groups that will be most grateful should this legislation
be enacted will be law enforcement and corrections officers.
Law enforcement officers are often called to aid people
who refuse medical help or psychiatric care yet cause frequent
disturbances or dial 911 when they run out of food. Under
current law, there is little police can do to get a person
help who is not an immediate threat to himself, others or
property.
Sometimes, in the confusion brought on by an untreated
illness, a person breaks a law, is booked and incarcerated.
Our jails have become providers of mental health services,
a job they were never designed to perform. Failing to protect
those whose brain disorders interfere with their ability
to lead healthy, productive lives is an abdication of our
responsibility as a society. Assisted outpatient treatment
is one way to provide help for those few who refuse treatment
when they are most in need.
Elaine Goodman, Wenonah
The writer is founder and coordinator of the law enforcement
education program for the state chapter of the National
Alliance on Mental Illness.
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Dailey Record
August 17, 2005
LAW WOULD HELP MENTALLY ILL
I have just finished reading the article about Involuntary
Outpatient Commitment. I know Bob Davison, having been called
to Trenton to speak about IOC with him as chair of the governor's
Mental Health Task Force.
I am a strong proponent of this form of treatment having
lived in horror of homelessness, mental illness, victimization,
loss of human dignity and, of course, basic civil liberties
since I was too ill to even think about "liberties."
I was too hungry, too tortured by my voices to even think
about "rights." I, too, am very tired of the strong
resistance to this needed form of mental health treatment.
Usually the strongest opponents to this treatment are persons
who have no idea what it is to be homeless and mentally
ill. The person in question does not even know he/she is
suffering because the person is lost in his/her world of
delusions and hallucinations and completely out-of-touch
with reality.
I have written and spoken so much about this form of treatment,
it seems to me the only way I have left to help sway passage
of this needed treatment is to give the analogy of someone's
mother, father, brother or sister who has Alzheimer's disease
and has wandered away from the safety of home.
I have read in the papers a number of times that searches
are formed, different law enforcement agencies are involved
to bring the person home and back to safety. Yet, these
"civil libertarians" want to allow persons out
of touch with reality, lost in delusions and hallucinations
to have their "freedom.” There is no freedom for
the person lost in a psychotic state.
Valerie Fox
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Courier News
August 24, 2005
NEW BILL HELPS THOSE WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/OPINION02/508240334/1010
Under acting Gov. Richard J. Codey's leadership, New Jersey
has made an unprecedented commitment to the care of persons
with a mental illness. The newly adopted state budget increases
access to treatment by providing more than $40 million in
new spending for psychiatric care, emergency screening and
outreach, jail diversion and supportive employment. A $200
million Special Needs Housing Trust Fund will help create
10,000 new affordable-housing opportunities for people with
mental illness in the next 10 years. Like never before,
consumers of mental health services are being encouraged
to direct their own recovery through expanded self-help
centers and the newly passed advanced directives for mental
health care legislation.
With these improvements to New Jersey's mental health system
of care, there remains a small group of people who are so
disabled by a mental illness that they are unable to meet
their own basic needs, yet because of their illness are
unable or unwilling to seek treatment. Thankfully, Codey
has offered legislation that would provide relief for these
individuals. S2760 would clarify New Jersey's existing standard
for involuntary treatment and at the same time authorize
commitment to outpatient treatment as a less restrictive
alternative to the only current alternative, involuntary
hospitalization.
Evaluations would be conducted by trained mental health
professions with consumer rights protected by judicial oversight.
This proposal comes with the support of the Governor's Task
Force on Mental Health, family members and consumers who
say such legislation would save them from homelessness,
jail or needless institutionalization.
In order for New Jersey's mental health reform to be truly
comprehensive, we must reach those individuals who currently
fall between the cracks. It is time that we corrected this
long-standing flaw in our system of mental health care.
The passage of S2760 would mean that from this point on
that we would no longer turn our backs on those who are
too ill to care for themselves.
PHILLIP LUBITZ
NAMI NEW JERSEY
North Brunswick
