(7-8-19) With only sixteen months to go before the presidential election and a possible change in leadership, Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz continues to push for substantive changes at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (SAMHSA).
The latest – urging states to study their civil commitment laws and promoting greater use of psychiatric advance directives (PADS).
In a public meeting last week, Dr. McCance-Katz distributed Civil Commitment and the Mental Health Care Continuum: Historical Trends and Principles for Law and Practice – a comprehensive SAMHSA study of civil commitment in America. The paper was distributed to members of the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC), which was created to advise Congress on ways to improve federal mental health/substance abuse services. I am the parent ISMICC representative.
The federal government doesn’t have authority to change civil commitment laws. That’s up to each state legislature. But in the last decade, nearly every state has sought a way to broaden criteria beyond dangerous to self or others.
And for good reason.
Relying strictly on dangerousness is foolish.