A Girl With An Untreated Mental Illness and a Sexual Offender: Who Gets Committed?

I received a desperate email this week from a father who explained that his daughter has a serious mental disorder but she doesn’t believe anything is wrong with her and consequently will not seek any help. Last week, she assualted him.

Finally, he thought, his daughter had reached a point where he could get her involuntarily committed into a hospital where she could get treatment.  But at her hearing, a special justice ruled that the woman did not meet Virginia’s criteria for involuntary commitment. Even though the woman was psychotic and had attacked her father, the special justice would not involuntarily commit her to a hospital.

“What’s it going to take for me to get my daughter help?” the father asked in his email. “Does she have to kill me?”

I should mention that the father lives in Fairfax County, Virginia, where I also reside. I should also mention that the three special justices, who oversee involuntary commitments here, have a well-deserved reputation in our state for being reluctant to force anyone into treatment.

Contrast that father’s experience with what happened to another Virginia resident who also wrote to me this week. He complained that he had been involuntarily committed to a state facility even though he has never been diagnosed with a mental illness. Click to continue…

What’s Your Advice?

I get emails every week from desperate parents seeking advice. Many have a son or daughter who’s been arrested. I remind them that I am not a lawyer, nor am I a social worker, psychologist or psychiatrist. I’m simply a father who became angry when my son got sick and I couldn’t get him meaningful help for his mental disorder.

The most common question that I am asked by other parents is:

  How did you get your son to take his medication?

The answer is: I didn’t.

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Drop-In Center, Dancing Doc, Baton Rouge

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know one of my favorite quotes is attributed to Margaret Meade who said:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that  ever has.

One of my favorite things about traveling is getting to meet inspiring people who are changing their communities and improving the lives of persons with brain disorders.

Here are some examples.

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What’s Really Insane? Our System.

I want to call your attention to two recent events. I’d hoped to write about them sooner but traveling to give speeches, getting my new book  “put to bed” so that it can be published in January and launching a new book project caused me to fall behind.

The first is the ruling by San Diego based Judge Larry Alan Burns that Jared Lee Loughner, the twenty-two year old accused of killing six persons and wounding thirteen, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, is so mentally disturbed that he cannot understand what is happening in a courtroom. This means he cannot be put on trial. 

Judge Burns decided to send Loughner, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia,  to the U.S. Medical Facility for federal prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where doctors will attempt to restore his competency. 

I’m afraid that many people mistakenly believe that the judge’s decision means that Loughner is going to be treated for his mental disorder. While he certainly may benefit from the medical attention that he will receive, it’s important to note that restoring competency and providing someone meaningful treatment are not the same.

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Why is “Dangerous” the Criteria?

      I receive emails and letters from parents and family members who have tried to get their loved ones help by having them involuntary committed into a hospital only to be stopped by our legal system. One of the sadder notes came this week from a father whose daughter was so sick that the psychiatrist who first examined her and the independent examiner appointed by the court to review her case quickly agreed that she needed to be hospitalized.

     But when the young woman appeared before a special justice here in Fairfax County, Virginia,  he ignored the two professionals’ recommendations and released the woman because, in his opinion, she did not pose a danger either to herself or to others.

    “Where did this dangerousness criteria come from?” the frantic father asked me in an email.

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