House Republicans Outline Mental Health Reforms

-- Sweeping Legislative Package Advances Virginia’s Mental Health System Overhaul --

Richmond, Thursday 24 January 2008 – Highlighting the continued efforts of House Republicans to focus on mental health care reform for Virginia, Delegates Clifford “Clay” Athey, Jr. (R-Warren), Chairman of the Policy Committee of the House Republican Caucus, Delegates Phillip A. Hamilton (R-Newport News), David B. Albo (R-Fairfax) and Rob B. Bell, III (R-Albemarle) today detailed several legislative initiatives that make significant systemic improvements to the Commonwealth’s delivery and oversight of mental health care.

Since 1949 there have been 13 major studies of Virginia’s mental health system. Many of these studies identify funding as a major deficit in our current system. To address this deficiency, over the past two years, the General Assembly supported a state budget that included a 23% increase in funding for mental health services. It has been more that 30 years since the current mental health statutes were adopted and more than 20 years since the last time legislative attention was focused on this topic.

The House Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee and Courts of Justice Committee held public meetings last summer and the Special Subcommittee on Mental Commitment Laws held meetings in the fall.

“As Virginia grapples with how to better serve those with mental illness, it will require a long-term commitment to providing the necessary resources to make the services available and policy changes that facilitate better access to such services in an environment that does stigmatize those needing assistance,” noted Delegate Hamilton, Chairman of the House Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee. “There is much to be done to build the mental health infrastructure to increase access to such services for children, adolescents, and adults in Virginia.”

As Chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee, Delegate Albo convened a special meeting to review the mental health commitment process and gun laws relating to mental incompetency. “From this meeting, it became evident that the current mental health commitment laws do not allow the government to detain those who are most likely to commit violent offenses in the future, and when the system does detain, it does not properly track those who are adjudicated mentally incompetent, thus leaving dangerous mentally ill people out in the community,” stated Delegate Albo. “Furthermore, we identified a loophole in the communication of mental health commitment orders, which resulted in Cho being able to purchase a weapon. As a result of this research and committee hearings, we developed approximately 50 initiatives to solve every problem that was identified. Our efforts show that government can work to solve problems.”

As Chairman of the House Special Subcommittee on Mental Health Commitment, Delegate Bell noted that his committee today endorsed 12 bills to reform Virginia’s mental health commitment laws.

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“After the tragedy at Virginia Tech, there is a clear mandate for better supervision for those who are unable to care for themselves or the public,” said Delegate Bell. “These oversight laws will help ensure that no one slips between the cracks like Mr. Cho did.”

Delegate Hamilton’s legislation, HB 499, includes sweeping reforms to mandatory outpatient treatment laws. It specifies records and evidence that must be reviewed as part to an independent mental examination and requires additional minimum standards for independent examinations, including a requirement that the examination be performed in person by the mental health professional. Under the bill commitment orders will specifically identify care and treatment. It also requires reporting to the court that care has promptly begun and requires immediate reporting of noncompliance to the court. Additionally, the bill provides for transfer to inpatient care if outpatient care orders are not complied with and requires an outpatient treatment plan be filed with the outpatient order. It goes on to clarify the monitoring duty of the community services board and ensure that no agency may release the mentally ill individual without notifying the court of the same. Finally, it includes new procedures for expedited court hearing in the event a review is necessary.

“While these reforms address several mental health service gaps which were exposed in the Virginia Tech investigation, there is still more that will need to be done in order to develop the needed community-based infrastructure of services to serve citizens in need of such mental health services,” remarked Delegate Hamilton.

Delegate Albo’s bill, HB 815, codifies and expands on the Governor’s Executive Order 50 that closes the loophole by which Cho was able to purchase firearms by adding to the section requiring reporting to the Central Criminal Records Exchange of involuntary commitment persons who were the subject of a temporary detention order and who subsequently agreed to voluntary commitment.

Delegate Bell’s bill, HB 559, revises Virginia’s commitment standard, replacing ‘imminent danger’ with “substantial likelihood of serious bodily harm.” “Eliminating the ‘imminent danger’ standard will enable the state to provide care for the mentally ill earlier, before something awful happens,” observed Delegate Bell. “However, the requirement that the risk be of ‘serious bodily harm’ helps safeguard against over-commitment.”

Delegate Bell also introduced HB 560, which requires that a representative of the Community Service Board attend commitment hearings, something they failed to do with Cho.

“Taken as a whole, these bills, along with others, constitute the most sweeping overhaul of Virginia’s mental health laws in 30 years,” said Delegate Bell.

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