EDITORIAL
Help mental patients help selves: 
Court-ordered medication law has best intentions

If they are used conscientiously, modern drugs can work miracles in managing mental illnesses. They can keep patients out of institutions and functioning in the community safely.

The problem is that too many people don't follow their treatment plan and get into trouble. Right now, such patients are either involuntarily committed to a mental institution under the state's Baker Act if they are dangerous enough or left to fund for themselves until they can be committed.

They latter course can be disastrous. Patients may endanger themselves and others, committing crimes and landing in jail or dying in encounters with police, living homeless in the streets or taking their own lives. Much of this suffering could be prevented.

Florida needs a law such as the ones already in place in 41 states, allowing what professionals call "assisted outpatient treatment," or court-ordered medication, in plainer language.

The notion of forcing people to take medication they don't want is a difficult one, fraught with danger to individual rights.

But the proposal now before the Florida Legislature is crafted to protect individual rights by targeting people with a history of not following their treatment and getting into dangerous or potentially dangerous situations as a result.

House Bill 1197 and Senate Bill 2748 are modeled on the successful Kendra's Law in New York, named for the woman who was killed after being pushed in front of a Manhattan subway train by an untreated schizophrenic in 1999.

The track record in New York and elsewhere indicates that many patients not otherwise following treatment will do so when ordered to by a court. New York has seen drops of 77 percent in hospitalization, 85 percent in homelessness, 83 percent in arrests and 85 percent in incarcerations among people placed on involuntary outpatient treatment for the last six months of 2002.

So instead of adding to the costs of our overburdened mental health system, this legislation should make it more cost effective.

Forcible administration of medications is legal now in emergencies, but people on involuntary outpatient treatment would not be forcibly medicated as a result of this new program. Forcibly medicating people is obviously not the goal of this legislation, which aims at getting more people to medicate themselves or show up faithfully at treatment centers.

This long-overdue legislation languished in the Legislature last year. Urge our leaders in Tallahassee to enact it this session.

WHO TO CALL

• Sen. Burt Saunders, District 37 (239) 338-2777
• Sen. David Aronberg, District 27 (239) 338-2646
• Sen. Mike Bennett, District 21 (800) 500-1239
• Rep. Jerry Paul, District 71, (800)729-1101; (941)764-1100
• Rep. Lindsay Harrington, District 72, (941) 575-5820
• Rep. Bruce Kyle, District 73 (239) 335-2411
• Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, District 74 (239) 344-4900
• Rep. Carole Green, District 75 (239) 433-6775
• Speaker Johnnie Byrd (850) 488-1450
• Senate President Jim King (850) 487-5229
• Gov. Jeb Bush (850) 488-4441

CRITERIA

Highlights of proposed criteria for "involuntary outpatient treatment" or court-ordered medication of mental patients:

1. The person must be 18 or older, mentally ill and unlikely to survive safely in the community without supervision.
2. The person's failure to comply with treatment has been a significant factor in an admission for examination or treatment at least twice in the previous 36 months, or has resulted in at least one violent act, or threat or attempt to harm himself or herself or others in the past 48 months.
3. The person is, as a result of mental illness, unlikely to follow a treatment plan.
4. The person needs involuntary outpatient treatment to prevent a relapse or deterioration that could result in harm to the patient or others.
5. It is likely that the patient will benefit from involuntary outpatient treatment, and less restrictive alternatives are unsuitable.

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