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Wyoming's Great Leap

By Jonathan Stanley, Assistant Director
Treatment Advocacy Center

Wyoming has become the 40th state to have assisted outpatient treatment and one of only a handful with a true need for treatment standard for both inpatient and outpatient assisted treatment.

As an example of what is possible, Wyoming recently passed a bill that will be effective as of July 1, 1999. (See text of bill below). This short bill (only four pages) not only establishes outpatient commitment in Wyoming for the first time, but also interjects a need for treatment standard into the state's code by simply altering the definition of "dangerous to himself or others." The new definition now allows for the care of a person who

"[e]vidences behavior manifested by recent acts or omissions that, due to mental illness, he is unable to satisfy basic needs for nourishment, essential medical care, shelter or safety so that a substantial probability exists that death, serious physical injury, serious physical debilitation, serious mental debilitation, destabilization from lack of or refusal to take prescribed psychotropic medications for a diagnosed condition..." 1999 Wyo. Sess. Laws chp. 172. (underlined language is new)

This is a gravely disabled standard with power. The inclusion of "serious mental debilitation" and, especially, "destabilization from lack of or refusal to take prescribed psychotropic medications" in this definition makes Wyoming's law one of the most pro-treatment in the country.

This reform act shows that to bring about dramatic changes in a state's mental health code wholesale revisions or extensive replacement acts are not necessary. Given that it never before had assisted outpatient treatment, Wyoming's law has gone from one of the most backward to one of the more progressive with the inclusion of a few key sentences in its code.

Here is another example of where the future lies. There are many movements for change in assisted treatment laws afoot and they are all in one direction--towards the treatment of those who most need it.