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STATEMENT

of TAC Executive Director Mary T. Zdanowicz, Esq.

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Arlington, VA – New Mexico is again on the verge of denying critical treatment to the sickest people with severe mental illnesses, discriminating against them because they are too ill to ask for help.

Gov. Bill Richardson has publicly supported mandated community treatment legislation since Rep. Joni Marie Gutierrez first introduced it in 2006. Despite passing the House this year, the bill stalled in a Senate committee, a victim of political infighting and the work of one of Gov. Richardson’s own cabinet members, Secretary of Human Services Pam Hyde, who refused to rise in support of the measure despite her Governor’s position.

We urge Gov. Richardson to right this wrong, following up his supportive words with real action. He should add to his list of expectations for legislators that they exhibit true concern for people with debilitating brain diseases and the inability to choose treatment. Other bills to be addressed in a special session purport to protect the rights of New Mexico families and prevent them from violent harm – these criteria are also the case with the mandated community treatment legislation.

If the bill dies, so will New Mexicans – some to suicide, some to homicide. Others will stay lost homeless to the streets or locked in state jails and prisons, which already hold too many people with mental illnesses.

HB 609 would allow courts to order people with severe untreated mental illness who meet certain criteria into outpatient mental health treatment. Similar laws in other states have reduced hospitalizations, arrests, incarcerations, victimizations, homelessness, and caregiver stress, and improved medication compliance and quality of life.

Gov. Richardson clearly understands the benefits of such a law – and the catastrophes associated with being one of only 8 states without such a treatment mechanism.

“Kendra’s Law will help patients live and function in their communities by working to get them the compassionate care and treatment they need,” he said in 2006. “We need this law to prevent events like the tragic murders in Albuquerque last summer. We have to do everything we can to prevent this from happening to another family, another police officer, or another community, ever again.”

Those are wise words. We urge the Governor to extend this wisdom and compassion to those who can ill afford to wait another year to fight this battle again.

More on New Mexico | About mandated community treatment

The Treatment Advocacy Center (www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org) is a a national nonprofit organization organization dedicated to eliminating barriers to the timely and effective treatment of severe mental illnesses. TAC promotes laws, policies, and practices for the delivery of psychiatric care and supports the development of innovative treatments for and research into the causes of severe and persistent psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We take no money from pharmaceutical companies. The American Psychiatric Association awarded TAC its 2006 presidential commendation for "sustained extraordinary advocacy on behalf of the most vulnerable mentally ill patients who lack the insight to seek and continue effective care and benefit from assisted outpatient treatment.”

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