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"Unless he starts carrying on in some violent way, they are not going to take him in," [Karen Logan] said [of her son James]. "I don't know what more we could do."
Gazette.net, Sept. 5, 2002. James Logan has been found guilty of killing two police officers who were sent to his home to serve him with an emergency evaluation petition. Read testimony from the Logan family.

RESOURCE Maryland's new emergency petition law: Get the new emergency evaluation petition form, find out what to do in a psychiatric crisis in Maryland, and see how Maryland's new law compares with the old law. More from Maryland NAMI ...

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"Frank Zito pulled the trigger that killed my son," she says. "But perhaps the system helped him load it."
Christian Science Monitor, March 17, 2004. Sue Nickerson, whose police officer son was killed in an encounter with Zito, who was not taking medication for schizophrenia.

RESOURCE: What to do in a psychiatric crisis in Maryland - a brochure from Maryland NAMI

LETTER It is a step in the right direction when a trained law enforcement officer can get someone undergoing a severe psychiatric crisis to the hospital without incident. But all the training in the world won't change the fact that Maryland's law helps to create the encounters between police and people with severe mental illnesses in the first place. Read more...

NEWS June 15, 2004: Maryland man holds six children hostage in a day care facility while off medication for schizophrenia. The standoff ended peacefully and the man, David Robinson, is now in custody. News reports confirm that David threw a butcher knife at his mother earlier that morning in a fight over a medical appointment. Maryland gave her no legal mechanism to get David to the clinic - because Maryland’s mental health treatment law is so weak, for this family and many others, it comes down to a fight between son and mother. In DC and 42 other states, including Virginia, she could have had support from law enforcement or a court. Without assisted outpatient treatment, families are left alone to battle with the people they love.

LETTER Treatment gap in Maryland - It is not Maryland's deficit alone that limits options for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Also contributing is Maryland's archaic treatment law. Read more...

news James Logan found guilty; Maryland's new law took effect October 1, 2003. James Logan's family had tried to get him help but was told they could not do so until he was dangerous. Days later, he allegedly killed two police officers. Maryland's revised legislation went into effect October 1. Read his parent's testimony before the legislature and more from Maryland NAMI on what the law will do in their brochure, "What to do in a psychiatric crisis in Maryland."

STATEMENT Maryland NAMI makes a statement on the outcome of the James Logan trial. NAMI-Maryland grieves for the sheriffs who lost their lives, their families and friends, and for the Logan family who, for all intents and purposes, have lost a cherished son, husband, and father. Perhaps the most tragic aspect of this case is that it need not have happened at all. Had the mental health system been designed to provide James Logan, Jr with timely treatment, this terrible outcome might have been avoided. Read more...

NEWS Advocates: Law will benefit mental health. "A new state law will make it easier for families and friends to get help for people suffering from severe mental illness, mental health advocates said. ... "If we act quicker and more efficiently when these calls [for help] come in, we'll be able to save lives," said [the law's sponsor, Del. Shirley] Nathan-Pulliam [of Baltimore], who has 40 years experience as a registered nurse." Read more ...
Montgomery County Gazette, October 8, 2003

LEGISLATION May 2003: Emergency evaluation bill passes. Congratulations to NAMI Maryland for the passage of their Emergency Evaluation bill, SB 273/HB 668. The legislature showed enthusiastic support for the bill, as it was passed by the House 119-15 and the Senate 46-0 - Governor Robert Ehrlich signed it into law May 22, 2003. The new law will eliminate the present-law requirement that dangerousness must be "clear and imminent" before a court may order an emergency evaluation. The law goes into effect on October 1, 2003.

ABOUT THE MARYLAND TREATMENT LAW

RESOURCE Bill text and information: Maryland House Bill 668 Maryland State Assembly
RESOURCE Bill text and information: Maryland Senate Bill 273 Maryland State Assembly
RESOURCE NAMI Maryland's position on assisted treatment NAMI Maryland	"Such rules ... have been a cruel joke for people who, without treatment, have seriously impaired thought and can't control their actions. In extreme cases, it means that people cannot be detained for treatment until they commit crimes - at which point they are detained as criminals." - From "The need for treatment in Maryland," a Washington Post editorial, supporting a change in the law, March 3, 2002
RESOURCE NAMI Maryland 2003 public policy platform NAMI Maryland
RESOURCE Comparison of need-for-treatment language in Maryland and other states Treatment Advocacy Center
RESOURCE Text of Maryland's mental illness treatment statute Treatment Advocacy Center
RESOURCE Analysis of Maryland’s assisted treatment laws Treatment Advocacy Center
TESTIMONY TAC testifies on SB 645 (proposed in 2002 session) Treatment Advocacy Center, March 12, 2002

CONSEQUENCES OF NON-TREATMENT

FACT SHEET Consequences of nontreatment (overview) Treatment Advocacy Center	"What we're seeing out there is varying degrees of chaos… Look at the percentage of people with mental illness in jails or in the homeless population, and you realize this system is struggling." - Michael J. Fitzpatrick, NAMI's director of state policy, in "ERs feel strain of mentally ill: Maryland patients struggle as state cuts costs, care," Washington Post, Feb. 12, 2002
FACT SHEET Violence Treatment Advocacy Center
FACT SHEET Suicide Treatment Advocacy Center
FACT SHEET Victimization Treatment Advocacy Center
FACT SHEET Homelessness Treatment Advocacy Center
FACT SHEET Criminalization/incarceration Treatment Advocacy Center
RESOURCE Preventable Tragedies database - searchable by state Treatment Advocacy Center	STATISTICS Number of mentally ill inmates, probationers in US Bureau of Justice Statistics

TREATMENT STANDARDS

RESOURCE Summary of statutory assisted treatment standards: 50 states and DC (includes actual statute language) Treatment Advocacy Center	ARTICLE Need for treatment criteria for involuntary civil commitment: impact in practice American Journal of Psychiatry 149:10 October, 1992 (abstract)
RESOURCE Standards for assisted treatment: State-by-state Treatment Advocacy Center (chart)

ASSISTED TREATMENT

FACT SHEET Myths about assisted treatment Treatment Advocacy Center	ARTICLE Effectiveness of outpatient civil commitment Psychiatric Services (summary of report)
ARTICLE AOT and reduction of violent behavior in the severely mentally ill British Journal of Psychiatry	ARTICLE Can involuntary outpatient treatment reduce hospital return visits? American Journal of Psychiatry (abstract)
ARTICLE Patients' attitudes toward having been forcibly medicated American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (summary of article)	RESOURCE Information on Kendra's Law, New York's assisted outpatient treatment law Link page with various sources
STUDY Reducing violence in severe mental illness: Randomised controlled trial of intensive case management compared with standard care British Medical Journal, November 10, 2001	REPORT The effectiveness of involuntary outpatient treatment: Empirical evidence and the experience of eight states. Summary table of results from outpatient commitment studies. (In PDF) RAND, 2001. Full report also available.
ARTICLE If the system is comprehensive enough, affordable enough, accessible enough and pleasant enough, do you need an involuntary outpatient treatment law at all? Darold A. Treffert, MD, The Wisconsin Psychiatrist, Spring 2001	OPED Duke researcher Jeffrey Swanson answers the question "Do court orders or just enhanced services alone yield positive clinical outcomes?" Los Angeles Times, May 2001
FACT SHEET What happens when an individual is forced to accept hospitalization or medication? Treatment Advocacy Center

CIVIL LIBERTIES

ARTICLE Uncivil liberties - Far from respecting civil liberties, legal obstacles to treating the mentally ill limit or destroy the liberty of the person
Herschel Hardin, Vancouver Sun

ARTICLE Idealism gone awry - Exploring origins of dysfunction in mental health care
John W. Milton, former State Senator and Co-chair, NAMI-MN Legislative Committee, Treatment Advocacy Center, May/June 2001 Catalyst newsletter

CONSUMER VOICES

RESOURCE Client versus client: A consumer account, by Mary Gibson-Leek, of the consumer-survivor movement's negative effect on her mental health treatment.

RESOURCE What do consumers really think about assisted outpatient treatment?
J. Nelson Kull III

RESOURCE First person account: Schizophrenia, medication, and outpatient commitment
Treatment Advocacy Center, July/August 2001, Catalyst Newsletter (originally printed in Schizophrenia Bulletin, Vol. 27 No. 1 2001)

NEWS ARTICLES

Newspaper editorials

Averting tragedy in Maryland
The Washington Post, Sept. 4, 2002

Leaving treatment untreated
Washington Post, April 27, 2002

The need for treatment in Maryland
Washington Post, March 3, 2002

The right to live in a delusional state is a dubious victory for liberty.
- Washington Post editorial, March 3, 2002

Opeds (opinion pieces)

Courts must be able to order help
Baltimore Sun, March 1, 2001

Mentally ill and in jail
Washington Post, Aug. 16, 2001

Deinstitutionalization hasn’t worked
Washington Post, July 9, 1999

State's failure to protect its own
Baltimore Sun, March 16, 2000

Deinstitutionalization hasn’t worked
Washington Post, July 9, 1999

How freedom punishes the severely mentally ill
USA Today, June 7, 1999

Within 48 hours in Maryland, a police officer, sheriff's deputy, a mother and a teen-ager are dead - killed by men with symptoms of schizophrenia, violent histories and medication noncompliance. What should really shock us is that we can expect more of these tragedies in Maryland unless the law governing treatment for the mentally ill is reformed.
- Baltimore Sun, March 1, 2001

Letters to the editor

Protection for Maryland's Mentally Ill
The Washington Post, June 24, 2003

Maryland and the mentally ill
The Washington Post, Sept. 11, 2002

Laura Van Tosh got it wrong
Montgomery County Gazette, June 12, 2002

Reforming Maryland's mental health laws
Washington Post, May 20, 2002

A dangerous law
Washington Post, March 20, 2002

The hospital said my son did not meet the legal standard for involuntary admission because, at that moment, he did not "present a danger." Two weeks later he used the gun to commit suicide.
- Washington Post, March 20, 2002

HOW YOU CAN HELP

REACHING YOUR LEGISLATORS

I don't know their names ...
Go to Congress.org, enter your ZIP code, and get the names of your legislators. You can also search on the Maryland legislature website.

I know their names, I just want addresses ...
List of all senators and representatives

ACTION Write to your legislator
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ACTION Meet with your legislator
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ACTION Write a letter to the editor - how to write, how to submit
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ACTION Donate to TAC to support reform efforts
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ACTION Fill out a TAC network form to get the newsletter and stay informed
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