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Testimony

NAMI New Jersey
Phillip Lubitz

September 26 , 2005

My name is Phillip Lubitz from NAMI NEW JERSEY, The National Alliance on Mental Illness New Jersey. We are a statewide coalition of self-help support and advocacy groups composed of families, consumers and friends of persons with a serious mental illness. With chapters in all twenty-one counties we are New Jersey's largest grassroots organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of individuals with a serious mental illness and their families. I serve as the State Family Support Coordinator under the provisions of the P.L.1995, chapter 314, The Family Support Act for Persons with a Serious Mental Illness.

Senator Vitale, members of the Senate Health, Human Services and Seniors Committee, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak in favor of S2760 which would establish involuntary outpatient commitment to treatment. By clarifying New Jersey’s involuntary commitment to treatment statute and adding a less restrictive outpatient alternative we believe that this bill strikes a proper balance between individual rights and the responsibility of state government to protect those who are unable to protect themselves.

This year New Jersey has made an unprecedented commitment to developing a comprehensive system of mental health care based on recovery and wellness for people with mental illness. The legislature has passed a new state budget which increases access to treatment by providing more than $40 million in new spending for psychiatric care, including:

• $10 million for mental health screening centers
• $2.5 million for expanded psychiatric services
• $5 million for support services for supportive housing
• $1.8 million for jail diversion programs in Essex, Union and Atlantic Counties
• $ 1 million for new bi-lingual and culturally competent services
• $1 million for Short Term Care Facilities
• $1.5 million for special case management services
• $1 million for culturally competent services
• $2.1 million for Self-Help centers
• $1 million to expand Supported Employment
• $800 thousand for pilot re-entry case management services
• $600 thousand for the Community Health Law Project to expand legal services
• $3.5 million for a college loan forgiveness program for mental health workers
• $250 thousand for the Governor’s Council on Mental Health Stigma

A $200 million Special Needs Housing Trust Fund would help create 10,000 affordable-housing opportunities for people with mental illness in the next 10 years.

$ 12 million Cost of Providing Care increase was added over the budget Acting Governor Codey proposed in March to shore up the infrastructure of the community mental health system.

In other actions that have a direct affect on persons with a mental illness the legislature made late changes to the budget to do away with a proposal to charge $1 and $3 dollar co-pays under Medicaid for prescriptions and clinic visits. The legislature also added $20 million dollars to create a “wrap-around” for individuals who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare. This will prevent a disruption in their prescription coverage when the new Medicare drug benefit takes affect in January.

Despite these improvements, a small group of people is so disabled by a mental illness that the individuals are unable to meet their own basic needs yet, because of their illness, are unable or unwilling to seek treatment. These are individuals for whom voluntary services have repeatedly failed. Because New Jersey’s commitment standard has come to be interpreted more narrowly than its original intent, these individuals must decompensate to a state of dangerousness before they become involuntarily committed to a psychiatric institution. Of course there are many who become incarcerated, homeless or abused before they meet this unintentionally high threshold and their family and friends must stand helplessly by while this occurs.

We have and will hear about various studies on outpatient commitment, I believe you have material from Mary Zdanowicz who has offered the most comprehensive review of the reports. What we do know is after reviewing the same material four states; Alabama, California, Florida and Michigan have recently adopted new outpatient commitment laws. New York has just readopted its law based on the evaluation of their experience with outpatient commitment that showed a 87% reduction in incarceration, a 77% reduction in psychiatric hospitalization and a 74% reduction in homelessness.

Acting Governor Codey has offered bi-partisan legislation that would help address this gaping hole in New Jersey’s safety net for persons with a mental illness. Senate Bill 2760 would clarify New Jersey's standard for involuntary treatment and authorize commitment to outpatient treatment as a less restrictive alternative to the only current option: involuntary hospitalization. Trained mental-health professionals would conduct evaluations, with consumer rights protected by judicial oversight. This proposal is supported by the Governor's Task Force on Mental Health, family members, and consumers who say such legislation would save them from homelessness, jail or needless institutionalization.

The commitment of acting Governor Codey and this legislature for supporting the new mental health initiatives has been a source of rejoicing for the families of persons affected by a mental illness. For New Jersey's mental-health reform to be truly comprehensive however, we must reach those individuals who have been left out. Passage of this bill would mean we would no longer turn our backs on those too ill to care for themselves.

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