N.J. Legislature passes bill allowing forced treatment to mentally ill, awaiting Corzine approval

N.J. Legislature passes bill allowing forced treatment to mentally ill, awaiting Corzine approval

www.nj.com

A bill that would allow state officials to force people with a serious mental illness to attend outpatient treatment if a judge finds they are a danger to themselves or others has been sent to Gov. Jon Corzine

(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow! I cant believe this is happening. They make it sound good, if your a danger were going to help you. Do you really want a judge to decide if your a danger to yourself or others?
This will escelate into forcefully medicating normal people because they maybe a little depressed or something.
Wait till the schools get a hold of this, were gonna have 80% of our kids on meds.

www.nj.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Usually I'm dead set against this kind of forceful treatment, but since I lived IN NJ and know how many UNSTABLE people infest that area, I am all for it!

About a decade ago, the state passed a bill to stop funding mental health facilities. Almost overnight dozens of asylums in NJ closed their doors and dumped their mentally ill patients on the street. Some towns, like Marlboro, had to arrest every homeless mentally ill person just to get them off the streets and get them to a place where they would be fed and taken care of.

It was sad because on that day in NJ the legistlature basically criminalized mental illness. The only way to get these people help was to make up a crime and arrest them. That kind of systemic targetted persecution didn't exactly help the mental state of the paranoid and delusional peoples.


So for the last decade or so, mental illness has been a crime. What this bill does is make mental illness a crime that you can be convicted of without a trial by jury and without any limitations on the amount of time served.

Jon

I know that it is the nature of ATS to look for danger in new laws, but this is a very good thing for many people!

Many mentally ill people fall through the cracks and their families have one heck of a time getting them into treatment, this is a good thing. I only wish there had been something in place for my daughter. She was very ill and no matter how many times we got her admitted to the Psych ED they let her go with no follow up at all. She hung herself 5 years ago and I have long placed a part of the blame with a system that fails those that need it most.

This story is interesting because,

What defines a mentally ill person?

Someone who has a hard time socializing?
Someone who does not pay taxes?
Someone who can not keep a job?
Someone who is violent?
Someone who has severe moods?
Someone who sees things we do not see?
Someone who has different ideas?
Someone who sees things differently?
Someone who justifies the unjustifiable?
Someone who is scared of something others are not?

I am tired of writing Someone who now but you get my point.

Wiki Mentally Ill

Here is a list of medications a doctor might prescribe for mental patients
Mental Drugs

I hope the cookie cutter label of being mentally ill fits the needs of what exactly is an illness in the brain.

Could I be mentally ill? If so how would I REALLY know.?

I find this recent revelation in legislation awaiting approval in New Jersey as disturbing. Forcing people to receive mental treatment? What constitutes if someone is mentally fit or unfit? What happens if someone refuses treatment will they be arrested for doing so? I hope this bill does not become law because it can have a horrible outcome for the state of New Jersey.

On the flip side, this kind of thing happened before. It happened in Nazi Germany when the people suffering psychological illness, mentally challenged, crippled, and many others with many serious illnesses were rounded up and kept in state-run hospitals and ultimately meeting their demise in the concentration camps. So this issue shouldn't be taken lightly because you give some one an inch they will always take that mile.

the germans did this in WW2; forced injections of those who were socially unstable.

I am absolutely against this. I am someone who suffers from depression, only I am allergic to anti-depressant medications. Doctors do not acknowledge this and the anti-depressants actually make me worse than when I am not taking them. If I were forced to take them that would be the end of me. I could not deal with the pain and mental anguish the medications inflict on me.

[edit on 27-6-2009 by theyreadmymind]

As someone with schizoprhenia I'm all for it. Some of the mentaly ill don't know that they're sick and refuse treatment. They cause problems for the communities and stuff. I highly doubt they're gonna be using this to drug your kids.

Originally posted by wantsome
As someone with schizoprhenia I'm all for it. Some of the mentaly ill don't know that they're sick and refuse treatment. They cause problems for the communities and stuff. I highly doubt they're gonna be using this to drug your kids.

Finally, someone with some common sense

Institutionalizing people costs big bucks, clearly it's only a last resort when it's truly needed to help someone.

Originally posted by crw2006

N.J. Legislature passes bill allowing forced treatment to mentally ill, awaiting Corzine approval

www.nj.com

A bill that would allow state officials to force people with a serious mental illness to attend outpatient treatment if a judge finds they are a danger to themselves or others has been sent to Gov. Jon Corzine

(visit the link for the full news article)

this has long been the law in calif.
Section 5150 (Involuntary psychiatric hold), of California's Welfare and Institutions Code ...

5150 criteria

The criteria for writing requires probable cause. This includes "danger to self", "danger to others" together with some indication, prior to the administering of the hold, of symptoms of a "mental disorder", and/or "grave disability"—as noted below. The conditions must exist under the context of a mental illness.

#Danger to self: The person must be an immediate threat to themselves, usually by being suicidal. Someone who is severely depressed and wishes to die would fall under this category.
#Danger to others: The person must be an immediate threat to someone else. A person hearing voices telling to kill someone, having anger management issues, and/or any unusual obsession or behavior with others would fall under this category.
#Gravely disabled:
##Adult (patients over 18 years of age): The person's mental condition prevents him/her from being able to provide for food, clothing, and/or shelter, and there is no indication that anyone is willing or able to assist him/her in procuring these needs. This does not necessarily mean homeless, as a homeless person who is able to seek housing (even in a temporary shelter) when weather demands it would not fall under this category. Also, the mere lack of resources to provide food, clothing, or shelter is not dispositive; the inability must be caused by the psychiatric condition.
##Minor (patients under 18 years of age): The person is unable to provide for his/her food, clothing, and/or shelter or to make appropriate use of them even if these are supplied directly--for example, a psychotic adolescent who refuses to eat because he/she believes their parents are poisoning them.
#Mental disorder: Though undefined by statute or regulation, this is generally taken to refer to a diagnosis listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Page 14 of the LA County LPS Designation Manual states that "the initiator must be able to articulate behavioral symptoms of a mental disorder either temporary or prolonged" (People v. Triplett,(1983) 144 Cal. App. 3d 283).
dic.academic.ru...

This includes people under the influence of illegal drug that threatens others physically or verbally.

Many long time illegal drug users develop mental health issues.

There are many dangerous mentally ill that need to confined but the state due to funding allows them to wonder the streets till they kill themselves or others.

As a EMT in some counties of Calif i was able to have people committed under 5150.

And anytime they threaten someone else i did it without any regret because they were a danger to others.

The legislation is talking about out patient treatment people not institutionalization. It is not easy to find someone incompetent, but when a person has repeated suicide attempts and is a danger to themselves and/or others then this is a very good thing.

It will require us to keep an eye out for abuses but this needs to be done. IF a mentally ill person were to kill your child while suffering delusions after being released from the hospital with no after care requirements you all would be singing a different tune. Or would you want the mentally ill person who could be helped to sit in prison for life over a crime they are in no way responsible for in a legal sense. With this legislation we could finally hold these doctors responsible for allowing very sick and dangerous people to walk free with no supervision at all!

edit: I used to work in a homeless shelter and the things I saw there I will never forget. We had a young kid whose baseline was suicidal/homicidal and though this kid was hearing attack voices and acted on them constantly the hospitals in our area refused to keep him. That was heartbreaking, I always wondered what happened to that kid.

[edit on 6/27/2009 by redhead57]