Governers pitches mental health changes
The Denver Post
Colorado would streamline involuntary
mental health commitments and speed that information to gun-sale
registries as part of a comprehensive, $18.5 million psychiatric
overhaul aimed at preventing future violence and improving care in a
package of proposals announced by Gov. John Hickenlooper Tuesday.
Mental
health advocates in the state hailed what they say is a
desperately-needed bolstering of emergency psychiatric services and
laws. They said civil commitments could be simplified while still
protecting patient rights, and that the spending package to increase
emergency beds and evaluations is the right approach.
At the
capitol, Hickenlooper said the proposals, taken together, should "reduce
the probability of bad things happening to good people."
The governor's proposals include:
• Rewriting three laws on mental health commitments into a new,
comprehensive set of rules clarifying the procedures and rights of those
involved.
• Allowing court proceedings on mental health holds to
be entered immediately into Colorado Bureau of Investigation firearm
registries, so that required background checks on gun buyers would have
real-time information.
• Spend $10.3 million on a statewide
mental health crisis hotline, and five always-open walk-in centers for
stabilizing urgent mental health cases.
• Develop 20 new beds for prisoners with psychiatric needs in the Denver area, with $2 million in state funds.
• Spend $4.8 million next year on transitional mental health care,
including two 15-bed residential homes for those leaving inpatient
facilities to rejoin the community. This portion would also add 107
housing vouchers to help the seriously mentally ill.
•
De-escalation rooms at state mental health hospitals, and a new
consolidation of mental health and substance abuse data, with $1.4
million in state spending.
The expansion of services should be
applauded, said Jana Burke, director of the Rocky Mountain ADA Center,
which advocates for patient rights and is a clearinghouse for the
Americans with Disabilities Act. Clarifying the commitment law will help
define patient rights, Burke added.
Long before the Aurora
theater shooting and the tragedy unfolding in Connecticut, state mental
health leaders had called for higher spending and more coordinated care
for the seriously ill.
A 2011 report by a group of key
foundations said 90,000 Colorado children and adolescents have a
"serious emotional disturbance." Another 170,000 adults have a severe
mental illness, according to the report "Advancing Colorado's Mental
Care."
The report highlighted Colorado's outsized suicide rate,
and a large number of military veterans returning from challenging duty
in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also noted that specialized psychiatric
services are increasingly concentrated in major cities like Denver and
Colorado Springs, leaving rural areas badly underserved in mental
health.
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