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The Challenges of Involuntary Commitment

By Kristin Houle

The Washington Post (November 28, 2007) features an informative article about the challenges related to involuntary commitment procedures for people with mental illness. Most states require those exhibiting symptoms of mental illness to pose an "imminent threat" to themselves or others before they are committed to a mental health facility against their will. Here's an excerpt from the article:"The imminent danger standard arose in several states in response to the previous governmental practice of building large asylums and then dumping the mentally ill there without due process or adequate resources. As squalid conditions and sordid practices were uncovered in the 1950s, the pendulum swung toward patients' rights: Hundreds of thousands were "deinstitutionalized," or released from the asylums, and new legal standards -- "imminent danger" in many states -- were installed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Prevention Not Punishment on November 29, 2007 (boomark / email).