In the wake of last week’s killing of 32 people at Virginia Tech University by shooter Seung-Hui Cho, and Cho’s subsequent suicide, the debate has intensified on mental health commitment laws in Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere. Maryland and Virginia’s laws on involuntary commitment of the mentally ill are among the strictest in the country, said Jonathan Stanley, assistant director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, an Arlington, Va.-based group that advocates for broader commitment laws. Both states should be “more willing to let police officers, judges and doctors step in” and allow both involuntary inpatient and outpatient commitment to be more of an option, Stanley said. Others disagree. “We’re opposed to any further relaxation of the [commitment] standard that would lead to involuntary admissions” for mentally ill persons that might be considered dangerous, said Laura Cain, an attorney for the Maryland Disability Law Center in Baltimore.
(c) 2007 The Daily Record (Baltimore). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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