Lawmakers appear to agree that more mental health training and personnel would help in responding to crises like the one that preceded a double murder in Turner.
With involuntary commitment, where should Maine draw the line?
A bill before the Legislature raises tough questions about forcing people into inpatient mental health treatment.
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Some bills wind their way through the legislative process with nary a raised eyebrow. Others leave lawmakers in a moral quandary, caught between one side that says do something and another that says don’t.
L.D. 785 is one of those others.
It’s titled “An Act to Change the Standard for Assessing Risk of Serious Harm.” On paper, it amounts to a slight tweak in existing state law that governs who can be involuntarily committed for mental health treatment and who can’t.
Criteria for involuntarily committing patients in Maine is about to change
The state supreme court ruled last month that a Damariscotta hospital erred in holding a patient without getting a judge s approval and in how it evaluated his petition to be released.
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Maine health officials are revising the process for involuntarily committing mental health patients deemed at risk of harming themselves or others in light of a recent ruling by the state’s highest court.
Last month, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court concluded that MaineHealth, the parent company of LincolnHealth Miles Hospital in Damariscotta, violated state law when it held a man for nearly a month last year without first getting judicial approval, and also that it failed to apply the proper standard when denying his petition for release.