Involuntary treatment for mental illness back before committee

Advocates for people with mental illness and those with disabilities lined up Monday afternoon to urge a legislative committee to once again reject legislation that would authorize court-ordered outpatient treatment programs for people with severe mental illness…“Involuntary outpatient commitment, as also referred to earlier as assisted outpatient commitment, undermines the values of personal autonomy, liberty, dignity and choice that define what it means to live in the community,” Marlene Sallo, executive director of the Disability Law Center, told the committee Monday. “Involuntary outpatient commitment also creates yet another parallel to the correctional system where individuals with mental illness are forced into a cycle of being admitted, held, released, and then, with involuntary outpatient commitment, placed under probation in the community.”

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