Mental Health Information

Rights of so-called mentally ill may be violated

I have been following House Bill 588, “Community Engagement Teams,” and I was surprised to see that our legislators have passed this piece of legislation.

House Bill 588 proposes that we send teams of mental health counselors and social workers into our communities to “link” those who are deemed mentally ill with mental health services. The bill supposes that such citizens are mentally ill and would be unlikely to live safely in the community without further treatment, though they may not need inpatient care.

This team of “experts” would convince them to go voluntarily to a mental health service facility for evaluation and treatment.

Just because HB 588 was amended to now be “voluntary” does not relieve the fact that people will be approached by these so-called “experts” to get medical treatment and convinced to go.

<snip>

...we are all too ready to accept the word of the psychiatrist that a person’s mental disturbances are so-called disorders that require drastic treatment by mind-altering drugs and other barbaric methods which will put that person under control but certainly not helped.

And with the passage of HB588, we would slide further down that slippery slope by sending even less qualified “experts” as part of the teams to determine that your relative, your neighbor, your co-worker or you are mentally ill and would not be “safe” without treatment.

The fact of the matter is that psychiatric drugs create violence and suicide.

<snip/more>