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Involuntary Outpatient Commitment Defeated in New Mexico
National Mental Health Advocates Praise Legislators, Offer Assistance
February 16, 2006 – The New Mexico legislature adjourned at mid-day today without passing House Bill 174, the local version of the so-called “Kendra’s Law” that would have imposed forced outpatient treatment on people with psychiatric disabilities.
According to the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a national advocacy organization, implications of the bill’s demise go well beyond New Mexico. Michael Allen, a senior staff attorney at the Center who traveled to New Mexico to assist in efforts to defeat HB 174, said: “New Mexicans have turned the tide on forced treatment, and rejected the simplistic approach represented by Kendra’s Law. This victory for a sane mental health policy will resound across the country, refocusing public attention where it should be—on adequate funding for the services and supports needed by people with mental illnesses.”
Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services and a member of the Bazelon Center’s board of trustees, also went to New Mexico in early February to urge the legislature to “reject the false solution of forced treatment.” Reprising his promise to New Mexico legislators, Rosenthal today said: “I look forward to working with New Mexicans on real solutions and real reforms of the public mental health system. That begins with adequate funding for evidence-based practices like supportive housing, peer support and voluntary mental health services.”
Allen said he and Rosenthal plan to return to New Mexico later this year to provide technical assistance to policymakers and advocates who are working on the state’s mental health transformation agenda. “Now that the cloud of forced treatment has lifted,” he added, “we can all get down to the real business of consensus building, and constructing a system that will meet New Mexico’s needs.”
