Killings Loom Over Debate on Treating Mentally Ill

By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD, The New York Times
Published: February 8, 2006

SANTA FE, N.M., Feb. 7 — Against the vivid backdrop of recent killings by mentally ill people, both sides in the national debate over whether mentally ill people who have not committed a crime can be forced into treatment are preparing for a showdown in the Legislature here.

Forum: Mental Health and Treatment
New Mexico lawmakers are considering a bill, backed by Gov. Bill Richardson, that would make the state the 43rd with a law allowing family members, doctors or others to seek a court order forcing the mentally ill into outpatient treatment. Typically under the laws, if mentally ill people refuse the treatment, they can face confinement in a hospital. Across the country, proponents have pushed the laws as a pragmatic approach to the mentally ill who fall through the cracks of the mental health system, particularly those who have committed no crime but could harm themselves or others as their sickness worsens. These mentally ill people often do not need to be in a hospital, but do need to stick to treatment, which could include medication, therapy or both.

"We are talking about a small group of people who do not get help because they don't want help or know they need help," Mary T. Zdanowicz, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, based in Virginia, said in a break from lobbying lawmakers here. But opponents say the laws infringe on the civil rights of the mentally ill, and they suggest that teams of social and psychiatric workers could accomplish the same thing with direct intervention on the streets. Critics also say that most states have not provided adequate money for the services needed by those forced into treatment. One of the more glaring examples, the opponents say, is California. Three years after adopting an outpatient treatment law, none of its counties, which are charged with carrying it out, have found the money or will to put it into practice...

...Like other states, New Mexico provides that violent offenders who are mentally ill can be committed to inpatient treatment at a psychiatric hospital for a certain period. But the proposed law is intended for the mentally ill who have not committed crimes and have resisted treatment. The proposal — called Kendra's law after one in New York named for Kendra Webdale, who was killed when a schizophrenic who had been in and out of treatment centers pushed her in front of a New York City subway train in 1999 — arose after an Albuquerque man on a long descent into mental illness shot to death five people, including two police officers, in August.