Word: zdanowicz
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...very interesting intersection of these issues," Mary Zdanowicz, director of the Arlington, Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center, said. From the "easy" commitment laws in the first half of the 20th century, the pendulum has swung over the past couple of decades to the point that it has been increasingly more difficult to get a troubled individual committed involuntarily, she said. Now, she argues, the pendulum is starting to swing back in the other direction. "From my perspective, it's a good thing," Zdanowicz said...
...Advocacy Center has been pressing for that "equilibrium" in state laws so that troubled individuals can be ordered into treatment, particularly when they fail to take their medications or exhibit potential for violence or self-destruction. Zdanowicz believes that some states rely on arcane law enforcement language to set out standards for involuntary commitment - in Virginia, for instance, the person must be adjudicated to be an "imminent danger" to himself or others. The center endorses more flexible language found in states like Arkansas and Wisconsin, where a judge is allowed to determine if there is a "reasonable probability" someone will...
...before this week's horrifying events at Virginia Tech, the rewriting of Virginia's commitment laws was already a major focus of a yearlong study of the state's mental health laws launched last fall by Leroy R. Hassell Sr., the chief justice of the Virginia State Supreme Court. Zdanowicz, who serves on the task force, said the chief justice had become concerned that the criminal justice system was, in effect, becoming the state's mental health care system, where jails are poor substitutes for failing and too few mental health care facilities. The Cho shootings will bring even closer...
...predictably gruff defense of the N.Y.P.D. But the Busch shooting reflects a chronic problem, one that affects communities throughout the country. Increasingly, police action appears to be the only action that can be taken with EDPs. "Law-enforcement officers are serving as front-line mental-health workers," says Mary Zdanowicz, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center, based in Virginia. "But by the time the police intercede, it's usually too late...
...stay, unless he or she could be proved dangerous. Massive deinstitutionalization occurred. Since 1969, 93% of psychiatric beds have been emptied across the country, and many of the mentally ill end up in the prison system or fending for themselves. Any other way leads to a legal morass. Zdanowicz says, "You can't force someone into an institution unless a whole bunch of criteria are met." The situation is so dire that if family or friends report that an EDP is becoming violent, most mental-health workers will say, "Call the police...