The Virginia state government approved a
bill to "eliminate gaps in the mental health system" as brought to light by the recent Virginia Tech shooting. Needless to say, this bill has me excited. We encountered absurdity after frustrating absurdity when we tried to committ ED to psychiatric care last summer. Even when we saw him spiraling down mentally and emotionally, we could do nothing but wait for his behavior to become so out of control that we had to call the police. No joke.
ED is his own guardian, and even though he had not committed a crime, his mental illness compounded with his mental retardation (dual diagnosis) pretty much added up to involuntary admission. There's no way someone like ED is going to voluntarily sign up to spend the night in a foreign place away from familiar people. This is just unrealistic. ED's self-gaurdianship is an important part of his individuation and independence as an adult with MR. I would never want this taken from him because of his mental illness. Instead, this law would make it possible for mental health professionals to admit adults w/o guardians to mental health facilities for treatment.
If this law had been in place BEFORE the Spring/Summer of 2007, we would have been able to get ED treatment long before he spiraled out of control. We would never have had to endure the trauma of calling the police who would then handcuff ED, put him in the patrol car, drive over to the nearest ER, and sign a bunch of papers to admit ED into the hospitals care. We wouldn't have had to go to court the next day, ED still in handcuffs, and make the case to the judge that ED is mentally ill and needs to be placed in a psychiatric facility. It was a horrendous process and one we had to go through twice. Rediculous.
I'm relieved that this process can now be bypassed, that the police and the court room and the judge can be cut out of the equation, that people like ED won't be criminalized/demonized because of their mental illness or mental retardation.
If you are someone, like me, who is keenly interested in the secrets and idiosyncrasies of other people, check it out. 
