HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Some Alabama families who have considered committing mentally ill relatives are asking judges to consider something different.
Among them is Marla Pope, whose daughter has been in and out of psychiatric facilities nine times in nine years since her diagnosis with bipolar schizoaffective disorder.
Pope filed a petition to have her daughter committed. But she came to a recent hearing in Huntsville to ask a judge to consider an alternative — a program called outpatient commitment, Al.com reported (https://bit.ly/1MTX1E4). The program offers court-ordered treatment in the home.
Left on her own, Pope’s daughter stops taking her medications and begins to break down, Al.com reported. In seeking outpatient commitment, Pope hopes to keep her daughter stable at home for several months, perhaps giving her a shot at holding things together and then moving forward.
“I’m the only one left,” Pope said in an interview with the news site. “Everyone else has given up.”
Across Alabama, judges have used outpatient commitment to varying degrees.
In Madison County, probate courts sent 13 percent of patients to outpatient commitment last year.
Jefferson County’s rate was 14 percent; Montgomery County’s rate was 18 percent.
Mobile County’s rate was much higher at 57 percent.
The rest of the patients, for the most part, went to a crisis intervention unit or a psychiatric hospital.
Under Alabama’s law, a probate judge can order 150 days of outpatient care for people who are deemed incapable of making rational decisions about needing mental health treatment or following through on it. Social workers visit to ensure that they’re taking their medication, and attending therapy sessions and doctors’ appointments.
Pope recently joined several others who signed a letter to Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange. They say they’re concerned that the treatment option struggles to overcome confusion, fear and skepticism.
Outpatient commitment has been controversial from the start. Relatives of people suffering from mental illness often praise the program. But some civil liberties groups worry that it infringes on the rights of those with mental illness. The criteria for outpatient commitment do not require that a person be a danger to themselves or others, yet it still forces a person into legal supervision.
Kathryn Cohen, legislative and policy counsel for the Treatment Advocacy Center, said outpatient commitment works not because it forces patients to accept treatment, but because it forces the state to provide it.
“You’re not just committing the patient to the plan, but also committing the state to the patient,” Cohen said.
Cohen said there are flaws in Alabama’s law. The maximum term of outpatient commitment is 150 days, just five months, and it can’t be renewed.
In Pope’s case, she never got to read the statement she had prepared for her daughter’s hearing in Huntsville.
The evaluation team at WellStone Behavioral Health recommended that her daughter undergo inpatient treatment, so she stayed at Huntsville Hospital.
In another month, or month and a half, she will be released again, Pope said. And it’s unknown what will happen to her daughter once that happens.
“Without help, she will become homeless and a bag lady,” Pope said. “It’s sitting on the edge of your chair, waiting for your kid to die.”
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