Twenty-five years ago, if you were mentally ill, living in West Virginia, and involuntarily committed, you most likely would be hospitalized for 15 years. Today, if you were mentally ill, living in West Virginia, and involuntarily committed, modern medications that work miracles in treating your symptoms would be available to you. You most likely would be released from the hospital in less than 15 days.

      Although your length of stay and treatment options would differ dramatically between 25 years ago and today, until Senate Bill 193 became law, the legal procedure you would have followed would have been the same.

      Senate Bill 193 changes the adversarial commitment procedure to a more medical model. The passage of Senate Bill 193 during the 2001 Legislative Session is a direct result of the work of the Supreme Court’s Commission on Mental Hygiene Reform.

      In 1999, the Mental Hygiene Reform Commission, headed by Morgantown attorney and former Monongalia County Mental Hygiene Commissioner Bill Byrne, looked in-depth at our "mental hygiene" system for the involuntary hospitalization of people due to retardation, addiction, or mental illness.

      A number of the Mental Hygiene Reform Commission’s recommended changes are included in Senate Bill 193. Here is a short summary of the major changes that Senate Bill 193 makes to Chapter 27 of the West Virginia Code.

      •Updated definitions of "addiction" and "likely to cause serious harm" to comport with current practice. The stereotyped and stigmatizing "dangerousness" language is replaced with a medical/social definition that focuses on the need for treatment of acute and seriously harmful illness.

      •Removal of retardation as grounds for involuntary hospitalization.

      •Evidentiary clarification to allow the decision-maker to consider reliable medical records and other evidence of past problems.

      •Mandatory three-day training for all new mental hygiene commissioners.

      •Cross-county and cross-circuit cooperative jurisdiction for mental hygiene commissioners, prosecutors, sheriffs, and local police.

      •Waiver of prosecuting attorney at hearings set for non-judicial hours, where the applicant will suffer no detriment.

      •Court-approved voluntary treatment agreements as a less-restrictive alternative to involuntary hospitalization.

      •Release on convalescent status from state hospitalization for patients needing to continue on medication.

      This mental health reform legislation allows us to build on the strengths of our current mental hygiene system. We can move more toward a medical model, while still respecting liberty, autonomy, and due process. Our medical and social service systems will grow in their ability to provide pro-active and preventive services for people and families in crisis.

      I am particularly pleased that this legislation was the result of a cooperative effort between the courts, the executive branch, the Legislature, the private bar, prosecutors, health and social service professionals, and patient and family advocacy groups. Other states will want to emulate West Virginia’s cooperative approach to mental health reform.

      This reform legislation, along with the Supreme Court’s dedication to provide meaningful oversight of our mental hygiene system, and to coordinate with other stakeholders, should bring greater efficiency and compassion to our society’s response to the problems of severe mental illness. On behalf of the thousands of West Virginians who are impacted by mental illness, we appreciate the hard work of everyone who helped bring our mental health law into a new era.

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