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Advocate files
lawsuit against Rhode Island
(December
2007 Issue)
By Phyllis Hanlon
H. Reed Cosper, Esq., mental health advocate for R.I., filed a
lawsuit against the state on Oct. 25, 2007, alleging involuntary
detention of psychiatric patients in hospital emergency rooms as
well as failure to provide privacy, dignity, individualized treatment
plans and access to inpatient care in a licensed psychiatric facility
as guaranteed by the state's mental health law.
Cosper says that in the 1980s, state leadership created a protocol
to address the backlog of psychiatric patients in emergency rooms,
which mandated that "the detained psychiatric patient should go
to the state hospital until they can be connected to primary care
and will have an acute bed when one is available." He says, "In
2001, the court revoked that protocol."
Rhode Island has a comprehensive mental health law that authorizes
detention but also provides for the right to privacy and dignity
and individualized treatment plans. "If the mental health law is
invoked to detain these people, then the other aspects of the law
can't be put off forever," says Cosper.
Chaz Gross, executive director of NAMI-R.I., believes the lawsuit
has merit. "There are some unrealistic policies in place that reinforce
the belief that total outpatient community-based care is the magic
potion," Gross agrees with the philosophy of care in the least restrictive
setting but says that mental illness requires "different levels
of care at different times."
Gross hopes the lawsuit will positively impact the future of R.I.'s
mental health system. "I think the current director of MHRH [Department
of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals] has shown a willingness
to work together with partners and this is the opportunity to come
together and provide solutions together," he says.
Paul Block, Ph.D., co-director, Psychological Centers, speaks as
an advocate as well as executive of a private agency. "I believe
it is unfortunate that the lawsuit had to be filed, believe that
the state is already aware and working on the relevant issues and
believe the biggest problem is the over-reliance on hospital-based
care rather than more effective clinical management and more extensive
community based services," he says. "I know the department (MRHR)
has been working on those issues."
Craig Stenning, executive director of the division of behavioral
health care, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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