The rapid passage of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's gun laws — with a sizable dose of changes to mental health laws — now awaits the raft of amendments and other changes that invariably accompany legislation passed in crisis mode.
We in mental health have only to recall the hasty passage of the original Kendra's Law, which set up the Assisted Outpatient Treatment program without any resources in 1999. It took a scathing report on the state of the mental health system in The New York Times' magazine to shame Gov. George Pataki and the Legislature to provide critical fiscal support.
Virtually all mental health providers and advocates reject as unworkable the gun bill's requirement that clinicians must report to law enforcement those found likely to engage in conduct seriously harmful to themselves or others. More importantly, we fear the requirement will dissuade those who might seek help for fear they will find the police on their doorsteps. Think of the many Iraqi and Afghanistan war veterans.
While many of us embrace the Assisted Outpatient Treatment program and believe it deserves to be extended, we resent the Legislature tying action on this matter to the gun bill fostering the unjustified link between mental illness and violence. We believe the program is a valuable tool in engaging the relatively small number of those who are resistant to treatment and who may be dangerous and deserves passage on its own merits. It is not a panacea for all that is deficient in the state's mental health system and should not give the Legislature cause to believe they have done anything extraordinary.
ROBERT K. CORLISS
Coordinator of Forensic Services, National Alliance on Mental Illness of Schenectady
Schenectady