It was a roller-coaster of a week for mental health advocates addressing possible changes to Virginia’s Mandatory Outpatient Treatment (MOT) laws. On Monday, a subcommittee of the House Health, Welfare and Institutions approved three of the five bills with those changes, based on Delegate Hope’s assurance that the bills had been fully vetted by the “Deeds Commission.” That was not true.
By Tuesday morning, Delegate Price correctly noted that the bills had not been approved by the Deeds Commission; nonetheless the Health, Welfare, and Institutions committee approved all three.
Then, Wednesday morning, as the bills came before the House Appropriations Committee to deal with an uncertain financial impact, Chairman Sickles announced that they were not yet ready to go. All three bills were “passed by indefinitely,” meaning that they are dead.
The bills that made it as far as the money committee this week, but are now dead, are:
HB 699 (Hope) would have revised the process for revision of a forced treatment order. Included language of “in determining the appropriateness of MOT, the court may consider the person’s material non-compliance,” and that MOT remains in effect until the date specified in the order or until the order is rescinded.
HB 700 (Hope) would have eliminated the requirement that a person must agree to cooperate in the treatment.
HB 713 (Hope) would have extended the maximum time period for a forced treatment order, from 90 to 180 days and creates a process for judicial review of a person’s compliance with the forced treatment order.
This is our last report on MOT for the 2020 legislative session.
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