The Senate Health and Welfare Committee approved a bill Friday to streamline the process for the involuntary medication and treatment of acute psychiatric patients, paving the way for a floor vote next week.
The bill, S.287, which passed 3-2, changes timing elements for the judicial review of a clinician’s request to treat and, in some cases, medicate a patient against their will.
Senate Pro Tem John Campbell, D-Windsor, said the bill will likely reach the floor Thursday or Friday.
One of the main departures in the bill from current law would allow psychiatrists to file an application to have a patient medicated involuntarily without first waiting for the court to determine if the patient should be admitted involuntarily.
Sen. Ginny Lyons, D-Chittenden, said the bill gives hospitals the ability to expedite review for the most acute cases in which patients present a danger to themselves or others or in which the patient has responded well to involuntary medication in the past.
“It makes it so it’s not a one-size fits all process,” Lyons said.
At the same time, she said the bill gives discretion to the courts to decide whether a case merits expedition, which helps protect patients’ rights.
Sen. Anthony Pollina, D/P/W-Washington and Sen. Dick McCormack, D-Windsor, were the two ‘no’ votes.
Pollina said he wasn’t sure there was a need for the bill, and didn’t understand how it had become a priority for the committee.
He said he worries that the streamlined process will tax the resources of the judiciary and the Legal Aid attorneys who represent patients in involuntary proceedings.
Part of the problem, Pollina said, is that after the Vermont State Hospital closed due to flooding, four of the state’s private hospitals were thrust into new roles treating the severely mentally ill.
“Entities that have been given new responsibilities are having a hard time handling it, and one of the solutions they’ve come up with is the idea of moving people through process quicker to medicate them,” he said.
A better solution would be to put more resources toward the mental health system and ensuring psychiatric patients can access community-based services to avoid hospitalizations, Pollina said.
“I think one of the best things that’s come out of the discussions we’ve had about this bill is it has exposed some weaknesses in the mental health system,” he said.
