Last week, on August 7, new mental hygiene laws quietly went to effect in New York, allowing for people to be committed against their will if they cannot provide or refuse help with basic needs. But what do these new laws mean, and what are your rights if you are involuntary committed?
Disability Reporter Emyle Watkins spoke with two experts about the concerns with the new expansion and what people should know about their rights.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript written by an external contractor and may be updated over time to be more accurate.
Emyle Watkins: Hi, I am Emyle Watkins, and this is the Disabilities Beat.
Beth Haroules: No one knows the person's been disappeared into this sort of setting. So it's almost like a mental health version of what's going on with ICE.
Emyle Watkins: Beth Haroules is the Director of Disability Justice Litigation for the NYCLU. She's an expert critical of New York's expansion of involuntary commitment.
Beth Haroules: Where people are being swept up, taken away, disappeared. So we're going to be seeing potentially the same sort of you're going to disappear people and no one's going to know that they've been taken off the street and brought in.
Emyle Watkins: Last week on August 7th, new mental hygiene laws quietly went to effect in New York, allowing for people to be committed against their will if they cannot provide or refuse help with basic needs. This has raised a lot of concerns, particularly for homeless folks.
Luke Sikinyi: One other big aspect about this that is quite concerning is this change allows for police officers to pick folks up and bring them into hospital for evaluation based on this.
Emyle Watkins: Luke Sikinyi is the Vice President of Public Policy for The Alliance for Rights and Recovery.
Luke Sikinyi: While this was still allowed prior to this expansion, really particularly calls on police officers to now utilize this new standard of basic needs, ability to make basic needs often referred to as gravely disabled. And this is very big because previously under the previous standard, there needed to be an imminent risk of harm to self or others.
Emyle Watkins: The Alliance is a coalition that advocates for full community inclusion and improved support for people with mental health conditions, substance use disorder and trauma related conditions. Back in March, BTPM NPR followed the Alliance to Albany where they flooded the capitol with advocates, pushing back against forms of what they call forced treatment.
Luke Sikinyi: Our biggest concern as the Alliance has been that police officers are not well-equipped to make these types of determinations. They're not trained clinicians, and often someone who might be exhibiting abnormal behavior might be doing so for a number of reasons that might not be related to mental health challenges or a diagnosable mental illness. And this means that there's going to be a far larger group of people who could potentially be picked up off the street.
Emyle Watkins: Sikinyi and Haroules explain that this change is particularly concerning because being picked up, held and potentially involuntarily committed can be a traumatizing process. You lose many rights during an initial 72-hour hold, says Haroules.
Beth Haroules: That is a very traumatic seizure of the person in transport to a setting where for 72 hours you don't have a right to counsel, you can be restrained, you can be medicated. It is a very, very dangerous situation to put a person into that violates people's rights. And because you don't know as an attorney, MHLS attorneys, no one knows the person's been disappeared into this sort of setting.
Emyle Watkins: Sikinyi says it's important for people to have a plan if they are concerned they could be picked up under these new guidelines. Having a psychiatric advanced directive, which outlines what you would want if you're hospitalized, a proxy to make decisions for you and being connected to a legal advocacy organization can help you protect your rights.
Luke Sikinyi: Once you get past hour 71.59, then you have legal right to counsel and must be able to speak with mental hygiene legal services who are required to talk to you about your case if you so wish. And I think that's something that people should know. While we can't get around the 72-hour hold right now, making sure that folks know that there are legal representation avenues for them after that 72-hour hold if they're being considered for involuntary commitment.
Emyle Watkins: Sikinyi also points out that people could be picked up against their will, brought to the hospital and ultimately a provider could deem they don't need hospitalization. They're then potentially released on a different side of town. At the end of the day, advocates are most concerned about the subjectivity of the law.
Luke Sikinyi: One of the things that I find really challenging about it is how can we determine that someone's mental health challenge is the reason that they can't get housing when there's such economic struggles and the inability to have housing is really more of an economic issue and less of a mental health issue necessarily.
Emyle Watkins: You've been listening to the Disabilities Beat from Buffalo, Toronto Public Media. You can listen to the Disabilities Beat segment on demand, view a transcript in plain language description for every episode on our website at BTPM.org. I'm Emyle Watkins. Thanks for listening.
