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VT Mental Health Treatment Bill Needs More Time

WAMC/Pat Bradley

It now appears it will be at least next week before a Vermont Senate panel completes its work on a bill to streamline the process for getting people into mental health treatment and on medications against their will.

One item the Senate Judiciary Committee appears unlikely to consider is adding proposed language protecting some patients against being added to a federal registry of people who shouldn't have firearms due to mental health issues.

Jack McCullough, head of Vermont Legal Aid's Mental Health Law Project, asked for language clarifying that someone with a preliminary finding of mental illness but not fully adjudicated would not be included on the federal registry.

Lawmakers said they would rather deal with that issue in separate legislation under which Vermont would join the federal registry.

Copyright 2014 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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