Advocacy E-News May 16, 2016

May 16, 2016

 

ADVOCACY ALERT

A2189 a bill to improve the standard for involuntary commitment to outpatient treatment and require police training on behavioral health issues will be heard in the Assembly Human Services Committee on Thursday. It is time for NAMI Advocates to make these sought after changes a reality in New Jersey.

Specifically A2189 would authorize the alternative of commitment to outpatient treatment for an adult with a mental illness because that person’s mental illness, as demonstrated by recent acts, if untreated, could reasonably result in deterioration of the person’s mental condition to the point at which the person will become dangerous to self or dangerous to others or property and that person is unwilling to voluntarily accept appropriate treatment.

*******************************************

TAKE ACTION NOW

Contact the members of the New Jersey Assembly Human Services Committee with your support for A2189 and tell them that it is time that New Jersey stopped turning its back on people who due to their mental illness are unable to connect to appropriate mental health services. Police must be trained to recognize people with a mental illness, learn de-escalation techniques and to divert them to treatment that corresponds to their needs. Our mental health system in turn must bring humane treatment to this subset of individuals before they deteriorate to a point where they are an imminent danger to themselves or others.

Assembly Human Services Committee Members
Valerie Vainieri Huttle – Chair, [email protected], (201) 541-1118
Cleopatra Tucker, [email protected], (973) 926-4320
Joe Howarth. [email protected], (609) 654-1498
Patricia Egan Jones, [email protected], (856) 547-4800
Angela V. McKnight, [email protected], (201) 360-2502
Gail Phoebus, [email protected] , (973) 300-0200