(Feb. 11, 2013) "Growing up, I had no exposure to people with mental illness. I was born in Thailand, the daughter of American missionaries. At age 6, I went to a boarding school in South Vietnam during the Vietnam War."
So begins former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton's swift and brilliant case for making assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) available to more people. Though Justice Stratton's op-ed in The Columbia Dispatch specifically addresses Ohio's SB 350 - which will clarify language in the state's civil commitment code to ensure greater use of AOT - her arguments ring true for every state:
- "So many defendants in my court would not have been there had they been properly cared for in the mental-health system."
- "The common denominator in mass killings has not been guns. Timothy McVeigh did not use a gun."
- "(T)here needs to be more focus on the millions of people with mental illness who will never commit a mass killing, but who are clearly in dire need of help in many different ways."
- "Families are often told that there is no help if the family member has only threatened someone but hasn’t acted on it yet. But by then, isn’t it too late?"
- "We have a tool already in court-ordered outpatient treatment, which allows probate judges to order outpatient treatment for somebody who does not need a full, expensive and often unavailable hospitalization."
Justice Stratton's case for making AOT more available through treatment law reform and use is a must-read and a must-share. Here are three things YOU can do to help make treatment available to more people, wherever you live:
- KNOW THE LAWS in your state and what needs to be changed to make sure that involuntary treatment options are available to those too ill to seek treatment voluntarily.
- FORWARD OR PRINT AND MAIL Justice Stratton's "Bill would clarify that courts can help deal with mentally ill" to your elected leaders and demand that they make the changes your state needs.
- MAKE THE CASE for treatment law reform and use in letters to the editor of your local media. Quote Justice Stratton or restate the points she makes. If your letter is published, please send us a link at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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