(March 10, 2014) Following the Deeds tragedy, Virginia lawmakers appeared eager to enact mental health reform to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future. But the General Assembly adjourned last week leaving more substantial reforms unaddressed (“Mental-health advocates fear fundamental problems in Virginia have been left to fester,” the Washington Post, March 9).
It can’t be ignored that lawmakers certainly made modest changes to address the circumstances that occurred late last fall when Senator Deeds’ son attacked his father before taking his own life. The legislature voted to give emergency clinicians more time to find a psychiatric bed and passed legislation compelling the state to maintain an online real-time registry of available beds, which went live this week.
The work in Virginia is far from complete. Virginia needs more hospital beds, clarification of its assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) law and broader inpatient criteria so that the state can effectively treat individuals in need before another tragedy.
Now that the legislative session is over, we hope that the determination to help families like the Deeds’ continues and future tragedies will be prevented with the passage of meaningful reform.
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