davidoff--web-2.12.
PHOTO BY Tom Croke
Judicial commitment to outpatient treatment would be beneficial if backed by enhanced funding and services, says Donald Davidoff, Ph.D., assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and chief of McLean Hospital’s department of neurology.

Involuntary outpatient treatment bill on legislative docket

By Phyllis Hanlon

Fourteen years ago, Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton) filed a bill (H.1419) intended to prevent tragedies because of medication non-compliance and inadequate treatment for mental health issues. In light of mental health-related tragedies in Danvers and Weymouth this past fall, the bill is garnering renewed attention. According to Khan, who is a psychiatric nurse and clinical specialist and serves as house chair of the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities, in 1998, NAMI (the National Alliance of Mental Illness) of Massachusetts approached her with a request to file this bill. In the ensuing years, she has continued to [More]

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