The Virginia House and Senate on Tuesday passed the first broad reform of the state’s strained mental health system since last year’s Virginia Tech massacre, hammering out a bipartisan compromise likely to receive the governor’s signature.
The passage follows months of complicated negotiations and planning among the two chambers, the Kaine administration and mental health experts, and could stand as the single largest achievement in a session dominated by partisan strife.
Lawmakers rolled what began as dozens of individual bills into a single package that passed the House and Senate unanimously Tuesday. Among the numerous changes, the measures would loosen the standard by which a mentally ill person can be committed against his or her will, mandate better communication among agencies, and tighten monitoring and enforcement for outpatient treatment.
“This is the biggest rewrite of the laws in 30 years, it’s the first one we’ve done comprehensively since the de-institutionalization of the 1970s,” said Del. Robert Bell, R-Charlottesville, referring to the nationwide shift away from large mental hospitals to more community-based care.
Reforming mental health care in Virginia rose high on the list of legislative priorities following the April 16 tragedy in Blacksburg, when deranged student gunman Seung Hui Cho shot and killed 32 students and faculty before taking his own life. It quickly became apparent that Cho has slipped though the state’s net and acquired firearms despite being ordered by a court into outpatient treatment.
Part of Tuesday’s reform package would require added care and oversight from community services boards, local agencies that handle mental health treatment in Virginia.
“Their oversight was very much lacking in the Cho situation, and that was one of our major concerns,” said Sen. Kenneth Cuccinelli, R-Fairfax.
Both houses of the General Assembly have proposed at least $42 million in new mental health funding to accompany the change to state law, an amount advocates argue is inadequate. “Virginia is near the bottom of spending per capita on mental health of the states,” said Paula Price, executive director of Mental Health America’s Virginia chapter. “To walk around with our chests puffed out because we now have put $42 million into the problem is false pride.”
