ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Five months into his son’s new court-ordered plan for schizophrenia, Vince Lagnese noticed that the 25-year-old was returning to his old self. Instead of pacing the backyard, talking to himself and smoking cigarettes for hours, he began revisiting old hobbies such as jazz guitar and discussing current events.
“The only word I can think of is miraculous,” says Lagnese, of New York City’s Queens borough. “I have no doubt that without the assisted outpatient treatment, he would be lost to us. He would be homeless, dead or in prison.”
More than 4,000 New York residents are treated each year under Kendra’s Law, a controversial program that requires a person dealing with serious mental illness to attend outpatient psychiatric treatment as a condition for living in the community.
It was passed in 1999 on a trial basis after 32-year-old Kendra Webdale was pushed in front of a subway train by a man with untreated schizophrenia. It is has since been temporarily reauthorized twice, but New York lawmakers have balked at making the 18-year-old law permanent. It is set to expire in June unless lawmakers grant yet another extension.
Some mental health advocates say Kendra’s Law is an essential pillar of the state resources for people with serious psychiatric illnesses, but other advocates and groups including the New York Civil Liberties Union criticize it as an invasion of rights that stigmatizes for those with mental illnesses.
“We should not subject vulnerable people to one-size-fits-all treatments that in many cases are not helpful, ethical or medically sound,” said the NYCLU senior staff attorney, Beth Haroules.
The law allows parties including family members, roommates, social workers and parole officers to file a petition for a judge to order treatment if a person has been hospitalized at least twice in the past three years for untreated mental illness and poses a threat to themselves or others. Patients face up to 72 hours in a state facility if they do not comply.
Dr. Robert Laitman, a New York City physician who works with the Lagnese family, said making the treatments mandatory is important because most patients who are not required to attend usually try to back out after a few visits. He says his treatments’ success depends on consistency and careful monitoring of medication.
“If I didn’t have assisted outpatient treatment, I wouldn’t have the time to get people better,” Laitman said. “Improvements continue over several years. You really need a tremendous amount of time.”
Most states have similar programs, but New York’s is unique in how extensively it is used and the resources the state has provided for counties to enact the program. A recent report of state data by the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute showed the program has reduced the rate of hospitalization among those under court order by more than 60 percent and the rate of both incarceration and homelessness by around 70 percent. Backers of Kendra’s Law say such research shows that the program should no longer be treated as an experiment.
New York’s Republican-led Senate this week passed a bill to make the law permanent, but that measure faces opposition in the Assembly.
Assemblywoman Aileen Guenther, a Hudson Valley Democrat who is sponsoring the bill, said until advocates can reach an agreement, she predicts lawmakers will pass another five-year extender to keep the law on trial basis.
Lagnese says he cannot understand why it continues with an expiration date. For the Lagneses, court-ordered treatment accomplished what more than one dozen hospitalizations over the course of several years did not.
“I don’t believe it’s a law that’s abused or human rights are being violated,” Lagnese said. “The judge looked at all evidence and made a rational decision: He is not well and doesn’t realize he is not well. And now, he hasn’t gotten his life back yet, but he’s on his way.”
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