{"id":1326,"date":"2007-02-28T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2007-02-28T17:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/house-approves-bill-that-would-allow-district-judges-to-force-the-mentally-ill-to-submit-to-treatment\/"},"modified":"2007-02-28T11:56:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-28T17:56:00","slug":"house-approves-bill-that-would-allow-district-judges-to-force-the-mentally-ill-to-submit-to-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/02\/house-approves-bill-that-would-allow-district-judges-to-force-the-mentally-ill-to-submit-to-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"House approves bill that would allow district judges to force the mentally ill to submit to treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Rep. Joni Gutierrez\u2019s<\/a> second attempt at passing a bill that would allow judges to order treatment for the mentally ill in some circumstances has been approved by the House. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, introduced Kendra\u2019s Law, which would allow judges to force mentally ill patients who are dangerous to take their medication and submit to other treatment, during the 2006 session, but it was quickly shot down.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Gutierrez worked over the summer with a wide range of people who work with mental illness and tweaked her bill, the Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> is reporting. House Bill 609<\/a> was approved Tuesday by the House on a vote of 53-13, and now heads to the Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The bill allows a family member, treatment guardian, hospital director, doctor, service provider or police officer to petition a district judge to force a mentally ill person to submit to treatment, if that person is refusing treatment and may be a danger.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hopeful because we worked all summer, and we really made some substantial changes,\u201d the newspaper quoted Gutierrez as saying.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bill\u2019s narrow scope, according to Health Secretary Michelle Lujan Grisham, gives it a chance at passing.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is much more directed at the individual\u2019s rights and protections this go around,\u201d she told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The person in question must be an adult with a mental illness who needs mandated treatment in order to prevent a situation \u201cthat would likely result in serious harm to the person or another person,\u201d the bill states. He or she must also have refused treatment in the 10 days before the petition is filed in court.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bill remains controversial, and the American Civil Liberties Union opposes it as an infringement on civil rights.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Gutierrez took on the cause following two highly publicized incidents in 2005.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In Las Cruces<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, a mentally ill man who was not taking his medication assaulted a woman, stole her vehicle, led police on a high-speed chase through the city and ran over and killed another man.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In Albuquerque<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, a mentally ill man who was not taking medication went on a killing spree that led to the deaths of five people, including two police officers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Joni Gutierrez\u2019s second attempt at passing a bill that would allow judges to order treatment for the mentally ill in some circumstances has been approved by the House. Gutierrez, D-Las Cruces, introduced Kendra\u2019s Law, which would allow judges to force mentally ill patients who are dangerous to take their medication and submit to other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}