Assemblyman Felix Ortiz and Lack of Care for Mentally Ill

Earlier this month New York City Police Officer Eder Loor was stabbed in the brain by Terrence Hale, 26, a young man allegedly with untreated mental illness. His mom had tried unsuccessfully to get mental health authorities to treat him. They wouldn't. The stabbing ensued.

It was oh so predictable. And it's likely going to happen again possibly because of Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz who heads the Assembly Mental Health Committee. Over the last few years, I and other advocates for the mentally ill and advocates for public safety have met with Assemblyman Felix Ortiz to urge him to pass legislation that would strengthen New York's Kendra's Law. As I explained in a New York Daily News op-ed this week

Kendra's Law allows courts to order a very small group of seriously mentally ill patients who have a history of violence or incarceration to accept violence-preventing treatment as a condition of living in the community. Courts can also order the recalcitrant mental health system to provide treatment to these seriously mentally ill people .

The results of Kendra's Law have been outstanding in terms of reduced dangerous behavior, violence, arrest, trial, incarceration, homelessness, hospitalization, suicide and more.

But the law has giant cracks in it that New York State Assemblymember Aileen Gunther-a former nurse with psychiatric room experience, and State Senator Catherine Young proposed closing. Their bill (now A6987/S4881) would

• Close the crack in the system, whereby prisoners who relied on mental health services while imprisoned or have been involuntarily committed are discharged without determining if they need mandatory treatment to stay healthy and prevent them from becoming dangerous again.
• Close the loophole whereby if a person under court order moves to a different county, the new county isn't informed so it can continue to provide treatment.
• Close the crack in the system whereby court orders can expire without a review of whether they should be renewed.
• Clarify that a county should investigate reports of individuals in need of Kendra's Law services received from family members.
• Require physicians to make a reasonable effort to gather useful information from the patient's family or significant others.
• Allow doctors to presume under certain conditions that patients who materially violate their treatment orders should be taken to a hospital to see if they need admission.

Had these been in place, Officer Loor may not have been stabbed. Terrence Hale's mom did try to get mental health authorities to treat her son and they did not listen. Terrence Hale had been released from a jail without local officials being alerted he may need community-based mental health treatment. The bill would have made both those scenarios less likely. But Assemblyman Ortiz is still waffling. The mother of Kendra Webale whom Kendra's Law is named after told a Daily News reporter she

blamed Ortiz, chairman of the Assembly's Mental Health Committee, for bowing to pressure from advocates for the mentally ill and blocking the Young/Gunther bill. "I have gone head to head with Ortiz and his office, and at times he has seemed extremely, genuinely supportive. And then the tune would change."

In an editorial the Daily News wrote

As chairman of the Mental Health Committee, Brooklyn Assemblyman Felix Ortiz bears responsibility for squashing Young and Gunther's measure. He bottled it up without a vote despite a mountain of evidence showing that severely disturbed mental patients who enter court-ordered treatment are less violent, less likely to be homeless, less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol and less likely to attempt suicide than those who do not.

In a follow-up editorial they explained

For too long, supposed mental health advocates have prevailed in Albany with the preposterous argument that mandating medicines for the mentally ill to save their lives and the lives of others is a violation of civil rights.

How true. One trade association for providers of non-medical services to people with mental illness said we need better trained police units, as if the problem was Officer Loor didn't duck the knife well enough. Assemblyman Felix Ortiz released a statement echoing these 'advocates' by claiming the important battle is not knives in the hands of untreated mentally ill who stab cops, but the use of 'stigmatizing' language.

I have a mentally ill relative. This bill is supported by the Alliance on Mental Illness of New York State and many others who like me, love people with mental illness and want to keep them, the public, and the police safer. The mental health committee should immediately pass this legislation to prevent the next tragedy. Assemblyman Ortiz can be reached at (718) 492-6334 or (518) 455-3821.