<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (December 16, 2013) Spokesman Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">----------------------------------</div><div><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; overflow: visible !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1.2; font-size: 28px; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">Judges ponder increase in mental commitments</h1><h5 class="subhead" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; clear: both; overflow: visible !important; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 1; font-size: 16px; font-family: Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Some suspect cuts in social services</h5><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – The courts have seen an exploding number of involuntary commitment cases in recent years, according to an annual report from the Idaho Supreme Court, and that has some judges wondering if budget cuts to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the poor economy are partly to blame.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Last year more than 4,500 mental commitment cases were filed in state courts – an 82 percent increase compared to five years ago, according to the report. Idaho Supreme Court administrator Patti Tobias said there wasn’t any research examining the cause of the increase, but an informal poll of magistrate judges throughout the state had some speculating that cuts to IDHW staff and offices across the state, a lack of affordable mental health care, drug abuse, limited health care access and the faltering economy could all be contributing factors.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It’s a tough question with a complex set of factors,” said Ada County Deputy Prosecutor Michael Anderson, who handles many mental commitment cases.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Usually, involuntary commitment proceedings begin when an emergency room physician, police officer or official of another facility initiates a “mental hold” on someone out of concern that the patient is a threat to themselves or others, Anderson said. A judge has to be notified of such holds within 24 hours, triggering the case filing.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Sixth District Judge Paul Laggis said he suspects that cuts to IDHW are a big factor in the increase in case filings. Laggis said he frequently discusses the “plight of adult mental health care” with the mental health professionals who work with his court.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“They tell me the state used to have clinicians who would actually make contact with people at their homes to see how they were doing, if they are taking their meds,” Laggis said. “They’d check their pulse, so to speak, to see if they’re deteriorating to the point where they might need intervention.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But many of those services have been cut in recent years.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, like all state agencies, faced significant budget cuts with the recession. In 2009 and 2010, 35 workers, including 28 clinicians, were laid off from the department’s Adult Mental Health Program. Several of the department’s regional offices were also closed in rural communities through the state.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 2011, IDHW officials advised lawmakers that mental health services had taken a 19 percent budget cut since 2008, forcing the agency to prioritize by first funding intervention services for people in imminent danger to themselves and others, pushing to the bottom of the heap services for those who don’t have insurance.</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Idaho's answer to the mental health issue . . . cut the mental health budget, forcing these indivuals to fend for themselves.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">It's easier for those Idahoans suffering from mental health issues to obtain a gun than to obtain health assistance.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Sad, isn't it?</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><img src="cid:B0EC3077-1F54-43F6-9FC8-A34AEA31D7A8" alt="image.jpeg" id="B0EC3077-1F54-43F6-9FC8-A34AEA31D7A8" width="600" height="402"></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></body></html>