To: President Donald Trump
The Need for Legal Jurisdiction in Cases of Mentally Ill Persons Who Pose a Compelling Threat to ...
Under current law, potentially dangerous mentally ill persons can only be legally held or involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility if they pose a threat to a specific, identified person. Yet there is a significant class of the mentally ill who suffer from delusions that are broad or vague, and who pose a significant threat to the general public.
Why is this important?
I am a clinical psychologist and have had the experience of working with a potentially dangerous delusional patient with access to a gun. Because this patient's delusions did not focus on one particular, identifiable person, I was unable to take any action to protect others or myself. The recent episodes in Washington, D.C., as well as other recent acts of violence by the mentally ill, such as the the Newtown, CT massacre, make this an urgent issue that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.