Involuntary Treatment of Mental Illness: Here We Go Again
AFFIRMING PSYCHIATRY
On Tuesday, November 29th, just a few days after Thanksgiving, Mayor Eric Adams announced that the City of New York would step up efforts to involuntarily hospitalize homeless persons with severe mental illness, even if they did not represent a threat of violence. The announcement provoked wary, anxious responses from all sides, at least according to The New York Times. One government official called the effort “deeply problematic,” while others predicted legal challenges to the policy. Questions were immediately raised about exactly how the policy would be applied, and whether the police were the best positioned group to apply it.