Bill would allow treating mentally ill without their consent

OLYMPIA — People unable to care for themselves due to mental illnesses could be subject to receiving treatment, even without their consent, if Washington state legislators pass a law to establish executorships for people who are incapacitated. 

“Our mental health and addiction system of care is failing, in my view, the most vulnerable,” said the proposed bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Steve O’Ban, R-Pierce County. 

If passed, Senate Bill 6109 will initiate a four-year pilot program in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, effective Jan. 1, 2021. Each county would be responsible for treating 10 persons during the pilot. 

The bill places people who are incapable of caring for themselves because of a mental health disorder in an executorship, and requires that the counties provide services, such as housing and treatment. The executorship may be renewed after one year if a petition is made to do so. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were almost 45,000 suicides in the U.S. in 2016 and 46% of suicides are committed by those with a known mental illness. 

“We are losing hundreds, probably thousands, of our young people,” O’Ban said. “They’re our sons and daughters, and they could live lives of dignity, of creativity, and of service. The enormous waste of human potential is tragic.”

Jerri Clark, founder of Mothers of the Mentally Ill, lost her son when he took his own life last March. He suffered from severe bipolar disorder and made several suicide attempts before he succeeded, Clark said during a press conference held Friday, Jan. 31. Instead of receiving effective treatment, he cycled in and out of hospitals, homeless shelters, and jails, Clark said. 

“He was forced into the margins of society by a system that not only refuses to help, but actually requires violence and destitution before help of any sort that is reasonable is available at all,” Clark said at Friday’s press conference.

Several people who suffer from a mental health disorder also experience anosognosia, a condition in which someone is unaware that they are suffering at all, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. “They do not have the ability to take care of this illness on their own because of the illness itself,” Clark said.  

A person who has had “at least five detentions in the most recent 12-month period”  is eligible for the executorship, according to the Senate Bill Report. An investigation is conducted by a court appointed resource executor officer who determines if an individual is incapacitated.