Cho Case Shows Flaws in System, Court Panel Says

Study Is Accelerated After Va. Tech

The panel studying Virginia's mental health system released a stinging report yesterday, saying that families and professionals have been "uniformly frustrated" by a shortage of beds, low pay for caregivers and a lack of reimbursement for hospitals.

The study was released by the state Supreme Court's Commission on Mental Health Law Reform, which has been meeting since last year. But it was the panel's first meeting since the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings, in which a student, Seung Hui Cho, 23, killed 32 students and faculty members before committing suicide.

Cho was found to be a danger to himself and was ordered into outpatient treatment 16 months before the shootings, but there is no record that he received it.

The report suggests that Cho was not typical of the thousands of people who go through the system but that his case has exposed flaws that lawmakers and professionals hope to address. The commission has said it will accelerate its work because of the massacre.

The report also says it is sometimes difficult for the mentally ill to receive proper treatment because of high transportation costs and inconsistent interpretations of laws. It based its findings on dozens of interviews with professionals, family members of mentally ill people and patients who had been committed.

"In my opinion, the need for reform is irrefutable," said Richard J. Bonnie, a University of Virginia law professor and chairman of the commission. "No one is satisfied with the current situation. The only question is how sweeping these reforms should be."

The report's preliminary findings are similar to those in a state inspector general's report released last week, which examined the system in light of the Virginia Tech shootings.

That report found there is not enough time for mental health officials to collect information during the commitment process.

The Virginia Tech tragedy also prompted Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) to form an investigative panel. In addition, a House of Delegates committee is meeting this summer and fall, anticipating mental health legislation next year.

But what to do about the system's problems was a source of contention at yesterday's meeting in Fredericksburg. Some have said that the state needs to focus on changing commitment laws so officials can more easily commit some troubled people. Others have said that changing laws without a significant infusion of funding will not improve the mental health network.

"The language of the law is less important than the practice, which is based on resources," said James Reinhard, commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services. "Some of this wordsmithing on the criteria is irrelevant" without more funding.