Va. Senate Bill Scales Back Mental Health Initiatives

RICHMOND, Feb. 6 -- The Virginia Senate Finance Committee endorsed a bill Wednesday to revise some aspects of the state's mental health system but rejected a proposal to give relatives, social workers, doctors and other caretakers more power to force the mentally ill into outpatient treatment.

The more far-reaching proposal, which would have been similar to a forced-treatment statute in New York known as "Kendra's Law," was "laudable" but too expensive, Sen. R. Edward Houck (D-Spotsylvania) said during the committee meeting.

State financial analysts today estimated that a provision similar to the New York law would cost about $7.3 million a year, far less than the original projection of $25 million but still too much for the committee. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) has set aside $42 million for mental health initiatives in his proposed budget.

Various changes to the state's mental health laws, incorporated in the bill that won committee approval, represent an attempt to close gaps in care and monitoring exposed after last year's Virginia Tech massacre. Student Seung Hui Cho of Fairfax County shot 32 students and faculty members to death before killing himself. Cho had several encounters with state mental health workers before the rampage.