Kendra's law

-NYAPRS stands for NY Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services-

NYAPRS Note: With unanimous approval of legislation to extend but not expand or make permanent Kendra’s Law, NYAPRS and many of our colleagues will now work with state and local systems to extend and expand voluntary efforts to engage and support people with psychiatric disabilities, especially in communities of color. Great thanks to all of you who worked so hard to reject proposals to expand the use of court mandates and to reject conclusions that they are either preferred or proven methods of engagement and service. More on this in future posts.



Senate Gives Final Passage To Legislation Extending Kendra's Law
By Cara Matthews Gannett News Service June 18, 2010


ALBANY — The Senate gave final passage this morning to legislation for a five-year extension of Kendra’s Law, which authorizes court-ordered outpatient treatment for seriously mentally ill individuals who could harm themselves or others. The vote on the bill was unanimous — 55-0. It previously passed the Assembly and now goes to Gov. David Paterson, who is expected to sign it.

Kendra’s Law was first passed in 1999 after the death of Kendra Webdale, who was pushed in front of a New York City subway train by Andrew Goldstein, a mentally ill man with a history of hospitalizations. It was renewed in 2005 and expires at the end of this month.

The state Office of Mental Health, mental-health advocates and people with psychiatric disabilities were in favor of extending the statute for five years so there can be more research on the effectiveness of court involvement versus voluntary treatment. Families, law-enforcement groups and others said they believe its effectiveness has been proven and it should be made permanent.

A Duke University study completed for the state last year found that New York’s program has improved outcomes for participants, but it found racial and geographic disparities in how it is used around the state. A total of about 63 percent of recipients statewide are Hispanic or black. Upstate counties are more likely to develop voluntary agreements rather than seek court-ordered care, the report said.

“We’re certainly grateful to both houses for the unanimous support of the extender and not permanence,” said Harvey Rosenthal, executive director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. “We think that this was the right approach to ensure that voluntary approaches take their rightful place in New York state and that improved outreach and engagement to communities of color be prioritized as well.”

A few Senate Republicans said they would have preferred to vote on making the 10-year-old law permanent, but legislation to do that languished in committees in both houses.

Sen. Catharine Young, R-Olean, Cattaraugus County, sponsored the unsuccessful bill in her house. “Kendra’s parents, Ralph and Pat Webdale, have fought tirelessly to try to get Kendra’s Law permanent, so I’m glad that we are renewing Kendra’s Law today, but I have to tell you it’s very disappointing to the family, it’s disappointing to a lot of the advocates that we are not making it permanent,” she said on the Senate floor.

Young has said her bill would make a number of improvements, such as closing a loophole that makes court-ordered treatment unenforceable if someone moves to a different county, closing a loophole that allows prisoners receiving mental-health care to be discharged without putting community-based services in place, and ensuring that more people are considered for court-ordered treatment.

Senate Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Committee Chairman Thomas Morahan, R-New City, Rockland County, said in a statement that Kendra's Law has led to positive changes in local mental health-care delivery systems. Morahan, who is being treated for leukemia and was not at the Capitol, said the state's highest court has found the law helps people who have a history of not complying with treatment, so they can live safely in the community and their constitutional rights are not violated.

Forty-four other states have similar laws.

DJ Jaffe, founder of the New York Treatment Advocacy Coalition, said in a statement that the Legislature’s decision not to make the law permanent and close loopholes “is dangerous, expensive and cruel to individuals with serious mental illness and all New Yorkers. “As a result of this vote, both hospitals and prisons can continue to release seriously mentally ill individuals” who could present a danger to themselves or others “without first assuring they will get mandatory ongoing treatment to prevent them from becoming violent again,” he said.

Rosenthal said he thinks supporters of making the law permanent are taking a “reprehensible approach to wrongly and unfairly play up the image of the ‘violent’ mentally ill.”

Other groups in favor of making the law permanent include the state District Attorneys Association, the state Sheriffs’ Association and the state Association of Chiefs of Police.