She fought against making it easier to commit the mentally ill -- then found herself committed!

[gwheezie]

6. This is a familiar story

Outpatient services in Virginia are pathetic. We are very low on the list of states for spending the mentally ill. The group homes many times are hellholes and could make you crazy.
After Cho and we decided in Virginia it was easier to blame the mentally ill rather than deal with our gun issue there was supposed to be outpatient commitments. Rarely see that happen. Not enough case managers. I've worked on several states and Virginia does not have the kinds of therapuetic outpatient services that young adults with mental illness require to live to their highest potential.
After deeds rather than building more beds we now have to take people from anywhere in Virginia. That means we may get a patient that lives 4 hours from the hospital they land in. We uproot them and wind up sending them to the shelter here. Some of them never get "home".
We admit people who belong in jail and take up a bed that a mentally ill person needs because the police will tell someone being a pain in the ass they can go to jail or the hospital. The reverse is also true. If a mentally ill person is disorderly or trespassing in the community if there are no psych beds they wind up in jail.
The reaction to cho and deeds did not make it better for the mentally ill it just made it easier for the rest of us to stash them away.