Mandatory treatment plan for mentally ill
Retired psychiatrist says civil commitment process is broken
Thomas Dodson, a retired psychiatrist who had an office in Goose Hollow for 30 years, has a plan to improve the process for “helping the severely mentally ill who require involuntary hospitalization.” Dodson believes the slow, cumbersome and expensive legal process for declaring a person unfit and forcing them into treatment is so ineffective that it does not serve the interests of the affected individuals nor the needs of society for safe, livable public spaces.
Dodson also recommends that the commitment period be reduced to six weeks from the current six months, due to the consequences “of institutionalization on the human psyche.”
