Legislation that would allow the state psychiatric hospital to deny court-ordered commitments is on hold. State health officials and advocates disagree about whether more patients can be served in the community.
Two bills would allow the Montana State Hospital to deny civil and criminal commitments if the hospital is full or if other conditions aren’t met.
Currently, the hospital must accept everyone that is committed by a court. State health officials say they are regularly held in contempt if they can’t admit patients in a timely manner. They say that some patients could be served in the community rather than at the state hospital.
But local hospitals and mental health advocates say there are no providers that can take these patients.
Matt Kuntz with the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Montana says, “We can’t change the laws to direct people to beds that don’t exist."
Kuntz and others said they could support the bill if funding for psychiatric beds were included.
Sponsor Republican John Esp asked the Senate Judiciary committee to table the bills while those negotiations play out. The committee agreed.
