In the wake of tradegy, 2012 report had criticized Va emergency mental health
The issue at the heart of this seems to be about implementation of Temporary Dentention Orders, aka TDOs, and concern about what are acceptable levels of failure to execute such orders.
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http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/local/report-criticizing-va-emergency-mental-health-services-drew-fire-last/article_d8761618-646b-11e3-ae7c-001a4bcf6878.html
RICHMOND — Virginia’s top mental health official clashed with the state inspector general for behavioral health last year over a report that faulted the mental health system’s handling of emergency services for people who posed a danger to themselves or others, according to documents obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The report sounded an alarm over gaps in Virginia’s emergency services for people in psychiatric crisis that now grip the attention of state policymakers. Last month, state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, was attacked by his 24-year-old son, Austin C. “Gus” Deeds, who then killed himself — 13 hours after being released from emergency custody because an appropriate bed in a psychiatric hospital couldn’t be found.
Internal documents obtained Friday by The Times-Dispatch under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act show disagreement between James W. Stewart III, commissioner for behavioral health and developmental services, and then-Inspector General G. Douglas Bevelacqua, who is investigating the Deeds case for the Office of the State Inspector General that was created last year.
Stewart told then-Inspector General Bevelacqua on March 22, 2012, that “the report fundamentally misrepresents both the behavioral health emergency services system and the data” from a three-month study conducted in mid-2011.
The commissioner faulted the inspector general for focusing on a relatively few cases in which a person was not issued a temporary detention order, or TDO, despite meeting the criteria for involuntary detention, but Bevelacqua fired back that the state should provide appropriate care in all cases.
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