N.J. to delay outpatient mental-treatment law

The Christie administration will delay the implementation of a law that would allow a judge to require a person to undergo outpatient mental-health treatment, officials announced Tuesday, citing a lack of funding.

Officials from the state Department of Human Services said that the law, which was prompted in part by several slayings committed by individuals with mental illnesses who had refused treatment, could not be implemented because the state "did not appropriate funds to the department to support its implementation."

The current budget, Christie's first since taking office, reduced appropriations for existing community mental-health programs by more than $11 million, according to a memo by DHS Deputy Commissioner Kevin Martone. That reduction followed previous years of cuts.

Martone said in the memo that "the existing infrastructure, without the addition of designated outpatient treatment providers, is unprepared to support this new civil commitment option."

Commissioner Jennifer Velez said DHS "will continue to work expeditiously to identify appropriate partners who can achieve the statutory obligations, in order to ensure full compliance, as appropriate." She did not say when the law, which was to have been rolled out over a period of three years, might be fully implemented.

Advocates for the law said delaying implementation was a mistake.

Sen. Richard J. Codey (D., Essex), a sponsor of the bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Jon S. Corzine a year ago, making New Jersey the 43d state in the country with laws for assisted outpatient treatment, said the delay would put patients, family members, and the general population at risk.

"The ability to give families the tools to protect loved ones, who due to mental disability are a threat to themselves and others, should be a priority not just for them, but for us all," said Codey, a longtime advocate on mental-health issues.

The Legislature was spurred to adopt the law after several incidences of violence. In 2002, 11-year-old Gregory Katsnelson of Evesham was stabbed to death by Ronald Pituch, a schizophrenic Medford resident who also had just stabbed his mother to death.

In August 2008, Ronald Weed, 43, of Galloway Township, after refusing treatment for paranoid schizophrenia, beat to death his mother and a 12-year-old niece. Loretta Largo is Weed's sister, so she lost her mother and a daughter in the episode; a second daughter suffered severe head injuries but survived.

Largo, who testified before the Legislature about the importance of creating such a provision, said she was dismayed to hear about the law's delay.

"What price can you really put on human life?" said Largo.

"We're disappointed that a bill that really passed unanimously in the Legislature and was recommended by the governor's task force on mental health is being held up here at, really, the 12th hour," said Phil Lubitz, associate director of the New Jersey chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a grassroots organization that advocates for people affected by mental illness and their families. "Many people in the state were looking forward to it; we think it's a piece of legislation that would prevent the needless institutionalization of people with mental illness by providing an outpatient alternative."

Lubitz said his organization concurred with the state's nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services, which said there is enough capacity in the current system to initiate the program.

But mental-health providers in the state - who had varying opinions on the law itself - vehemently disagree with that assessment and cheered the administration's decision to delay the implementation, given the lack of additional funding.

Debra Wentz, chief executive officer of the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies, which represents 170 community-based mental-health and addiction-treatment providers, said she was glad the administration recognized that resources were needed to follow such laws.

"We're gratified that the department has recognized that recent cuts have impacted community providers' ability to serve the clients we have and that waits for services are growing," Wentz said. "We were always concerned that if additional demand was placed on the system, which it would be, it would displace other people who had already been waiting a long time for services."

She added: "New Jersey just can't continue to increase demand on providers while reducing resources."

Lawmakers who pushed for the law's passage were disappointed with the delay and promised to fight the decision.

Assembly Human Services Committee Chairwoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D., Bergen) said the administration "does not have the authority to simply chose whether to implement laws. That arrogance is unacceptable in any situation, but it's especially appalling when it threatens public safety and the health of those struggling with mental illness."

This is not the first time the Christie administration has delayed the implementation of a law - officials recently requested a delay of the medical-marijuana law, but in that case, administration officials sought a formal delay by pleading their case to the bill's sponsors, who agreed. The administration argued in that case that while it was making a good-faith effort to comply, officials needed more time to work out the details of the law's implementation.

Huttle said that under the direction of Speaker Sheila Oliver, she intends to convene a hearing of the Assembly Human Services Committee to demand answers from the administration regarding the delay.

Politics aside, advocates say they hope those who need treatment will receive it before it is too late.

"The purpose of the whole piece of legislation was to be able to intervene in a timely manner before people became imminently dangerous to themselves or others," Lubitz said.