Citation

Bonnie RJ, Reinhard JS, Hamilton P, McGarvey EL. Health Aff. (Hope) 2009; 28(3): 793-804.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Project HOPE - The People-to-People Health Foundation)

DOI

10.1377/hlthaff.28.3.793

PMID

19414889

Abstract

On 16 April 2007, a deeply disturbed Virginia Tech student murdered thirty-two fellow students and faculty and then shot himself. Less than one year later, the Virginia legislature improved the emergency evaluation process, modified the criteria for involuntary commitment, tightened procedures for mandatory outpatient treatment, and increased state funding for community mental health services. The unanswered question, however, is whether the necessary political momentum can be sustained for the long-term investment in community services and the fundamental legal changes needed to transform a system focused on managing access to scarce hospital beds to a community-based system of accessible voluntary services.

Language: en

Keywords

Commitment of Mentally Ill; Community Health Services; Crisis Intervention; Cross-Sectional Studies; Delivery of Health Care; Disasters; Gatekeeping; Health Care Reform; Health Policy; Health Services Accessibility; Homicide; Hospital Bed Capacity; Hospitals, Psychiatric; Humans; Mass Screening; Mental Disorders; Mental Health Services; Prisons; State Health Plans; Suicide; Suicide Prevention; Virginia